The Binding Of Ranma Saotome
Chapter 3: Discovery
Ranma opened her eyes. She looked up, and saw that the sky was an odd shade of white, and the stars looked like lumped plaster. Ah, it was the ceiling she was looking at!
She had fragmented memory of the previous night, and as she tried to work it out she heard the door creak open. Quickly she looked around to figure out where she was. She was on a bed, not a Tatami. She looked around at the décor, and found that it was Akane's room, all before the door could even open all the way. She closed her eyes again, sinking back into the warm covers. The pillow beneath her head had a dent in it where Akane would rest her head and sleep, and the covers smelled rather good, actually. She heard footsteps, and timed the rhythm, as well as the breathing. By the sound of it Kasumi was walking into the room, carrying a bucket of cool water. When she felt the cloth on her head she rewarded herself on being right. She opened one eye a little. She was wrong about who it was, though…
Akane sat there, on the side of the bed, staring out the window, her face a mask, hiding whatever she was feeling inside. She looked slightly sad, maybe even a little guilty. Ranma couldn't help but feel sorry for her, even though there was no reason to.
"'Morning." Said Ranma, causing Akane to jump.
"Oh, you're awake." She said, and then left the room. Ranma glared at the door once it shut. It creaked in embarrassment.
'Stupid Akane' was going through her mind, and that was evident on her face.
…
In the slightly lost mind of Ryouga Hibiki there were thoughts going through also, but no one else was around to see what they looked like on his face. The thoughts ran around each other in patterns that not even he could understand sometimes. However currently he had crystal clear understanding of murky thoughts.
The staff had such a powerful affect on Ranma, even though he'd smacked the same way he had before. When he'd challenged a few men they didn't seem as bothered by it either, so he was offended at the fact that Ranma would pretend to be hurt just to get out of battle. He wasn't complemented, because he knew Ranma wasn't one to admit he was weaker than someone, and certainly wasn't going to wiggle out of a fight he couldn't win. Ryouga didn't quite understand his reasoning on that…
He noticed a figure up ahead. "Sir!" He said eagerly, waving his map. "Sir, would you direct me to Furinkan High?"
"I don't know where you're talking about!" Said the man in a low tone that made Ryouga flinch. "This is Germany! Speak our language!" However, Ryouga didn't know how to speak German, so he simply felt yelled at, and scuttled away, still lost.
…
Shampoo was not at all happy. She'd been scanning the streets all night, and now she was cold, wet, and up until recently a cat. She glared at the wall of the room, a towel wrapping her neck.
"Is all Mousses fault!" She said bitterly to the empty room. If the room could, it would have agreed with her. "And think he try use staff on Shampoo! What would tragic girl done then?" She asked the room. The room didn't even bother trying to respond. An idea came to place in her head.
"Shampoo bind Ranma…" She said, her eyes wide. "Then Ranma be Shampoo's, no argue…" She grinned wickedly. "Now all shampoo need do is get stick from Ryouga." She said gleefully, snatching her bicycle and rushing out. Shampoo didn't know where Ryouga was, but she had a good idea how to find him. She headed for his house. How she figured out where that was is beyond us…
…
"Hello, ma'am, would you tell me how to get to Furinkan High?" Ryouga asked of the rather elderly lady. The woman looked puzzled.
"I don't speak Chinese." She said. However neither of the two understood each other. Ryouga sighed.
"Now how do I find it?" He asked, leaving. He saw a rather tall structure. "Hmm, that looks familiar, perhaps I'm getting close!" He said.
Once he'd gone away, two of the locals smiled up at the building. "Wow, the Eiffel Tower is truly lovely tonight." One of them said, in the home language.
…
Ranma's fever hadn't reduced. He must've been out there a long time. Akane sighed. No one else was home right now. She didn't know what to think of herself at the moment. Ranma had a high fever, and it wasn't going to go down any time soon, as far as she could tell. She felt guilty for causing it, because on top of that, Ranma had taken to throwing up. It had been two days now, and Ranma was doing horribly. She didn't want to catch whatever he had, because if it affected him that much, think how bad it would be on anyone else!
She sighed again, and wondered when Soun and Kasumi would be home from shopping.
"Augh, don't look so glum!" Came a voice. It was unmistakable that the voice belonged to Ranma, in female form. "It looks wrong on a Macho Chick like you." Said Ranma. Akane boiled with anger. She pulled her mallet out of nowhere, and whiled around, ready to hit Ranma—
--Then she stopped. She'd forgotten for a moment that he was ill, but it came back when she looked at him, or her. Her rage simmered down, and she bit what was left of it back. Ranma was slumped against the doorway, and looked just generally unhealthy.
"Ranma, be aware that I will not give you any slack once you're well. You're getting off easy this time, but I'm going to keep a list if you're not careful." She said. Ranma snorted. She wasn't that ill… she felt fine, except the fact that she was throwing up all the time… She couldn't help herself, and stormed off. Akane made her so mad sometimes…
Being sick was making her temperamental. This really sucked. Ranma hadn't been sick since he was three, and then only for a day. Occasionally he (and sometimes she) caught a mild cold, but it wasn't that common of a thing, happening every two years at most. All the hard exercise, training, and dieting (not much of that, though) had kept his (and, as I said before, her) immune system rather strong, so that getting sick was rare, and easier to cope with than the injuries from his most minor fights with Ryouga. Again, as her thoughts turned toward Ryouga the same anger welled up in the pit of her stomach.
