When Dark Falls
Chapter 1
29th May 2005 (original)
21st July 2005 (rewrite)
It stirred, not remembering. It groaned before sitting up and looking around blearily, not recognizing its surroundings. Then everything flooded back, the pain, the fear, the hurt, the anger. 8 year old Ranma Saotome cried, he thought his poppa loved him, wanted the best for him, so how could he hurt him like that?
Ranma eventually stopped; not having enough exposure to his father's lessons of "men don't cry" Ranma only felt slightly guilty crying. He stood and shouldered his pack, determined to find out exactly where he was.
Ranma walked and walked, finding bushes laden with berries and other fruit on the way. These he stored in pockets and boxes on his bag, along with a few for the road. Suddenly, he heard cries of pain, anger, and fighting. Ranma dashed toward the sound, and came across a strange sight: there were several birds of a type he'd never seen before, fighting a four-legged creature that was cream and grey in color with black eyes, a bushy tail, and several scratches and cuts on it.
Knowing it could be some unknown custom in the wild, Ranma stood back and repressed the hurt he felt for the little creature. His could see there was food in the equation, but after a year of his father's influence, logic wasn't his strongest point. Ranma's eyes watered whenever the critter took a hit, smiled quietly when it got in a hit on any of the birds. Finally, after an excruciating 3 minutes, the birds flew away with several berries, and the bushy fighter collapsed in exhaustion.
Ranma almost ran forward on impulse, but from previous experience restrained himself, and slowly crept toward the strange animal, simultaneously drawing out a handful of berries from his pack. When he was a foot away, the little creature seemed to sense him, and tried to stand and growl, but the effort was futile and it fell back on the ground with a whimper of pain. Ranma set his pack down and put his berries in front of the little creature while assessing the injuries and mentally cataloguing how to best help it heal.
"Vee, eevee." It had sniffed the fruit to ensure it wasn't drugged, and then eaten them. Turning, the eevee saw the human was studying it, and felt somehow that the human was no threat.
Ranma gazed into its eyes, and spoke clearly, "my name is Ranma Saotome, and I'd like to help you. Will you let me?"
"vee?" So this human had a name, it had heard about humans that captured pokemon with pokeballs, but really it had no choice right now. It was far too tired and injured to heal in time to find more food. "Eevee, vee." It nodded.
Ranma hurriedly pulled out water and cloth, and set to helping the little creature.
………
By that night, eevee had healed enough to travel, and sat on Ranma's shoulder. Under the moonlight, the pair came to a clearing and settled for the night. Ranma gave eevee's injuries another check before crawling into his sleeping bag for the night. In a hole under a tree root, the eevee gazed out at the human, this Ranma, and somehow knew he'd found himself a true friend.
The next morning, Eevee woke to find Ranma wasn't in his sleeping bag. His sensitive hearing, not as good as a Pikachu's but still good, heard sounds of rapid movement from nearby, and found Ranma in a clearing going through an Anything Goes Kata.
During their training journey, Genma was always more bothered about his own stomach than anything else, and had carried any supplies while relegating the task of scroll and equipment carrying to Ranma. Therefore, when Ranma had grabbed his pack, he was also taking all the training scrolls he and his father would be using, apart from his clothes, sleeping bag, and medical equipment.
Ranma had awoken that morning at the crack of dawn and decided that being in an alien place wasn't an excuse for a lax in his Martial Arts training. To that end, Ranma had gone through all the Kata he already knew, and then started on the more advanced Kata. After 3 years of the basic and mid level Kata, Ranma knew he was ready for the next level, and so was going through an advanced-mid level Kata that his father would have procrastinated several months before teaching him.
Eevee watch, fascinated, as Ranma went through the Kata, not getting distracted when a pidgey swept down and plucked a caterpi from a foot to Ranma's left. Eevee likened the Ranma's morning activities to a fighting pokemon, which he'd seen once take down a lickingtung with ease. As a normal type, it was critical not to get hit by a fighting type, so Eevee decided that as soon as possible it'd get Ranma to practice while Eevee dodged.
"Vee! Eevee vee!" Eevee raced down to his new friend. Ranma stopped and picked up the furry animal, and smiled. He'd had a cat once and this strange creature reminded him strongly of it. "Vee vee? Eevee?" Eevee mimicked Ranma's Kata, moving his paws around.
Ranma seemed to get the message, "you wanna practice with me?" an affirmative response and he smiled and began the Kata again.
………
That night, Ranma slept late, cleaning up more slowly after a long day of training. He'd finally gotten past the mid-advanced katas, and would start modifying them for Eevee the next day.
He idly looked over at where Eevee was curled up, his silver fur glistening in the moonlight. He looked closer; he couldn't be entirely sure, but it seemed as if a cloak of darkness had covered Eevee for a few moments, like a blanket. He stopped and watched; there it was again! And it actually stayed this time!
Softly moving over, he touched it. It was cold, but not solid. He could only feel its effects, not the thing itself, and he was amazed. Eevee shook itself awake and gazed at him intently curious, "vee?" Ranma shook his head, "No matter, I don't know what that blanket thing was, but I now know what to name you, Shroud."
………
A few years passed, Shroud and Ranma grew closer, boy and pokemon grew older; Ranma progressed through his scrolls at almost breakneck speed. Where his father would have insisted that he was doing something wrong and spend a long time "correcting" him, Ranma was now more in touch with himself and could judge for himself when he was actually ready.
