CHAPTER FIVE

"GIANT PIGEONS"

(A/n) The story is continued at the time frame 'one week ago'. I hope you got my drift… lolz…

"Sensei!" the student squeaked as the dust settled. He ran to his fallen master who lay sprawled out on the ground. Quickly he checked the pulse, it was faint but it was there. The student looked around for the challenger, he was gone and so was their sign. He ran inside and called for the other students, together they carried Ryoho's body inside to his room.

Ryoho's eyes fluttered open, he sat up and stared on. A student ran to him and knelt, "Are you alright, Master Ryoho?" he asked. There was no reply, Ryoho just looked past him, past the walls onto nowhere. "Master Ryoho?" the student looked at Ryoho's eyes, soulless, void of any life.

The mess hall was big, few students littered around gossiping.

"Did you hear? Our school lost to an outsider!"

"No way… what happens now? I don't want to leave this place."

"There ain't no more Celestial arts… it took me years just to learn one stupid technique and it closes down!"

"Yeah… what happened to the old fart anyway? He lost in a few seconds."

"Garu said he was in shock of losing… locked up in that little room of his. Just fazed out."

"How did he lose anyway? The house doctor said there weren't any bruises or anything. No damage at all. It's like he just lay down and went to sleep."

"Maybe the challenger bribed him?"

"Nah… Master Ryoho ain't like that… why would he go into shock then?"

"The challenger must've asked for a larger price."

"Don't be so stupid…"

"I don't care about that anymore… I'm packing up and going home. Dojo's closed down an' all."

"Uh-huh, Sora's right… I'm leaving this dump."

The students dispersed, leaving the mess hall empty once more.

Garu watched his master sit there, quietly he observed. Ryoho hadn't moved since he woke up hours ago. He was getting worried, "Master Ryoho?". He saw a finger twitch. "Master Ryoho, please snap out of it…" he whispered. Then he noticed a glimmer of life in his sensei's eyes. "Master Ryoho!"

Ryoho's right arm moved up to his chest, he closed his fist. He said something that was inaudible to Garu. The student quickly ran to his master's side, "What, Master? What!" Ryoho's closed fist opened quickly, he moved his hand across Garu's chest. He moved his index finger around where Garu's heart was located, he closed his fist again. "Wh-what are you trying to say, master?" Garu asked, the tears flowed in his voice. The small glimmer of life faded from Ryoho's eyes. His right hand fell limply on the ground and the man returned to his trance-like state.

(A/n) alrighty! Let's go back to the normal time frame… shall we?

Jun and Pilika returned from the lanai with both bowls empty. "That was delicious!" Pilika cried out. Jun just smiled.

"Glad to see you liked it!" Akane said happily. She turned to Ranma, "See, not all my cooking's bad." She said triumphantly.

'Yeah right.' Ranma thought as rolled his eyes.

Jun yawned, "Miss, could you tell me where my room is? Me and my friend Pilika are very tired."

Akane nodded, "Well, uhm… we only have one extra room… is it alright if we let you sleep all together?"

"Of course it's fine!" Pilika said.

"That's good." Akane told them where the extra room was, which was where Rio and Len was staying.

"Are you coming with us, Anna?" Jun asked the blonde itako.

Anna settled the glass on the table and stood up, "Sure." She answered. She followed Pilika and Jun. Lee Pai Long wasn't too far behind carrying their luggage with ease.

Yoh and Trey walked in the kitchen. Yoh carried his bowl and placed it on the sink. Akane noticed that Trey didn't carry his bowl, "Uhm… Mr. Clay?"

"Hey, Trey." Yoh nudged Trey at the shoulder.

"Uh… what?"

"Where's the bowl?"

"What bowl?" Trey said confusedly.

"She means your teriyaki bowl." Yoh whispered in his ear.

"Oh that!" Trey clasped his hands together. He laughed, "you know… it's a really funny story. This huge pigeon came!" Trey stretched his arms sidewards to show Akane how big the bird was. "Then he saw the teriyaki Yoh and I were eating. It dove down at me…" Trey plunged his arm downwards and whistled to create a sound effect. "… then grabbed the teriyaki—bowl and all and flew off!" he grinned widely. "I tried to get the food back… but it was already far off."

Akane raised a brow, "I thought you just left it up on the roof."

"Yeah…" Trey said, he shrugged.

Yoh laughed, "That would've sounded a lot better wouldn't it?" The truth was… Yoh and Trey were looking for a place to dump the stuff, Trey suggested the gutter up the roof. Yoh poured the watery contents in the gutter, Trey did the same but the bowl slipped from his grasp and fell into the gutter. It fell in too deep to retrieve.

Trey sighed, "Boy am I bushed." He tried to divert the topic. "Can I, like, go to my room now?"

Akane told Trey and Yoh where their room was.

"It's like a big sleepover!" Pilika squealed as she jumped on her futon.

"I can't believe that I'm sharing the room with all of you!" Len complained. "I'm the one with the broken leg here."

"It's not a broken leg, Len. It's a sprain." Jun said, she combed her long green hair.

Yoh stretched, he walked to the luggage and pulled his clothes, "Come on guys. Let's dress up already. We'll leave the ladies here to change." He said, he opened the door.