Ryouga, that bastard! There was something, some spell in the staff, of course. And he had figured out how to use it. I thought Ryouga had honor. What a dirty way to win a fight. Another thought, this one a little more melancholy, entered unbidden into her mind. I thought Ryouga was an honorable rival. A man I might even call a friend… but she banished the unwanted thought to the back of her mind. He obviously was not, for no true friend would never willingly use a staff like that on a friend. Would never in his right mind inflict a disease just to defeat an enemy in what she had thought to be a friendly series of fights and challenges, tests of strength and reasons to always stay on guard, to constantly strive to better oneself. She had thought that all the hate went out of it years ago, but not so…
…
Someone was lost. I would give you one guess, but you would probably guess wrong. Anyway, there is no one here to guess, just me. So I guess I will just tell you… It wasn't Ryouga for once, it was Shampoo. But you will be relieved, in the depths of your fangirl minds, to know that it was at least Ryouga's fault…
Shampoo turned the map upside down, wondering vaguely why the dot marked 'YOU ARE HERE' was at least fifty miles away from where she had started. She also wondered if Okinawa was really somewhere in Mexico, and if Mexico was really in Japan… But she wasn't exactly sure of Japanese Geography, so she just accepted Ryouga's map at face value, though the fact that it had mount Fuji somewhere in the vicinity of Hidaka seemed a bit off… She had finally, due more to asking directions than to the map, found her way to Ryouga's city, and was currently wondering why Ryouga lived in a mall. She was sure she had used the address on the map exactly.
She left the mall after checking all of the kitchens and bathrooms in the do-it-yourself house building section and stopped a traveler on the street. "Nihao, Sir Man?" She asked, as politely as she could. The man turned around and looked at her, slight annoyance on his face. His look quickly switched to a gracious smile when he saw her (and her chest area.)
"How may I help you, Ma'am?" He replied, beaming a little more than was necessary. Shampoo didn't seem to notice. She got this reaction from a lot of men, and so assumed it was normal.
"You know of Hibiki house, this city, please?" she said, throwing the please in as an afterthought at the end. She really was trying to be polite… the man smiled again at her accent.
"Yeah, I know of that place. The owners are hardly ever home, though." He said, making a small understatement.
"Much thank you, Sir Man!" she smiled back. "You tell Shampoo where go, is okay?" His smile never faltering, he replied.
"I'll take you there myself!" Shampoo didn't like his smile that much, but she still didn't want him to get hurt when she fought Ryouga for the staff. "No thank, Sir Man. Tell which way fine!" She said, offering him paper and pen. He sighed and wrote down some simple directions, abandoning any hope of inviting the clueless girl out for coffee. "Here you go." He said, handing her the sheet. His coffee break only had about ten minutes left, and he still wanted to grab a snack real quick…
…
The air shimmered with heat, mirage filling the dips in the road as if they were pools of water in the desert. It's strange, thought Ryouga Hibiki, that this strange phenomenon of reflected air just happens to show us exactly what we want to see. He was tired, on his last legs, and who knows how far from civilization. The farther he walked down the road, the farther he got from the last town he had visited. But it was hours down the road now, and he knew he wouldn't make it if he turned back. No he thought. What I really want to see isn't water, it's a town… what he didn't know was that he was in one…
As you may have guessed, someone else was lost too. That someone, predictably, was Ryouga. It was more like he was still lost than he had gotten lost. Ryouga had gotten lost when he was born, very nearly coming out the wrong way, and simply had yet to have gotten found. Though sometimes Ranma could be annoyed or tricked into leading him places…
But anyway, you don't need to worry about Ryouga. He'll survive, I'm pretty sure. Because what he's seeing isn't Mirage after all, it's a swimming pool, and the swimming pool is in the backyard of a house, and the house is in a rainforest, And Ryouga is on the roof. Desert indeed. Unfortunately he has still not found his home country…
…
Ranma spluttered indignantly and got up, glaring daggers at the young man standing before her. The young man was Mousse, and he was throwing daggers at Ranma. Which would have made them even, if Ranma had been glaring real daggers. Or if looks could kill. Actually, if looks could kill Ranma would have an advantage; because her glare was the killing type. She dusted her black tank top and baggy pants off, catching the daggers in one swift movement with her left hand. Normally, even Ranma would have had to dodge a few, but it seemed that today, despite being sick, she was still rather quick. "Aha!" said Mousse, as if her unusually quick reaction confirmed something. It must have, because he tossed a cardboard box into her hand and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Ranma picked up the box delicately, wondering when it would explode and how far she needed to chuck it for safety. She glanced down and looked at it when she realized that it wasn't going to explode. She stared in shock for a few more moments. It wasn't possible. It was a joke. It would explode, Mousse would come back and laugh… but the more seconds that passed without any of those things happening, the more she began to think that maybe, just maybe, he had given it to her for the reason it was intended. But then she snapped back to reality. It really wasn't possible. They say a woman knows these things, but then again Ranma wasn't a woman…
End Chapter Three
Next comes the major plot chunk, so you just sit tight, it'll be cool, I promiss!