He had modified the Anything Goes Katas for Eevee, allowing Eevee to use more speed coupled with his two front paws and tail. Ranma felt that ki manipulation and projection were their ultimate goals, and the completion of the first part of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. It would allow him to move onto more powerful techniques like the Umisen-ken and Yamasen-ken.
So far though, all he knew was how to manipulate his ki to enhance himself in terms of speed, strength, and endurance. The scrolls he had merely talked about ki as a circulating power in the body that enabled it to survive; the unknown factor in the question of "chicken or egg" about how the body came to life. He just knew it had to be in one of the scrolls in his pack; he just needed to find it, but when he did, he just knew he'd master it dead fast.
……
He studied the scroll with great intensity; it was making no sense. Why would he need to feel an emotion? He didn't want to be constantly angry; how could he pull himself away from it long enough to have a proper conversation with someone? How could he feel friendly when he was facing an opponent who possibly wanted to maim or kill him?
He sighed; at least he knew what not to do, which was to use a negative emotion, and how to avoid ki blasts, which was to either become devoid of emotion or moving. Idly he wondered where Shroud had gone to, he usually wasn't usually gone for this long; Shroud appeared just then, panting. But that wasn't what surprised Ranma; Shroud had appeared out of a black bubble that had emerged from the ground! He wasn't sure, but that could be what Shroud's ki was like.
"Vee!" Ranma smiled at him, "hey little fella, where've you been? I've been meaning to ask you what you make of this bit in the scroll." Shroud looked at it carefully; it still amazed Ranma that an animal could read Japanese, never mind that he himself seemed to be speaking some foreign language. "Vee, eevee vee." Shroud had apparently finished reading and was trying to tell him something; Ranma raised an eyebrow, something he'd learnt in the past few years, "All or nothing? Well I suppose it's possible."
………
Near to their settling site, Ranma knew of a set of bushes and trees that held abundant fruit. He'd been to almost every one of the bushes, and today was going for the last one. Searching near the bottom, where he knew the largest berries were, Ranma was surprised to come across a pair of dark glasses. Unknown to him, it was actually a pokemon item, but decided anyway that Eevee would like it; perhaps it would help him find a name for his friend? Of course, Ranma wondered, who'd be stupid enough to leave around something like this?
…
Up in a hot-air balloon, James suddenly sneezed and wondered who was talking about him.
…
That evening, Eevee finished his berries and juice, and looked up at Ranma, only to find his friend gazing right back. Ranma smiled, and brought out the glasses which he'd washed in the nearby stream, "these are for you, little guy, they should go nicely on you." And with that pushed the small set of shades onto the pokemon's face. At first Eevee didn't know what was going on, but then realized the darkness felt welcoming, inviting, and awakening.
Ranma watched his little friend for a reaction and for a moment was disappointed that none came forth immediately. Then it happened; Eevee suddenly began to glow, an unearthly white glow, and changed shape, becoming larger. For his part, Ranma had to shield his eyes, but was still able to discern the change in his friend. When the glow faded and the change complete, the moonlight revealed a dark shape. Ranma gaped, Eevee was no longer Eevee; he was now jet black, with golden eyes that held no pupils, and sky blue marks on his body. The expressionless eyes seemed to inexplicably soften and light up when they set onto Ranma, and nuzzled his friend.
Ranma was still shocked, but somewhere inside knew it was still his friend no matter how his outward appearance changed. Ranma stroked his friend's fur and found it velvety where it used to be bushy and smooth, even on the marks; now calmer and noticing more, Ranma saw there were actually 8 marks: a small circle on the first joint of each leg, a circle round its tail, one round each ear, and one between his eyes. Ranma smiled and spoke quietly, "I guess 'Shroud' fits you rather well." A happy, contented purr escaped his friend, "umbreon…"
………
The next morning during their practice, Shroud demonstrated his new abilities. Where Eevee could only form and use an aura, Shroud's new innate ki abilities formed a black ball of energy just in front of his central circle, and let it go, sending it flying into a grove of trees where it exploded with tremendous force. Ranma observed closely and saw that when the energy ball formed, Shroud's marks and eyes glowed, and that when the ball was released the marks briefly flared a different color; which color he couldn't be sure, but it had looked something like green for the marks and white for the eyes.
Ranma grinned widely and ran up to the large cat and grabbed it in a monstrous hug, "You did it! You did it! Isn't this great! Now we can both use ki projection! Wow, Mom would have been proud." This caused Ranma's face to lose some of its happiness; he didn't even know if his mother was still even alive. Shroud seemed to realize what his friend was feeling and rubbed his 3 foot high, soft cuddly form against him. This brought Ranma out of his depressing thoughts and scratched Shroud behind his ears. His father's voice softly said in his mind, "it will make you weak." But Ranma ignored him. That was the man who had pushed him into the pit of cats.
………
He was eleven now, and Shroud had grown. He could no longer sit and ride on Ranma's shoulder because of his now nearly 4 foot height. Ranma himself had grown too, now about 5 foot in height. He'd found an egg not so long ago, and carried it around with him while training with Shroud, which was always fun. They looked over the ridge down at a town.
"It's been a while you know? It's been so long since we've had anyone else to talk to; wouldn't it be nice?" Ranma turned to Shroud, who seemed to shrug. How he pulled of those human actions was beyond him, the eye twitch, shrug, eye roll, Shroud really was special, "Hey over there! It looks like they've more like you! Why don't we go there first?" Shroud peered intently; he saw several Tauros, a Muk, a Hitmonchan. Nothing he couldn't handle with his new abilities.
"Umbreon…"