Thanks so much for the reviews of chapter 2! Sorry it was so short, but it
seems longer on Microsoft Word, which is what I write on. Also, I forgot
the disclaimer! Hopefully it's not too big a deal, I mean, like I could
come up with such a great story? Yeah right. To be safe though, let's just
make it absolutely clear that I do not own these characters, (except for
Ling, who sprang from my twisted imagination) in any way, shape or form, am
not making a profit from this, other than pride for my already inflated
ego, and so there is no reason to sue me whatsoever.
Anyway, here's chapter 3, in which the first true important plot points
occur.Enjoy!
The Cure to Ranma's Curse
Part 3
The next thing Ranma remembered, after standing in the middle of the forest as it started to rain, was waking up in an alley way. Groaning, he realized his clothes were a mess, and he ached all over. His hair was disheveled, his clothes mostly torn and covered in mud to boot. Standing up, he limped out onto the crowded street, and he felt a rush of panic as he wondered, 'Where am I?!'
Ryoga and Akane packed up the tents, buried the fire, and prepared to look for Ranma. Just as they were about to set out, Akane glanced over at Ryoga and said, trying to sound as nice as possible,
"Uh, maybe we should look for him together, so we don't get split up again," She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but even though she said this delicately as possible, Ryoga still blushed and looked away from her.
"Right," He said shortly. Sighing and hoping he wasn't offended, Akane started off in the direction Ranma had headed to look for Ryoga-East. Hopefully they'd be able to find some clues as to what had happened to him. She and Ryoga walked in silence for a while. They scanned the ground carefully, but Akane became frustrated as the found no sign of him. After a few hours, they stopped for a lunch break.
"I'm surprised we haven't found anything yet," Ryoga said thoughtfully, munching on a pre-made sandwich made by Kasumi.
"I know. If he was running wildly like he was when Shampoo found him, surely he'd leave some evidence of a trail." She looked trouble, and they fell silent again. Ryoga knew he ought to be happy-Ranma was gone, literally out of the picture for the moment, and he was all alone with Akane. It was the perfect opportunity to try and win her back. Yet.did he want her back? She clearly loved Ranma, and he admitted to feelings for Akari. He finished his sandwich and started cleaning up as Akane finished as well. If he was honest with himself, Ryoga was also a little concerned about Ranma. It was very disconcerting, this strange change in his curse. It also made Ryoga wonder if his curse would develop complications eventually, as if it wasn't bad enough.
"Ryoga! Come here! I found something!" Akane's excited voice broke his strain of thoughts, and he realized he had been sitting still while Akane had gotten up to walk around, although she was still in plain view.
Taking longer than most people would have, Ryoga ran to where she was and examined what she was pointing to. A tree with slashes on its trunk, and broken branches were all that he could see.
"What do you think this means?" He asked, studying the marks carefully. "It looks like someone fought with a tree," Akane nodded, one hand tracing a broken branch.
"I know. But if his cursed form is out of control, then maybe he did attack the tree for some reason." Even as she said this, Ryoga stood back and looked at the tree, a thought quickly coming to mind that disturbed him.
"Akane," He said quietly, almost in a whisper as he made sure he couldn't be mistaken. "I think we're wrong. These marks and the broken branches, it looks more like someone was trying to climb the trees and couldn't. As though they were trying to get away from something, but didn't." Akane's eyes grew wide at this, and she took a step away, then turned and started to search the nearby trees.
"Come on Ryoga, regardless of what caused those marks, we gotta find him."
At almost the same moment, Ranma was walking down the streets of a strange village in China; at least, he assumed he was still in China. He was actually starting to sympathize with what Ryoga had to go through so often. This was really almost frightening, more because of the fact that he couldn't remember what had happened after becoming a girl rather than the fact that he was completely lost. Feeling bewildered, he walked into a small restaurant that was empty, and looked for someone who could help him. A young girl with an apron came into the room and smiled, approaching Ranma. Ranma didn't speak Chinese, but he had picked up a few useful phrases during training trips, and he knew she was greeting him in some way. Straining his mind to remember, he said slowly in heavily accented Chinese,
"Where am I?" The girl's smile faltered, but she answered, giving a name Ranma didn't recognize. She then said something else, seeing his stricken face, and from what Ranma could make out, it sounded as though she were asking if he was lost. Racking his brain for the right phrases, he tried to explain that he couldn't remember. It came out more like,
"I no think," The girl seemed as frustrated as Ranma, and called to the back of the room. A man walked into the room from the back, a little older than the girl, and he frowned as she talked to him in Chinese. Feeling very out of place, Ranma shifted uncomfortably, wondering what they were saying. After a moment, the man nodded and turned to Ranma, saying in heavily accented Japanese,
"You are lost?" Ranma nodded, and said slowly in Japanese,
"I can't remember how I got here," The man's brow furrowed as he concentrated on Ranma's words, but he replied,
"You should see Old Ling, she can help," He then proceeded to give directions to a very confused Ranma, who thanked him and walked back out into the street, following the directions as they led him to a small dingy shop close to the alley he had awoken in. Stepping inside, he could just make out a hunched form in the back of a dark room. He called out a tentative 'Hello?' in Chinese, then Japanese when the form didn't answer.
"Ah, now you speak truly, young man," A dry voice called out, followed by a cackling that made the hairs on the back of his neck crawl. The woman spoke in Japanese, with a Chinese accent less noticeable than the man in the restaurant's had been.
"Can you help me remember something?" He asked, walking closer towards her. "You are, uh, Ms. Ling, right?" Ranma asked. Something about the woman reminded him of Cologne, only Cologne seemed like a sweet old grandmother compared to the aura he sensed around the woman.
"Yes yes, I am Ling. And you're other question depends," The withered voice said. His nervous feeling growing, he asked,
"Depends on what? I don't have any money I'm afraid," For that had been packed up at camp. The woman chuckled again,
"Depends on why you forgot it in the first place, and if you really want to remember it," She turned to face him, and Ranma stepped back involuntarily when he saw her face. The woman had no eyes, only sunken pits where her eyeballs should have been, straggly, unwashed white hair was held back by a piece of string, and she wore rough robes almost as torn as Ranma's clothes. He remained determined though; he had to get back to Akane and Ryoga as quickly as possible so they could continue on to Jusenkyo.
"Would I ask you if I didn't remember?" He said impatiently. Ling seemed to hear his impatience; she motioned for him to sit across from her, which he did readily, and she pulled a black iron pot in front of her, her face staring towards him.
"Let us see then, why you have lost your precious memory, eh? Then we shall talk about payment for Old Ling." Ranma started to nod, and then quickly said,
"Sure" when he remembered her lack of sight. He remained silent as she pulled off ancient looking jars from a shelf he hadn't seen in the dark. She pulled out powders and other substances that Ranma didn't want to know, pouring them seemingly randomly into the pot. The finally powder she threw in created a great cloud of smoke, and Ranma struggled to not cover his mouth from the acrid smell. Ling breathed in the fumes deeply; then her dry voice spoke again, somehow sounding different, almost younger.
"You are searching for answers; you are cursed," He tensed at hearing her speak of it, but decided at least she couldn't be too much of a fake, unless she was just guessing. "A loved one and a dear friend search for you, trying to decipher your fate even as you do." She fell silent, and Ranma waited for her to continue, glad to hear that Akane and Ryoga were all right then. 'Dear friend, huh? Whatever,' He thought, and concentrated on the woman's next words.
"You were lost, afraid. In a.a forest. Something happened that is the cause of your problems. You were found by a group of thieves who were hiding." The woman's voice had changed again, now she sounded as though she were narrating a story. "You fought, but your strength was greatly diminished by something, and they left you, thought to be dead, in the forest. When you awoke, you were confused and wandered here." It all sounded familiar to Ranma, as though someone were reminding him of something that had happened years ago. He decided to risk a question.
"What's causing me to forget though?" Meeting up with a bunch of thieves, heck, being beaten up by a bunch of thieves didn't sound so traumatic that he'd block it out. He was bruised, but not too badly hurt, and it seemed much more likely that it was due to his distorted curse than a natural reason. Ling's face wrinkled even more as she fell silent for a moment.
"I cannot-see. It is.a corruption.a.corruption in the fabric of...of time.AH! JUN!" Ranma jumped up and back as she led out a loud cry and fell to the ground. He stared at her unmoving form, feeling apprehension wash over him as he stepped back again. That name, he recognized it from his dream! How could she know it?
"Ms. Ling?" He asked softly. The woman didn't move, and Ranma made himself walk over to her and check for a pulse. There was none. Fighting back the sudden sense of revulsion that swept over him, he managed not to retch, but turned and ran out the door. He had a feeling he did not want to be found, a stranger in a small town, with a dead old woman. After running for almost half an hour, he stopped to get his bearings, which were none. Cursing, he realized he should have at least stopped for directions to Jusenkyo, but was unwilling to go back in case Ling had been found by now. Instead, he decided to wait awhile, maybe if he could tell which way was north by the sun or stars, he could get an idea of where he was, and how to reach Jusenkyo. For now, he'd just have to hope Akane and Ryoga were ok, and that they'd give up on looking for him and go there too. 'Sorry Akane, the peace was nice while it lasted,' He thought with a sigh, settling down under a thick-foliaged tree to wait for time to pass, trying to understand what Ling had meant. What did the name 'Jun' have to do with a corruption in...what had she called it? The 'Fabric of time'. He decided to save his questions for the guide at Jusenkyo, the events of the past week running through his head like some bizarre marathon.
It was night when Akane and Ryoga, exhausted, finally decided to stop for another rest. After the tree, they'd found another clue; nearby there had been the slightest of impressions on the ground, grass bent and what appeared to be foot prints in the dried mud. They had surmised that it a form had laid there, probably a human one, and hopefully Ranma. Collapsing onto the ground, Akane leaned back on her hands, staring up at the sky.
"What should we do Ryoga? We haven't found any other sign of a trail, who knows how long it will take to find him?" Her voice caught and she fell silent, hoping he couldn't see the tears run down her face because of the dark.
"I don't know Akane. It's been a day, the odds are that Ranma's been turned back into himself, right? There are plenty of ways he could have gotten doused with warm water. If he is back to normal, then he probably doesn't remember anything, like when Shampoo found him. If that's the case, he won't know where he is, unless he's made it to a familiar town or city, which is unlikely. Knowing him, he'd go on to Jusenkyo and hope we meet him there."
"You think so?" Akane asked, once she had control of her voice again. "You really think he's ok?" Ryoga nodded firmly.
"He'd realize that there's almost no chance of use finding each other any time soon. I suggest we go on to Jusenkyo and wait for him there." Akane nodded slowly, thinking it through. Clearing her throat, she asked in a small voice, looking at Ryoga's form leaning against a tree, arms crossed.
"But, what if he's still a girl Ryoga? What if he's still wandering around out there completely lost and confused?" Ryoga didn't meet her eyes as he shrugged slowly.
"I don't know Akane. I don't know." She let out a tired sigh, feeling as though all her energy had drained at his words.
"I guess we'll just have to go to Jusenkyo and see." She whispered back. 'I hope you're right Ryoga, because whatever's wrong with Ranma's curse isn't going to get better by itself.' Were her last thought before she fell into a dreamless sleep.
End of Part 3
I'm so proud of myself! I know the chapters are short, but I thought I'd only be able to write maybe one a week! I'll try to keep writing them this quickly, I didn't get as many plot points in as I wanted. Again, I really really appreciate the reviews! Thanks so much! I got three so far ::dances happily:: Not my record, but still, not bad for my first time on fanfic.net. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and hopefully it's a little more interesting than the first two chapters. Mysterious, in'nt it?? Mwahahah! Just you wait until it gets REALLY confusing! (Also, while I love all the characters in Ranma ½, the others weren't really necessary for the plot, however I'm considering bringing some in later on, what do you all think? Just keep it three or have Ukyo and/or Shampoo or the others make an appearance?) Till then, happy reading!
-Luna Sealeaf
The Cure to Ranma's Curse
Part 3
The next thing Ranma remembered, after standing in the middle of the forest as it started to rain, was waking up in an alley way. Groaning, he realized his clothes were a mess, and he ached all over. His hair was disheveled, his clothes mostly torn and covered in mud to boot. Standing up, he limped out onto the crowded street, and he felt a rush of panic as he wondered, 'Where am I?!'
Ryoga and Akane packed up the tents, buried the fire, and prepared to look for Ranma. Just as they were about to set out, Akane glanced over at Ryoga and said, trying to sound as nice as possible,
"Uh, maybe we should look for him together, so we don't get split up again," She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but even though she said this delicately as possible, Ryoga still blushed and looked away from her.
"Right," He said shortly. Sighing and hoping he wasn't offended, Akane started off in the direction Ranma had headed to look for Ryoga-East. Hopefully they'd be able to find some clues as to what had happened to him. She and Ryoga walked in silence for a while. They scanned the ground carefully, but Akane became frustrated as the found no sign of him. After a few hours, they stopped for a lunch break.
"I'm surprised we haven't found anything yet," Ryoga said thoughtfully, munching on a pre-made sandwich made by Kasumi.
"I know. If he was running wildly like he was when Shampoo found him, surely he'd leave some evidence of a trail." She looked trouble, and they fell silent again. Ryoga knew he ought to be happy-Ranma was gone, literally out of the picture for the moment, and he was all alone with Akane. It was the perfect opportunity to try and win her back. Yet.did he want her back? She clearly loved Ranma, and he admitted to feelings for Akari. He finished his sandwich and started cleaning up as Akane finished as well. If he was honest with himself, Ryoga was also a little concerned about Ranma. It was very disconcerting, this strange change in his curse. It also made Ryoga wonder if his curse would develop complications eventually, as if it wasn't bad enough.
"Ryoga! Come here! I found something!" Akane's excited voice broke his strain of thoughts, and he realized he had been sitting still while Akane had gotten up to walk around, although she was still in plain view.
Taking longer than most people would have, Ryoga ran to where she was and examined what she was pointing to. A tree with slashes on its trunk, and broken branches were all that he could see.
"What do you think this means?" He asked, studying the marks carefully. "It looks like someone fought with a tree," Akane nodded, one hand tracing a broken branch.
"I know. But if his cursed form is out of control, then maybe he did attack the tree for some reason." Even as she said this, Ryoga stood back and looked at the tree, a thought quickly coming to mind that disturbed him.
"Akane," He said quietly, almost in a whisper as he made sure he couldn't be mistaken. "I think we're wrong. These marks and the broken branches, it looks more like someone was trying to climb the trees and couldn't. As though they were trying to get away from something, but didn't." Akane's eyes grew wide at this, and she took a step away, then turned and started to search the nearby trees.
"Come on Ryoga, regardless of what caused those marks, we gotta find him."
