Broken
Shadow Knight
Chapter 13: Serrated Insanity
Disclaimer: Ah. . . no. Sadly enough, I don't own them. The wonderful and creative Rumiko Takahashi does (did I spell that right?).
NOTE: I couldn't edit this too much because of my predicament that I described below. So, if there are a lot of errors. I'm sorry. :P
~
This city. . . it was not the one that many had knew it as before. Everything seemed. . . dead now. It was odd for the hoi polloi. Something screamed inside that there was something wrong, but they just couldn't seem to hear its mute cries. It simply sent chills down their spines, driving them back onto the normal schedules with a small fright. In their minds they refused to comply with this unknown pain that ripped through the heart of the city. They would rather just let the buzzing of the office light drone out their wandering thoughts and focus on their work.
Yet, regardless of what they might think, this sorrow didn't generate from the darkest regions of their fantasies. No, it breathed life from humans. With every heavy sigh, every tear, the disturbing chill that slipped down the people's backs grew, tearing at them for recognition and nourishment to this devastation of soul.
This beast of sadness had a favorite though. Nothing sustained it better than the boy who died one day. Although his body wasn't within the earth's womb, it was something else that parted with the earth. It was something much more important than flesh and blood.
It was his soul.
~
"Ranma. . . you must eat. I. . .I know I can't force you Ranma, but please. . . for all our sakes, please get some food in you."
There was no response from the solitary boy, the door closed to all visitors. He didn't hear the gentle pleading, nor the sadness that pained the voice stressfully. He. . . he didn't hear anything.
His azure eyes were open, staring at nothing, slowly glazing. He had been sitting, frozen like this for 2 days. The boy said nothing. After his screams, the family and rushed upstairs to find him sitting, his mouth open wide as silence poured from his jaws. His breathing grew shallow and they watched him carefully, unsure of what to do. His jaw snapped shut suddenly and he sat there, staring silently at the screen wall. A few trickling tears scoured down his cheeks.
Now he continued to stare at the wall, his eyes heavy from lack of sleep, his eyelids scarlet from crying. The flicker of life, of spirit. . . gone.
Reaching out a hand to his shoulder, the owner of the gentle voice from before rubbed his shoulder lightly. "Ranma, please. . . please turn around and eat. It's me. . Kasumi. Would you please turn around? Ranma? . . ."
With a small sigh, her hand slipped from his cold shoulders and rested by her side. Biting her lip lightly, she closed her eyes and quickly walked out of the room, a burning suddenly lighting behind her eyelids.
~
After Ranma was left in his darkened solitude for a while, his eyes suddenly began to grow focused. A look of understanding passed through his eyes in a sudden flash. With a clench of his fist, his whole demeanor suddenly melted away, exposing a cask of fury smearing his features crudely.
His lips curled back sharply from his lips as he uttered one word.
"Shampoo. . ."
~
"Xian Pu," a foreign tongue yawned out in a sleepy matter, "Please clean up and lock the doors before you retire. Since the drugs effects should be over, Ranma may visit soon. But we do have to let the last traces flush out. Seeing you or me might trigger an influx of memories he does not remember which would cause him quite a shock. So 2 or 3 days should be enough. . .Now we don't want your new husband to see such a messy place, now do we?"
"No. . ," whispered back the foreign tongue.
Eyes the color of violet watched as an old woman bound up the stairs, eagerly seeking the warmth of her bed. As she heard the door shut up stairs, the girl's face snapped. Her once, calm, pleasant face of eagerness was now twisted into one of sadness. Sitting down in a chair, Shampoo bent over and propped her elbows on her legs, her hands clutching her lavender hair. A shuddering breath shook her body.
"Ranma. . . ," she breathed in her native tongue, "Why was I cursed to love a man like you? A man I can never obtain. It doesn't matter if you were in love me. . .it was only a drug. . . .Only a drug. . . You. . you were never mine. . ."
A small sob escaped past her sealed lips, trying to contain her cries from her grandmother. If she heard her. . . a warrior. . . cry, it wouldn't be too good. She reached up her hands and clasped them over her mouth, forcing back each cry. Biting her tongue, she focused on the pain in her mouth and not the suffering in her heart.
With a deep breath, she slowly maintained her composure. Walking to the kitchen she grabbed a rag and started wiping down the tables. As she polished their lacquered surface, she saw her face slowly appear in the reflection. Reaching out a hand to the face, she found herself disturbed. "That's not me," she whispered in Chinese.
The face looking at her was stirring with darkness. A caustic stare glared at her in the reflection. The teeth were bared slightly, like a dog about to attack. Cold rage burrowed into her own. Raven hair flew out from the terrible face and sprang out at odd angle-
Wait. She didn't have black hair. . .
"That not Shampoo at all," she gasped as she shook in realization.
A cold aura pricked her back like a thousand needles, her own normal, fiery aura dead. Something boiled behind her with such an intensity that it frightened her.
"No. . . it's me."
Before she could run, a barely controlled force struck her hardly on her back, and left her gasping for air. Shampoo fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, her violet hair tumbling around her in a silken cloud. Her lips were parted as her lungs gasped eagerly for oxygen and her eyes wide open in a new born terror.
Regaining her breath, she scrambled away from her attacker. She skittered across the restaurant floor like a mouse, looking for a place to hide. But she had no luck. Her eyes jumped to the face of her attacker.
"No. . . ," she cried softly, her frame beginning to shake.
This couldn't be true. She was delirious! There was no way he would attack her! It couldn't be him. No. . . she was dreaming. . Oh please say it was so. . . It couldn't be. .
"Ranma. . ," she shivered.
His eyes were narrowed with an anger that burned deep inside of him. She had never seen him look like this. Not even when Akane's life was threatened by Saffron. . .no. . .nothing like this.
"Ranma. . . please. . .no hurt Shampoo. .," she tried to crawl away.
He said nothing as he closed the distance between them. Silently, he reached down and grabbed a handful of her hair. With a quick jerk, he pulled her to her feet as she screamed out in pain, clawing at the hand that held her.
With a placid face, his eyes watched her scream, the fury inside him growing. Drawing back hand, he let it swing forward and meet her flesh. Her face burned where he had smacked her, blood beginning to clot in her cheek. Her tongue danced lightly in her mouth and found a tooth rattled out of its roots. Drawing back his hand again, he smacked her, again, and again until her face was as red as blood.
"Gre. . .Greatgrandmother," she called out feebly.
But she never came.
As the slaps rattled her brain, Shampoo began to grow dizzy with each hit. A buzzing noise was growing apparent to her as it sounded from the back of her head. She was slowly beginning to lose consciousness. Just before her Ranma's cold eyes blurred into darkness, he suddenly stopped.
She tried to peer through her swollen eyes at him. Fearful for what he might do next. Still holding her up by her hair, she watched as he reached into his pocket and withdrew something.
Something shiny and sharp.
Shampoo's eyes widened in panic. Why couldn't she attack him? She was an Amazon warrior! But. . .oh. . to see his eyes like that. . .It scared her and filled her with horrific terrors.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Shampoo whispered feebly, "Please. . please no kill Shampoo."
A silent moment passed before Shampoo gasped. A cold metal surface trailed along her neck lightly, making her flinch. She suddenly heard whooshing noise as the knife was drawn back quickly. Her whole body clenched. . .
And then she suddenly dropped to the ground.
Opening her eyes wearily, she looked up. Ranma was glaring down at her as he held something in his hand besides the knife. . . her. . . her hair.
With numb and shaking hands, she reached up to her scalp. Her fingers prodded with the flesh of her scalp. She began quivering harshly. The back of her throat clicked as she tried to bring words upon her lips.
"W. . . Wh. . .What have you done?"
Ranma sneered at her with cold eyes. "Go home Shampoo. Your Amazon honor is gone, just like your hair. I don't want to ever see you in my presence again. You are dead to me."
He threw down the knife near her leg and let her bundle of hair scatter from his fist. It fell like an amethyst waterfall, each strand lying dead and cold as it touched the floor. His footsteps resounded hollowly out the door.
Numbly she reached out and touched the silken mass. As her finger made contact, her eyes watered. Fervently she plucked the strands up, her fingers fumbling as her breathing quickened. "No, no, no, no, no. . . ," she cried growing louder with each denial.
"No!" she screamed as she fell upon her hair, clutching it to her chest.
Her body slightly convulsing she drew the hair up to her head and sat it there. It fell in lazy twirls, like a purple mist surrounding her. Watching her hair fall, her eyes stretched open and she clutched at her arms, her nails biting into her flesh.
She rocked back and forth on her knees, and clenched her eyes shut. Everything that meant she was an Amazon. . .all her strivings, her goals, her dreams, her family. . . everything was gone now. It was laying dead on the floor alongside her hair. She could never return to the village. Never again.
Her connections to her family and tribe were dead.
Shampoo's mind slowly shut down as she laid on the ground, a fetal ball of insanity.
~
Cologne never heard her granddaughter's cries. Not when she was so deep in sleep. Special burning incense that flowed into her open window was proof of that.
~
OKAY! I'm done cause I can't think of anything else at the moment. This took a lot of out of me so I hope you guy appreciate it.
BIG NOTE: Well, I'm having some problems. My eh. . computer kind of crashed. So I can't update my stories as much as I would like to. This I've written in about an hour or two on someone else's computer so that's how this is coming to you if you wondered. I'll try to update as much as I can, but it wont be as frequent (not that it was. . ). Sorry. :P
MORE NOTES:
_dogbertcarrol_: Thank you for pointing that out. I know it does sound weird. But who knows, elegance comes at the oddest time. And usually seems to soothe people, like the sad Ukyo.
_eleni82_: I'm glad that you're enjoying it. I wish I knew another language! :P
_Kanna-chan_: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see about them. My plot is kind of scrambled right now, but I'm working on it.
_Flameraven1_: Very nice quote. :P
_cuiteangel_: Ah-hah. . .no. At least about the last part. Can't do that. I'm not that. . . um. . advanced I suppose in writing. But thanks for the prior suggestions.
AND FOR THE REST OF YOU ALL THANK YOU! VERY VERY MUCH!
Until the next chap,
Ciao. ^_~
P.S. NEXT CHAPTER: Will take a little forward. Well. . .you'll get it. ^_^
Shadow Knight
Chapter 13: Serrated Insanity
Disclaimer: Ah. . . no. Sadly enough, I don't own them. The wonderful and creative Rumiko Takahashi does (did I spell that right?).
NOTE: I couldn't edit this too much because of my predicament that I described below. So, if there are a lot of errors. I'm sorry. :P
~
This city. . . it was not the one that many had knew it as before. Everything seemed. . . dead now. It was odd for the hoi polloi. Something screamed inside that there was something wrong, but they just couldn't seem to hear its mute cries. It simply sent chills down their spines, driving them back onto the normal schedules with a small fright. In their minds they refused to comply with this unknown pain that ripped through the heart of the city. They would rather just let the buzzing of the office light drone out their wandering thoughts and focus on their work.
Yet, regardless of what they might think, this sorrow didn't generate from the darkest regions of their fantasies. No, it breathed life from humans. With every heavy sigh, every tear, the disturbing chill that slipped down the people's backs grew, tearing at them for recognition and nourishment to this devastation of soul.
This beast of sadness had a favorite though. Nothing sustained it better than the boy who died one day. Although his body wasn't within the earth's womb, it was something else that parted with the earth. It was something much more important than flesh and blood.
It was his soul.
~
"Ranma. . . you must eat. I. . .I know I can't force you Ranma, but please. . . for all our sakes, please get some food in you."
There was no response from the solitary boy, the door closed to all visitors. He didn't hear the gentle pleading, nor the sadness that pained the voice stressfully. He. . . he didn't hear anything.
His azure eyes were open, staring at nothing, slowly glazing. He had been sitting, frozen like this for 2 days. The boy said nothing. After his screams, the family and rushed upstairs to find him sitting, his mouth open wide as silence poured from his jaws. His breathing grew shallow and they watched him carefully, unsure of what to do. His jaw snapped shut suddenly and he sat there, staring silently at the screen wall. A few trickling tears scoured down his cheeks.
Now he continued to stare at the wall, his eyes heavy from lack of sleep, his eyelids scarlet from crying. The flicker of life, of spirit. . . gone.
Reaching out a hand to his shoulder, the owner of the gentle voice from before rubbed his shoulder lightly. "Ranma, please. . . please turn around and eat. It's me. . Kasumi. Would you please turn around? Ranma? . . ."
With a small sigh, her hand slipped from his cold shoulders and rested by her side. Biting her lip lightly, she closed her eyes and quickly walked out of the room, a burning suddenly lighting behind her eyelids.
~
After Ranma was left in his darkened solitude for a while, his eyes suddenly began to grow focused. A look of understanding passed through his eyes in a sudden flash. With a clench of his fist, his whole demeanor suddenly melted away, exposing a cask of fury smearing his features crudely.
His lips curled back sharply from his lips as he uttered one word.
"Shampoo. . ."
~
"Xian Pu," a foreign tongue yawned out in a sleepy matter, "Please clean up and lock the doors before you retire. Since the drugs effects should be over, Ranma may visit soon. But we do have to let the last traces flush out. Seeing you or me might trigger an influx of memories he does not remember which would cause him quite a shock. So 2 or 3 days should be enough. . .Now we don't want your new husband to see such a messy place, now do we?"
"No. . ," whispered back the foreign tongue.
Eyes the color of violet watched as an old woman bound up the stairs, eagerly seeking the warmth of her bed. As she heard the door shut up stairs, the girl's face snapped. Her once, calm, pleasant face of eagerness was now twisted into one of sadness. Sitting down in a chair, Shampoo bent over and propped her elbows on her legs, her hands clutching her lavender hair. A shuddering breath shook her body.
"Ranma. . . ," she breathed in her native tongue, "Why was I cursed to love a man like you? A man I can never obtain. It doesn't matter if you were in love me. . .it was only a drug. . . .Only a drug. . . You. . you were never mine. . ."
A small sob escaped past her sealed lips, trying to contain her cries from her grandmother. If she heard her. . . a warrior. . . cry, it wouldn't be too good. She reached up her hands and clasped them over her mouth, forcing back each cry. Biting her tongue, she focused on the pain in her mouth and not the suffering in her heart.
With a deep breath, she slowly maintained her composure. Walking to the kitchen she grabbed a rag and started wiping down the tables. As she polished their lacquered surface, she saw her face slowly appear in the reflection. Reaching out a hand to the face, she found herself disturbed. "That's not me," she whispered in Chinese.
The face looking at her was stirring with darkness. A caustic stare glared at her in the reflection. The teeth were bared slightly, like a dog about to attack. Cold rage burrowed into her own. Raven hair flew out from the terrible face and sprang out at odd angle-
Wait. She didn't have black hair. . .
"That not Shampoo at all," she gasped as she shook in realization.
A cold aura pricked her back like a thousand needles, her own normal, fiery aura dead. Something boiled behind her with such an intensity that it frightened her.
"No. . . it's me."
Before she could run, a barely controlled force struck her hardly on her back, and left her gasping for air. Shampoo fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, her violet hair tumbling around her in a silken cloud. Her lips were parted as her lungs gasped eagerly for oxygen and her eyes wide open in a new born terror.
Regaining her breath, she scrambled away from her attacker. She skittered across the restaurant floor like a mouse, looking for a place to hide. But she had no luck. Her eyes jumped to the face of her attacker.
"No. . . ," she cried softly, her frame beginning to shake.
This couldn't be true. She was delirious! There was no way he would attack her! It couldn't be him. No. . . she was dreaming. . Oh please say it was so. . . It couldn't be. .
"Ranma. . ," she shivered.
His eyes were narrowed with an anger that burned deep inside of him. She had never seen him look like this. Not even when Akane's life was threatened by Saffron. . .no. . .nothing like this.
"Ranma. . . please. . .no hurt Shampoo. .," she tried to crawl away.
He said nothing as he closed the distance between them. Silently, he reached down and grabbed a handful of her hair. With a quick jerk, he pulled her to her feet as she screamed out in pain, clawing at the hand that held her.
With a placid face, his eyes watched her scream, the fury inside him growing. Drawing back hand, he let it swing forward and meet her flesh. Her face burned where he had smacked her, blood beginning to clot in her cheek. Her tongue danced lightly in her mouth and found a tooth rattled out of its roots. Drawing back his hand again, he smacked her, again, and again until her face was as red as blood.
"Gre. . .Greatgrandmother," she called out feebly.
But she never came.
As the slaps rattled her brain, Shampoo began to grow dizzy with each hit. A buzzing noise was growing apparent to her as it sounded from the back of her head. She was slowly beginning to lose consciousness. Just before her Ranma's cold eyes blurred into darkness, he suddenly stopped.
She tried to peer through her swollen eyes at him. Fearful for what he might do next. Still holding her up by her hair, she watched as he reached into his pocket and withdrew something.
Something shiny and sharp.
Shampoo's eyes widened in panic. Why couldn't she attack him? She was an Amazon warrior! But. . .oh. . to see his eyes like that. . .It scared her and filled her with horrific terrors.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Shampoo whispered feebly, "Please. . please no kill Shampoo."
A silent moment passed before Shampoo gasped. A cold metal surface trailed along her neck lightly, making her flinch. She suddenly heard whooshing noise as the knife was drawn back quickly. Her whole body clenched. . .
And then she suddenly dropped to the ground.
Opening her eyes wearily, she looked up. Ranma was glaring down at her as he held something in his hand besides the knife. . . her. . . her hair.
With numb and shaking hands, she reached up to her scalp. Her fingers prodded with the flesh of her scalp. She began quivering harshly. The back of her throat clicked as she tried to bring words upon her lips.
"W. . . Wh. . .What have you done?"
Ranma sneered at her with cold eyes. "Go home Shampoo. Your Amazon honor is gone, just like your hair. I don't want to ever see you in my presence again. You are dead to me."
He threw down the knife near her leg and let her bundle of hair scatter from his fist. It fell like an amethyst waterfall, each strand lying dead and cold as it touched the floor. His footsteps resounded hollowly out the door.
Numbly she reached out and touched the silken mass. As her finger made contact, her eyes watered. Fervently she plucked the strands up, her fingers fumbling as her breathing quickened. "No, no, no, no, no. . . ," she cried growing louder with each denial.
"No!" she screamed as she fell upon her hair, clutching it to her chest.
Her body slightly convulsing she drew the hair up to her head and sat it there. It fell in lazy twirls, like a purple mist surrounding her. Watching her hair fall, her eyes stretched open and she clutched at her arms, her nails biting into her flesh.
She rocked back and forth on her knees, and clenched her eyes shut. Everything that meant she was an Amazon. . .all her strivings, her goals, her dreams, her family. . . everything was gone now. It was laying dead on the floor alongside her hair. She could never return to the village. Never again.
Her connections to her family and tribe were dead.
Shampoo's mind slowly shut down as she laid on the ground, a fetal ball of insanity.
~
Cologne never heard her granddaughter's cries. Not when she was so deep in sleep. Special burning incense that flowed into her open window was proof of that.
~
OKAY! I'm done cause I can't think of anything else at the moment. This took a lot of out of me so I hope you guy appreciate it.
BIG NOTE: Well, I'm having some problems. My eh. . computer kind of crashed. So I can't update my stories as much as I would like to. This I've written in about an hour or two on someone else's computer so that's how this is coming to you if you wondered. I'll try to update as much as I can, but it wont be as frequent (not that it was. . ). Sorry. :P
MORE NOTES:
_dogbertcarrol_: Thank you for pointing that out. I know it does sound weird. But who knows, elegance comes at the oddest time. And usually seems to soothe people, like the sad Ukyo.
_eleni82_: I'm glad that you're enjoying it. I wish I knew another language! :P
_Kanna-chan_: Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see about them. My plot is kind of scrambled right now, but I'm working on it.
_Flameraven1_: Very nice quote. :P
_cuiteangel_: Ah-hah. . .no. At least about the last part. Can't do that. I'm not that. . . um. . advanced I suppose in writing. But thanks for the prior suggestions.
AND FOR THE REST OF YOU ALL THANK YOU! VERY VERY MUCH!
Until the next chap,
Ciao. ^_~
P.S. NEXT CHAPTER: Will take a little forward. Well. . .you'll get it. ^_^