Trey grabbed his clothes from his suitcase and followed, Rio did the same. Len growled as he stood up, it was unfair that he had to share his room with all of those ruffians. Lee Pai Long stepped out of the room and stood by the door.

Yoh slung his clothes over his back, "Where's Morty?"

"Dunno." Trey answered. "Probably still around dumping that toxic waste that girl tried to feed us."

"She does look cute… but I do not like a woman that tries to feed me poison. I think that she and that poor boy have an established relationship already." Rio mused.

Len kept quiet, he left his crutches at the room. They stopped at the entrance to the bathroom, "I'll change first." Len volunteered.

"Hey, not fair! I got here first!" Trey argued.

"I'm the one with the handicap." Len answered calmly.

Trey growled. He noticed the puddle of water by Len's feet… Len turned the knob and pulled open the door. Water washed past him, drenching the Chinese boy to the skin. "IS THIS A JOKE?" Len shouted.

Trey and Yoh laughed, "Go ahead! Change first!" Trey said as he muffled his laughter.

Len looked at Trey with menacing eyes, "I am going to kill you!" he murmured.

Morty walked out of the bathroom holding a plunger, he was as wet as Len. "Heeheehee… I think I plugged up the toilet with the teriyaki." He joked.

Everyone had changed, Lee Pai Long still stood at the entrance.

"What a vacation…" Pilika said as she lay down on her futon. She had on white pajamas with light-blue vertical lines.

"This is not considered a vacation." Len said out loud, he was sitting down on his futon, his back was against the wall. He wore black pajamas with streaks of red by the collar.

Jun's hair was down and she was wearing a white silk nightgown, "The first day wasn't really relaxing as I had expected."

Len grunted, "None of these should have happened… it's all because of that idiot Trey."

Trey was already sleeping, Len hurled a pillow at him. The sleeping boy still did not stir from his slumber.

"We might all as well go to sleep, my friends." Rio suggested.

"Rio's right, guys. Lights out." Yoh said as he switched off the lights.

Akane switched off the lights in the kitchen. She walked up to her room.

Ranma still lay there, still immobile. He tried to pound his fist on the table to gather attention. Then he heard the front door open, his heart raced. He sighed it was just Kasumi and Nabiki, he saw Kasumi look at him, "oh dear, Ranma fell asleep again on the table." She nodded her head and continued on to her room.

"Must be really tired." Nabiki commented.

"Wait!" Ranma whimpered. "Don't leave me here!" he couldn't raise his voice loud enough for anyone else to hear.

A few minutes had passed, Ranma groaned. He couldn't sleep in such a backbreaking position. Genma and Soun walked in, they were busy talking about the qualities of a good bar.

"Hey, Genma. Isn't that your son?" Soun pointed to Ranma.

Genma adjusted his glasses, "Hmm.. I believe you're right." He laughed, "Let sleeping dogs lie, Soun."

"Get me outta here!" Ranma grumbled.

"Awww… isn't that cute, little Ranma's talking in his sleep!" Genma said.

"Genma." Soun stood in front of Lee Pai Long.

"Yes, Soun?" Genma approached his buddy.

"Did you ever see this statue before?"

"I believe I haven't." Genma said, "It's pretty lifelike… except for the skin tone." He prodded at Lee Pai Long's arm. "It even feels like flesh."

"Amazing…" Soun murmured. "You think Nabiki got this?"

"Probably, she has enough money to buy anything she wants." Genma yawned. "Well, I am tired. Goodnight, Soun."

"Goodnight, Genma." Soun replied. They walked in opposite directions.

Yoh couldn't sleep, his stomach kept complaining about its emptiness. Everything was so quiet except for the usual snores coming from either Rio or Trey. He was in-between Anna and Len. It was clearly a danger zone, if he woke either one up he'd be dead.

He faced the ceiling, he felt a sharp pain at his left side. Len just kicked him. 'Ouch… I didn't know Len kicks in his sleep!" thought Yoh. He turned so that his back faced Len. Anna was facing him, she was fast asleep. Yoh watched her deep breaths, she looked so different… she seemed so peaceful. He had never seen Anna this way, she was always so cold, but he always knew that Anna always cared. Here it seemed that Anna couldn't be capable of being so harsh, she looked innocent like an angel. He just watched her sleep so quietly, that slowly he had also drifted into the land of dreams.

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(a/N) Ooohhh…. Metaphors… heheheheh…. I wanted the ending of this chapter to be dramatic but not cheesy. There's a thick line between that (hope I did not cross into the cheesy domain). (biting lip) Anyway I finally got rid of that stupid worm virus. (Yehey for me!)

I know jokes are getting pretty lame but hang in there… I think that the story's getting interesting. There's still an encounter with Principal Kuno… heheheh…

Crud… it's Shaman King in Cartoon Network (I'm a Filipino in the Philippines) they repeated it again! WHY! Can I just get the DVD's! Nooo! They're too expensive! This is what I hate here! The Shaman King series in GMA is dubbed in Filipino (the Philippine dubbed version of the series is done) and I do NOT watch anything that is dubbed in Filipino… I HATE CARTOON NETWORK! Why do you repeat the show for the third time when the whole group didn't even get to Dobie Village! (tears at hair and screams so loud) WHY!

(smiles) Love you guys! And… you know the drill!

With tons o' love,

Pazaway-tiger

(LAUGHS madly)