Loats Soul - Part Two
By Seed
A new day, a new deal. The last day was already past, gone and never returning time. There was a comforting fact when you thought about time. It never stopped. It just went on and on. What mistakes you might have made, what pain you might have gone through, which chance you might have missed, time didn't care. There would always be a new sunrise, always be a new day. Day following night and followed by night again. Time didn't remember, only humans did.
Time was flowing, never stopping, never "being". Just a constant transformation from future into past. The "now" was just a brief intermission, as short and flutile as an eye-lash. You thought of it, it was already gone and had become past. Future was time's eternal promise of a fresh start. Neither determined nor conditioned. Time gave you always a new chance. It gave you a blank piece of paper every day. Time didn't remember, only humans did.
So what would this new day bring the boy, who held on to his past so tight, who rememberd so much and couldn't let go as easily as most pepole. Would there be a new chance for him too? Only time could tell.
The rain had finally stopped. The first beams of early morning sunlight chasing away the darkness of the previous night. The horizon was colored in different shades of red and purple. The air felt fresh and everything from the dew on the grass to the chirping of the birds in the nearby trees semmed to be filled with new life. It was like nature had taken a little break, a deep breath and was now going back to business with renewed power.
Even the muddy ground of the construction site for the new shopping mall seemed to have a touch of freshness to it, as the sun touched the scenery in a bright golden wave of light and warmth. But despite the bright light and buzzling activity already noticible in the surrounding streets, one person was still sound asleep. Even when the workers of the early shift started to make the unique sound of sledgehammers meeting steel, it couldn´t shake awake the martial artist lying in the concrete tube right in front of them.
The sun stood already high above when finally a figure wearing black pants, a yellow chinese style tuniqe and a yellow and black bandanna could be watched, slowly creeping into the outside. Ryoga hadn't fallen asleep until the early hours of the morning. It was the pure exhaustion, physical and mental which had finally brought him some sleep. After leaving his shelter for the night he blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the bright light.
*Woah, must have gone out like a light this morning. Where the hell are all these peole coming from. And why are they all wearing yellow helmets. Hey is this guy shouting at me, what does he want?* Ryoga's mind was still in early morning half-shut-down mode, he was completely unaware of his surroundings and how he had gotten here in the first place. He also diddn´t notice the huge steel bar hanging above him like the sword of Damokles until it was too late. The second of the two steel wires, which had held the bar in place, snapped and the result was a short fall, and a sound not unlike a baseballbat bashing on a melon.
After he had found his consiousness again, Ryoga saw a group of nearly thirty construction workers in blue overalls standing around him gazing at him and a huge steel bar lying at his side. "Did you see that?!" "Yeah unbelivable."
"I thougt the kid was dead for sure." "No normal human being can survive something like that." "I bet he's gonna sue the company, heh-heh serves them money-bags right." Finally Ryoga took a look himself to know what everyone seemed so excited about. Then he saw it. A dent in the red steel bar shaped exactly like the upper half of his head, just until short above the eyes. *Oops, that was what the guy wanted to tell me, funny I havn't even got a headache, must be the surprise effect, or the shock hm...*
Ryoga decided that he had caused enough of a spectacle already and quickly stood up. He also couldn't shake off the feeling that he had forgotten something really important, something about last night, or was it the day before. *Man I'm so dragged, guess I need breakfast first to get going again* He slowly headed for the exit of the construction site, the workers in front of him parting to his left and right side, like soldiers standing guard of honour for their commanding officer. He didn't know who started the clapping. All he knew was that he left under the thunderous applause of the early morning shift of the Tanaka Construction Company, Tokyo INC.
"Where on earth am I now?!?" