The Angst Team

Intro 2: A Brief Ray of Light

Ryoga looked around the small antique and oddity shop, he was looking for some trinket to give Akane when he finally returned to the tendo dojo. There were some things he thought Akane would find interesting, an old painted wood carving, a small china figurine, but a medium sized ornate clock is what caught his attention he most. It was worked in ornately intricate patterns and the materiel looked like wood but felt more like a metal when he picked it up to examine it. The clock was heavy compared to today's lightweight plastic electronics, but it still would work when the electricity was knocked out, an occurrence that was very common at the dojo, and to a lesser extent Nermia itself, with the extensive property damage they frequently incurred.

Ryoga was placing the clock back when he noticed something it had been sitting on, a map folded into a small square and bulky compass. Ryoga picked them up after setting the clock down, he smiled sardonically at the irony of his finding a map and compass. He laughed, he couldn't help it, it was just too funny to him… the Eternally Lost finding a map and compass, his laugh gained the edge of hysteria.

"Oh, I see you've found it." The young proprietor of the store said from right behind him, scaring him into silence. "You know that map's supposed to reveal the location of a magical treasure…"

"Oh, then why haven't you found it." Ryoga asked, suspiciously.

The young proprietor, no more than eighteen or nineteen, laughed, "Oh, believe me I've tried. Mr… "

"Hibiki Ryoga."

"Well, Mr. Ryoga, if you open the map you'll see it's in runic. I've tried to decipher it, as has everybody else in my family, but all any translation turns out is gibberish. I'm beginning to think that it's just some old Viking's idea of a joke." Ryoga's eyes went to the runes.

"Really, and the compass?" Ryoga asked, he tried to stay away from magic after his… accident at Jusenkyo, but perhaps it was also the key to his cure.

"That thing? I found it a while back in a garage sale, I tried to open it, but it seems I'm not quite that strong." the boy said shrugging, "The case makes it look like it's carved from stone, but the hinges are stuck. Even if it doesn't work it's a good display piece."

"How much do you want for the clock?" Ryoga indicated with the compass, still thinking about the map and compass as the boy named a figure. "How about…" Ryoga named a slightly higher figure for the clock, the map, and the compass.

The boy's eyes lit up. "Deal!" he said excitedly.

As Ryoga left the store he wondered why he'd bought the map and compass, the map he could understand, sort of, as it might hold the cure to his curse. But what about the compass, what had possessed him to buy the compass. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the compass and looked at it. It looked like it was carved from stone because of it's cover, but under the small viewhole he could see the compass's inner workings spin as they tried vainly to zero in on their destination. Ryoga tried to open it for a few minutes but the thing wouldn't budge, which was rather surprising considering his strength.

'Boy, he wasn't kidding when he said it was stuck.' Ryoga thought, wondering about how he could open it the Baksai Tenketsu immediately sprang to mind, but that would destroy it unless…

Ryoga focused his ming as if in preparation to use his Baksai Tenketsu, the 'Breaking Point', on the object and when he saw the point in his mind, instead of hitting it with an extended forefinger tried prying at the point. It was all to no avail though as the compass remained adamant in it's refusal to open.

Ryoga angrily thrust the compass into his pocket and pulled out the map. Opening it up, he immediately started reading the runes. Nobody who knew Ryoga's traveling habits would have been shocked that he was fluent in every major language on the planet but they never would have guessed that he could read, write, and speak several dead ones as well. 'I never thought getting lost in that university in Greenland or Iceland or wherever it was would have been helpful. I wouldn't know runic if I hadn't been in that classroom for most of a semester and a half.'

Ryoga started to read the runes aloud. Something sounded familiar about the words he was saying, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Then he came to a word, a name, Cursebreaker. Ryoga couldn't believe it as his hands shook with excitement he looked at the map trying to memorize it and see if anything on it was familiar at the same time. It was all a futile effort a small voice screamed in the back of his mind but he was so close he could almost feel it. He would never have to turn into a pig again, and maybe, just maybe, he could cure his directional curse as well.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryoga looked around, he was somewhere in a forest, he didn't know how he'd gotten here. He'd been so busy trying to absorb every detail on the map that he hadn't paid any attention to where he was going. 'Not that it would make much difference, I get lost even when I am paying attention to where I'm going.'

Ryoga sighed as he folded his map and put it back into his pocket, walking along in random directions as he did so, he felt a vague sense of familiarity creep over him as he stepped out of the forest's edge and stared at the building in front of him.

"Furinkan Highschool…" Ryoga said as he blinked in surprise, he hadn't even been trying to get here this time… and wasn't the shop he'd just been in located in Australia, just north-west of Florida?

Well, as long as he was in the area he could wait for Akane to show up and give her the clock. He took his pack off, sat down, and began to set up camp within eyesight of the front gate.

The beans weren't exactly the best he'd seen, but they'd been cheap and he'd bought ten pounds or so when he was in Mexico the other day, before making his way east into France and then on to Nigeria.

Ryoga settled down to watch the stars come out as the beans cooked, wondering why the runic words had sounded so familiar aloud when they were just gibberish, the few real words not fitting grammatically into any coherent thought.

* * * * * * * * * *

'I'm sure Ranma and Akane will show up today…' Ryoga thought on his third day at Furinkan, then he thought for a moment and pulled out the small day planner he had in his pack. "What!?" He exclaimed as he looked through the book. "It's June second!! The school's closed for the summer!"

Growling about the wasted time being Ranma's fault Ryoga started packing his camp back into the pack. "Now I'll spend a week trying to find the dojo, and with my luck they'll all be gone on a family vacation." Ryoga thought rather dismally as he finished packing the last of his things.

* * * * * * * * * *

The semi drive pounded on the brakes again to no avail. His truck was out of control and he couldn't stop, barely holding back panic he toggled the engine brake, effectively turning the huge Diesel engine into a giant air compressor. Inertia still reigned, and with that many tons he would be going for some time. The driver watched in horror as a young man with dark brown hair stepped into the street directly in front of him. The driver let out a gasp as he herd the *thunk* 'Not good. Definitely not good. Even if those basterds cut my break lines, but when I blew the whistle on their drug operation I knew it could come back to haunt me.'

The driver was interrupted as his truck began to buck wildly as potholes began appearing right in front of the tires. The tires blew and began to smoke amid the whining screech of metal on asphalt. The ride would have battered him senseless if he hadn't been wearing a seatbelt, as it was it just knocked his bones together and made him feel like he'd been through a wringer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryoga didn't know what he'd done to be hit by a semi-truck, but it sure hurt. 'Damn, I think I dislocated my shoulder.' Ryoga thought as he tried to rotate his left arm, complaining when almost any other person would be thanking God that they were still alive.

Ryoga had felt the sudden pain and had almost panicked before he got the idea about Shishi Houkodaning the road to stop the truck. He was glad he had though, as there was only about fifty feet until the road ended, and while the ditch would stop the truck it would probably also have killed Ryoga and whoever had been driving.

As things stood, Ryoga thought abought trying to find Dr. Tofu's place. Ryoga coughed and fell to his knees as the adrenaline left his system and he puked the lunch he'd just eaten onto the ground. No, things seemed to be much worse than he'd thought as his brain now received signals of varying intensities of pain from everywhere on his body.

"Today is not my day." Ryoga said as he collapsed beside the puddle of vomit.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryoga woke to find himself staring at the ceiling of some hospital, in Tokyo he presumed, considering where he last been.

"Ohhhh…" He half groaned, half moaned as he struggled to get up, soreness surging through his body, despite whatever painkillers they'd given him.

"Ryoga!" A female voice excitedly stated upon seeing him move. "Look he's getting up!" There was a slight thwacking sound as whoever it was hit someone else it get their attention.

"What?" Ryoga said dizzily as he blinked hard, trying to keep the room from spinning and turning blue, he turned over to see who it was that was visiting him in the hospital.

"Akane!" Ryoga nearly shouted as he finally recognized the young woman standing next to his bed.

"Hey! Ryoga, man!" Came another female voice. "It's been a while since I've seen you! I bet you had to get yourself run over by a truck just to save you form humiliating yourself when I beat you up again." The redhead said in that overconfidently, arrogant, cocky, and yet somehow friendly way that was unique to Ranma Saotome.

"Ranma! He was just hit by a truck!" Akane yelled at Ranma before Ryoga could tell him to shove it, then emphasized her statement by hitting him in the face while screaming "You idiot!"

"Ouch." Ryoga said, wincing at the mere sight of it.

"Oh! What's wrong Ryoga do you need me to get a doctor?" Akane changed from furious to concerned so quickly that it scared hm.

"Uh… n-no." Ryoga said, "I'm fine really!" Laughing to try to show that he really was, his head repaid him by with huge sweeping waves of pain and nausea. "Ohh-hh…" Ryoga resisted the urge to grab his head as he moaned.

"Are you sure, you look kind of pale man." Surprisingly Ranma sounded concerned.

"Yeah, I'm ok." Ryoga said as the pain faded, "Where's my pack?" Ryoga asked, changing the subject."There was a present for Akane in there…"

"Yeah, Ryoga. I think…" Ranma started, looked around and didn't see it. "I thought it was around here. I'll go ask."

"I'll get it." Ryoga tried to swing his legs over the side of the bed but found them unresponsive. "My legs," Ryoga chuckled a bit, "I can't feel my legs!"

Ryoga was about to reach hysterics with another scream of "I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!" as Akane tried to calm him down and explain that the doctors had put a spinal-block on him that still needed to wear off when one of the doctors came in.

"Ah, Mister Hibiki." The doctor began, "I see you're finally awake. Quite frankly, we're not sure why you simply aren't dead and how you were hurt only so little, being run over by a semi-truck and all."

A fresh doctor, evidently they hadn't gone over tact at his school or perhaps he'd just slept thought the class on bedside manner, either was the results were the same. Ryoga let out a string of curses in a dozen languages, and although Akane couldn't understand a word she got the general meaning behind the words.

"Why don't my legs work?" Ryoga finished when he couldn't remember how to say 'shit-ball' in Russian.

"Ah, we temporarily paralyzed you when the anaesthesia was ineffective, and you wouldn't stay unconscious long enough for us to get on with the operation and finish it up." The doctor laughed nervously at the glare Ryoga gave him.

"How long?" Ryoga asked, almost emotionlessly, which was somehow scarier than when he was cursing the doctor's pet's lineage in German and his mother's brothers in Portugese.

It was about then that Ranma came in with Ryoga's pack, or rather pulling his pack on a dolly. "What do you put in here? Lead?"

"No, Ranma, just everything I own." Ryoga replied dryly as he pulled his backpack up into the bed with himself.

"Akane," Ryoga said after rummaging around in one of the pouches and finally pulling out the clock that he'd bought earlier. "This is for you… I thought you might like it… it won't stop working if the power goes out." Ryoga hated not being able to say what he wanted to the dark-haird girl, to tell her how he felt, to say the things he'd always wanted to but he was afraid, afraid of hurting Akane or of getting hurt himself. He could take boulders being hurled at him, but ironically his heart was incredibly fragile and he didn't want to break it… but he'd just been run over by a semi-truck, he wasn't invincible, and what if he never got the chance again?

"Thank you Ryoga." Akane said as she looked at him with pity in her eyes, no, wait, that's concern not pity.

"Akane, I, t-that is… I want to… wait, I-I" Ryoga started to say then finished softly, "I love you."

###############

Ryoga's Journal (Selected Entries)

Date: 5 June

Today I told Akane that I loved her. She didn't say anything at all, she just nodded and then walked out of the room carrying the clock I gave her. I think this may actually feel worse than when I imagined that she would laugh at me or tell me she hated me.

Ranma stayed for a bit longer before he had to go home. It's funny, I never thought that Ranma would be the one wishing me well. He laughed and said that I needed to get better soon so he could beat me up because everyone else easily beaten. It doesn't sound like something any normal person would say to their friend in the hospital, then again Ranma's far from normal, but I understand what he meant. He wants to see me well enough to fight like we have in the past.

One of the doctors said that the spinal blocker should wear off any time now, but he warned me that I shouldn't try to use my legs until he gives me the go-ahead. Apparently both of my legs were broken, my left leg suffered more, hell, my entire left side was screwed up. My left shoulder was dislocated, and a rib was broken while the rest were bruised pretty badly. I still don't feel too much of all this because of all the pain killers they put me on.

I hope I'll be able to get out of here quickly, the food's horrible and the fluorescent lighting is starting to give me a headache with that hum and the flicker is making me want to shishi hokodan the whole place.

###############

Date: 8 June

Ranma visited today, along with Nabiki, of all people, when Akane refused to come with him. We had a good talk. Ranma will be going back to China to look for a cure tomorrow… It seemed to me that Ranma and Nabiki are growing close. I won't say anything to them about it though, it's not my business, and I'd feel bad if something I did or said would break them up.

I wonder why Akane wouldn't come and visit me though, she always seemed to be friendly towards me. I don't understand, I probably never will either.

###############

Date: 12 June

Today, Yomada Jiro, the driver of the truck came by, apparently he had been detained by some witness protection program. He seems to be oddly at ease, especially when you consider how corrupt some of the witness protection programs are, like a man who knows his fate, accepts it, and still lives life.

He informed me that he's trying to get the witness protection program or his insurance to foot my medical bill. I had to laugh at that, it's easier to squeeze water from a stone than get either the government or insurance to pay anything.

It strikes me as odd that I don't feel any anger or animosity towards the man. I think that maybe he is punishing himself more than I ever could despite his calm resigned manner, either way I almost feel sorry for him. He seems like a nice enough guy, so I hope that he doesn't get himself killed with that fatalistic attitude, maybe I should teach him the Shishi Hokodan.

###############

Date: 7 July

Apparently the drug lords Jiro pissed off finally got him. Surprisingly he named me his heir in his will and with the sizable life insurance policy he took out on himself I won't have to worry about money for a while. Some people might think Jiro was weak, but I think he was the strongest man I've known.

I'm sorry to see him go, nobody I know would do something they would know would result in their own death simply because it was the right thing to do. Certainly not Ranma's father, Mr. Tendo, Kuno, or anyone else I know in Nermia.

###############

Date: 11 August

Ranma's supposed to return today, the same day as I've been released from rehabilitation. The doctors were surprised, well amazed is more like it, by how fast I've recovered. It still seemed like forever to me, it's a good thing that the trucker's insurance picked up the bill for my medical expenses otherwise Jiro's life insurance would have just covered it.

I've decided to go on a walk in this nice small park near the hospital that I've come to like. I'll have to ask somebody to help me get there, though it's embarrassing to ask for help, if Ranma comes in before they kick me out today I'll ask him to take me to that park. I don't want to get lost until I've been there one last time. It almost feels like I'm being drawn there for some reason, I guess I've come to like it more than I realized.

###############

Ryoga looked up from his journal and put the pen away before packing the book in his pack. He wasn't sure about what happened with Akane.

"Hey Ryoga!" Ranma said as he walked into the room smiling, not the crazy I've-been-cured smile but the one that meant he was glad to see one of his friends. "Congratulations on your freedom."

"Ranma!" Ryoga got up, hefting his pack on his back and stumbling a bit. His left knee was still a bit weak, but in a few more weeks he was sure he'd be back to his old self. "I was just thinking about you… would you like to go walk in that small park that's somewhere around here?"

"You mean the one right across the street?" Ranma asked. 'I'm sure Ryoga'll be fine, if he could actually make his way there, then I'd be worried.'

Ryoga nodded indicating that was indeed the park he had in mind. "Yeah."

"Sure, why not?" Ranma agreed after a bit of a pause, and then started telling Ryoga about his trip into China.

It had turned out tho be pretty much a wasted time, except that there were about three or four rumors that they had disproved. Ryoga was slightly disappointed, though he had expected as much, it seemed that whoever had created the cursed pools of Jusenkyo had gone out of their way to make it as difficult as possible to remove the curses.

Ranma paused his account of his trip into China to look around the park, "I doesn't seem like much."

"No, it isn't, but I've found that I like it for some reason…" Ryoga replied smiling, as he used his umbrella as a cane and walked some distance into the park.

"It looks pretty plain to me." Ranma interrupted, apparently not realizing that other people had their own opinions. "I mean, look at that fountain, there's absolutely nothing special about it." Ranma indicated the small fountain with a cross carved in its bell-like shape. It was then that Ryoga realized why the fountain and the park had looked so familiar to him.

Flipping his pack off his back and setting it down in front of himself he pulled out the map and compass. The map showed the park, the oblong circle with the cross inside was the fountain. Excitedly Ryoga ran to the place indicated on the map, a small mound too small to be called a hill and as Ranma watched, vanished.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ryoga was shocked when he found that he was someplace else, the small cylindrical chamber he found himself in was about twice the size of a janitor's closet and in the center of the chamber resting on two pedestals was a sword. Not the curved like a katana or wakizashi, but straight like a western broadsword or bastard-sword.

Looking down at the map again he reread the runes, yes, Cursebreaker was the sword's name. He could feel it. His cure! He reached for it ans as soon as he lifted it from the pedestals everything faded back into the small park.

"Ryoga!" Ranma shouted seeing his friend reappear, then noticing the sword Ryoga was clutching he asked, "What's with the sword, man?"

"Uh, n-nothing!" Ryoga stammered. He wouldn't want to get Ranma's hopes up only to dash them, he told himself, although in all reality he didn't want to not be cured. He had a deep irrational fear that if he told Ranma about the sword, Cursebreaker, it wouldn't work for him.

* * * * * * * * * *

Later, in the apartment he was renting, Ryoga pulled at the blade free of the scabbard easily, it seemed quite natural in his hand, like it was meant to be there. The blade was a metallic blue, rather a deep solid blue at that almost like someone had painted the sword with a blue stain.

He'd never seen a blade this color, it called out to him to be touched to make sure it was real. As Ryoga extended a forefinger the blade seemed almost to leap, or ws it his finger that leapt, into the blade causing a cut that he didn't feel. Looking at his finger to be sure he'd really cut it he saw the blood well up and drip off of his finger. Several of the drops hit the floor, a few found themselves on his pants, but when two droplets hit the blue blade squarely there was a blinding flash and a wave of warmth that emanated from the sword.

Ryoga blinked a few times as the light faded, then looked at his finger, it wasn't bleeding anymore… in fact there was no evidence that there had ever been a cut. Then looking down at the sword Ryoga let out a startled yelp.

The blade was red, not an even coloring, but like blood covering aluminum that had been crumpled and then flattened out, and there on the blade in those metallic blue were English letters spelling his own name, Ryoga Hibiki.

This was weird, really weird. Suddenly Ryoga didn't feel at all sure that this was the best course of action. Pulling his pack on he ran out the door, only to immediately return, it might not be wise to leave the sword that now bore his name behind.

As he made his way out and down the stairs he found himself in what looked to be like a large supply closet stocked with pieces of advanced electronics or something of the like. Finally Ryoga found the door and exited the room, only to take three steps and be consumed by a bright flash of brown-yellow light that made his skin burn before the world seemed to fade into blackness.


Author's Note: Two intros down and one to go! Yay!

Comments & Criticisms are welcome.

efish@cs.nmsu.edu