Chris was simply amazed by himself. He had not only managed to escape the martial artist but even after all that running he felt less tired then when he began. He felt almost as if he were being pumped up from the outside.
He shrugged it off for a moment only focusing on it again when he saw a slight blue glow around his hand. As soon as he glanced at it however the glow vanished. He chalked it down to the extreme stress he was feeling today not realizing this was an actually manifesting aura albeit a small one.
He sighed in relief when he saw the door to his apartment. He glanced about to make sure the girl was not around and hurried into the building. He climbed the stairs quickly and glanced about once more before dashing inside, slamming the door, and locking it.
Chris leaned against the door gasping. He may have felt much better than usual while running but he was still tired as he felt himself begin to lose his energy boost. He glanced about the small apartment.
He looked at the small stove thinking he may make some ramen. Food always helped to calm his nerves. He turned on the small radio, set a pot of water to boiling, picked up one of the old second hand mangas from the floor, plopped on his futon, and began to read.
He rolled onto his back and held the book up over his face. He noticed a movement from the corner of his eye. He glanced over at it.
"AAAAGGGHHHH!" Chris screamed intelligently, leaping to his feet. He stared in shocked morbid fascination as the black-haired boy stared at him from an upside down position outside his window.
Ranma winced when he heard the scream of fear from the boy. He wondered for a moment how me managed to make "AAAAGGGHHHH" sound intelligent but quickly squelched that. Wow, I will never be able to talk to him, he thought bitterly, If he screams at the mere sight of me he will never be able to sit down and tell me who hired him. He is very well informed too. he mused He knows both my forms even though he only saw my male form for a few moments.
Ranma's mind was unable to conceive of the fact that most people don't have people hanging from the roof by their feet. Let alone stared at them through the 25th story window on a side of the building without a fire escape. Therefore there weren't many people he could be.
Ranma smiled his most reassuring smile at the boy. If he had hoped this would calm him down he was sadly mistaken. The boy stared at him for a moment, screamed once again, and charged into the apartments second room.
Well thought Ranma that's not a good sign.
Chris' mind was beginning to revolt against him. It was unhappy and disgusted by the amount of times Chris had shocked it in one day. True it wasn't Chris' fault but his mind was feeling malignant after being shocked so many times. Therefore to get even it began to create an exceptionally large headache for Chris to "Enjoy".
Chris rubbed his head for a moment as the pain assaulted him. He then noticed that the boy at his window was grinning. He stared at him for a moment paying close attention to the cruel, insane looking grin on his face.
Chris screamed yet again and ran into the bathroom. (No not to relieve himself in fright. Shame on you for even thinking I would go for such a silly cliché.) Once he was inside he locked the door and leaned against it panting heavily.
He heard a slight noise and realized he had never locked that window after he had it open during the exceptionally warm night before. He heard footsteps cross the floor of his apartment and come up to the door.
He was shocked as a calm voice came through the door instead of a fist. "Hey, I am not mad you know," the voice said calmly, "I was just wondering how you knew me. I mean knew about how I looked and how my curse worked."
"G-go away!" Chris shouted through the door not being fooled for one moment by the martial artists attempt to lure him out. "I am not going to come out. You are just trying to make me so u can hurt me."
"What!" Ranma shouted through the door incredulously, "You think I want to hurt you just because you splashed water on me? I was mad after you did it but only because I thought you were just there to make fun of my curse. Look I'm not going to hurt you so just come on out."
Chris didn't want to come out. But he was forced to admit that the guy did seem sincere. Besides, Chris thought, If he really wanted to get in here and hurt me he could. He destroys dojos and school walls everyday according to the stories. How could a plywood bathroom door stop him?
He creaked open the door and stepped out. He flinched as the guy lifted his hand, but calmed as he saw him hold it out in a hand shaking gesture.
Chris stared at his hand for a long moment before finally reaching out and grasping it. They shook hands briefly and then just looked at each other.
"Soooo…" said Ranma looking around and swinging his arms a little. "I just wanted to ask u a few questions if that's all right."
He was startled to say the least. He had expected Ranma to be a hard-ass bastard and demand he do whatever he tell him. This was unexpected however. Ranma was being nice and actually wondering if he would consent to answer.
He nodded. "Okay I guess I can answer a few questions." Chris said going to sit on his futon. He doubted his legs would hold him up much longer anyway. Meanwhile Ranma settled on the floor.
Ranma was kind of embarrassed now. He had just chased this guy all the way across town and even broke into his apartment. Now he felt silly doing it just for the sake of asking how he knew about his curse. He settled on the floor and just went for it.
"How did you know about my curse?" he asked quickly.
"Well my friends always talk about you. They said you're an amazing martial artist who went on a trip and came back cursed to be a girl with cold water and change back with hot water," he said.
"They said that you were only a legend and always made fun of me for believing in magic. So I stopped talking about magic in any form. Today when I saw you, however, I decided to prove one way or another to myself if magic was real," he looked down at this statement.
"When I was all those moves you did… well kinda saw, you were moving pretty fast… I was amazed by your abilities and knew only one person could do stuff like that. So when you finally stopped and I managed to actually see as more than a blur. I was able to see you fit the description well. Black hair, Chinese clothes, ponytail, and the fear of falling in the lake I knew I had to be you," he grinned at Ranma.
"The next thing I did wasn't so smart, though," he said grinning a little more but sobering quickly. Just to prove to myself you who I thought u were I decided to throw some cold water on you and see if u changed," He looked up again at these words. "I didn't figure on you getting that mad that you decided to chase me. I knew you had a quick temper sometimes but I didn't know you would try to kill me just for that."
"I didn't want to kill you," Ranma said perplexed. "If I had wanted to do that I would have just blasted your moped. No, what I really wanted to know was if you were sent by someone to attack me. I know my father has pissed off a lot of people and the old hag is always got some way of trying to force my marriage to her granddaughter."
Chris was startled about the casual mention of the chi-blast that he let his expression show fear for a moment at these words. He stood up looking slightly nervous now. "Well I wasn't sent by either of those people," he said slowly circling around Ranma and walking to his door.
Ranma stood up and looked at him with narrowed eyes. "So… you were sent by someone, eh?" he asked slowly walking forward and cracking his knuckles.
Chris stared at the glow around the enraged martial artist. He backed up quickly and felt his back hit the wall. He watched the martial artist approach. He suddenly felt really heady like tons of hot air had been pumped into his skull.