At almost the same moment, Ranma was walking down the streets of a strange village in China; at least, he assumed he was still in China. He was actually starting to sympathize with what Ryoga had to go through so often. This was really almost frightening, more because of the fact that he couldn't remember what had happened after becoming a girl rather than the fact that he was completely lost. Feeling bewildered, he walked into a small restaurant that was empty, and looked for someone who could help him. A young girl with an apron came into the room and smiled, approaching Ranma. Ranma didn't speak Chinese, but he had picked up a few useful phrases during training trips, and he knew she was greeting him in some way. Straining his mind to remember, he said slowly in heavily accented Chinese,
"Where am I?" The girl's smile faltered, but she answered, giving a name Ranma didn't recognize. She then said something else, seeing his stricken face, and from what Ranma could make out, it sounded as though she were asking if he was lost. Racking his brain for the right phrases, he tried to explain that he couldn't remember. It came out more like,
"I no think," The girl seemed as frustrated as Ranma, and called to the back of the room. A man walked into the room from the back, a little older than the girl, and he frowned as she talked to him in Chinese. Feeling very out of place, Ranma shifted uncomfortably, wondering what they were saying. After a moment, the man nodded and turned to Ranma, saying in heavily accented Japanese,
"You are lost?" Ranma nodded, and said slowly in Japanese,
"I can't remember how I got here," The man's brow furrowed as he concentrated on Ranma's words, but he replied,
"You should see Old Ling, she can help," He then proceeded to give directions to a very confused Ranma, who thanked him and walked back out into the street, following the directions as they led him to a small dingy shop close to the alley he had awoken in. Stepping inside, he could just make out a hunched form in the back of a dark room. He called out a tentative 'Hello?' in Chinese, then Japanese when the form didn't answer.
"Ah, now you speak truly, young man," A dry voice called out, followed by a cackling that made the hairs on the back of his neck crawl. The woman spoke in Japanese, with a Chinese accent less noticeable than the man in the restaurant's had been.
"Can you help me remember something?" He asked, walking closer towards her. "You are, uh, Ms. Ling, right?" Ranma asked. Something about the woman reminded him of Cologne, only Cologne seemed like a sweet old grandmother compared to the aura he sensed around the woman.
"Yes yes, I am Ling. And you're other question depends," The withered voice said. His nervous feeling growing, he asked,
"Depends on what? I don't have any money I'm afraid," For that had been packed up at camp. The woman chuckled again,
"Depends on why you forgot it in the first place, and if you really want to remember it," She turned to face him, and Ranma stepped back involuntarily when he saw her face. The woman had no eyes, only sunken pits where her eyeballs should have been, straggly, unwashed white hair was held back by a piece of string, and she wore rough robes almost as torn as Ranma's clothes. He remained determined though; he had to get back to Akane and Ryoga as quickly as possible so they could continue on to Jusenkyo.
"Would I ask you if I didn't remember?" He said impatiently. Ling seemed to hear his impatience; she motioned for him to sit across from her, which he did readily, and she pulled a black iron pot in front of her, her face staring towards him.
"Let us see then, why you have lost your precious memory, eh? Then we shall talk about payment for Old Ling." Ranma started to nod, and then quickly said,
"Sure" when he remembered her lack of sight. He remained silent as she pulled off ancient looking jars from a shelf he hadn't seen in the dark. She pulled out powders and other substances that Ranma didn't want to know, pouring them seemingly randomly into the pot. The finally powder she threw in created a great cloud of smoke, and Ranma struggled to not cover his mouth from the acrid smell. Ling breathed in the fumes deeply; then her dry voice spoke again, somehow sounding different, almost younger.
"You are searching for answers; you are cursed," He tensed at hearing her speak of it, but decided at least she couldn't be too much of a fake, unless she was just guessing. "A loved one and a dear friend search for you, trying to decipher your fate even as you do." She fell silent, and Ranma waited for her to continue, glad to hear that Akane and Ryoga were all right then. 'Dear friend, huh? Whatever,' He thought, and concentrated on the woman's next words.
"You were lost, afraid. In a.a forest. Something happened that is the cause of your problems. You were found by a group of thieves who were hiding." The woman's voice had changed again, now she sounded as though she were narrating a story. "You fought, but your strength was greatly diminished by something, and they left you, thought to be dead, in the forest. When you awoke, you were confused and wandered here." It all sounded familiar to Ranma, as though someone were reminding him of something that had happened years ago. He decided to risk a question.
"What's causing me to forget though?" Meeting up with a bunch of thieves, heck, being beaten up by a bunch of thieves didn't sound so traumatic that he'd block it out. He was bruised, but not too badly hurt, and it seemed much more likely that it was due to his distorted curse than a natural reason. Ling's face wrinkled even more as she fell silent for a moment.
"I cannot-see. It is.a corruption.a.corruption in the fabric of...of time.AH! JUN!" Ranma jumped up and back as she led out a loud cry and fell to the ground. He stared at her unmoving form, feeling apprehension wash over him as he stepped back again. That name, he recognized it from his dream! How could she know it?
"Ms. Ling?" He asked softly. The woman didn't move, and Ranma made himself walk over to her and check for a pulse. There was none. Fighting back the sudden sense of revulsion that swept over him, he managed not to retch, but turned and ran out the door. He had a feeling he did not want to be found, a stranger in a small town, with a dead old woman. After running for almost half an hour, he stopped to get his bearings, which were none. Cursing, he realized he should have at least stopped for directions to Jusenkyo, but was unwilling to go back in case Ling had been found by now. Instead, he decided to wait awhile, maybe if he could tell which way was north by the sun or stars, he could get an idea of where he was, and how to reach Jusenkyo. For now, he'd just have to hope Akane and Ryoga were ok, and that they'd give up on looking for him and go there too. 'Sorry Akane, the peace was nice while it lasted,' He thought with a sigh, settling down under a thick-foliaged tree to wait for time to pass, trying to understand what Ling had meant. What did the name 'Jun' have to do with a corruption in...what had she called it? The 'Fabric of time'. He decided to save his questions for the guide at Jusenkyo, the events of the past week running through his head like some bizarre marathon.
It was night when Akane and Ryoga, exhausted, finally decided to stop for another rest. After the tree, they'd found another clue; nearby there had been the slightest of impressions on the ground, grass bent and what appeared to be foot prints in the dried mud. They had surmised that it a form had laid there, probably a human one, and hopefully Ranma. Collapsing onto the ground, Akane leaned back on her hands, staring up at the sky.
"What should we do Ryoga? We haven't found any other sign of a trail, who knows how long it will take to find him?" Her voice caught and she fell silent, hoping he couldn't see the tears run down her face because of the dark.
"I don't know Akane. It's been a day, the odds are that Ranma's been turned back into himself, right? There are plenty of ways he could have gotten doused with warm water. If he is back to normal, then he probably doesn't remember anything, like when Shampoo found him. If that's the case, he won't know where he is, unless he's made it to a familiar town or city, which is unlikely. Knowing him, he'd go on to Jusenkyo and hope we meet him there."
"You think so?" Akane asked, once she had control of her voice again. "You really think he's ok?" Ryoga nodded firmly.
"He'd realize that there's almost no chance of use finding each other any time soon. I suggest we go on to Jusenkyo and wait for him there." Akane nodded slowly, thinking it through. Clearing her throat, she asked in a small voice, looking at Ryoga's form leaning against a tree, arms crossed.
"But, what if he's still a girl Ryoga? What if he's still wandering around out there completely lost and confused?" Ryoga didn't meet her eyes as he shrugged slowly.
"I don't know Akane. I don't know." She let out a tired sigh, feeling as though all her energy had drained at his words.
"I guess we'll just have to go to Jusenkyo and see." She whispered back. 'I hope you're right Ryoga, because whatever's wrong with Ranma's curse isn't going to get better by itself.' Were her last thought before she fell into a dreamless sleep.
End of Part 3
I'm so proud of myself! I know the chapters are short, but I thought I'd only be able to write maybe one a week! I'll try to keep writing them this quickly, I didn't get as many plot points in as I wanted. Again, I really really appreciate the reviews! Thanks so much! I got three so far ::dances happily:: Not my record, but still, not bad for my first time on fanfic.net. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and hopefully it's a little more interesting than the first two chapters. Mysterious, in'nt it?? Mwahahah! Just you wait until it gets REALLY confusing! (Also, while I love all the characters in Ranma ½, the others weren't really necessary for the plot, however I'm considering bringing some in later on, what do you all think? Just keep it three or have Ukyo and/or Shampoo or the others make an appearance?) Till then, happy reading!
-Luna Sealeaf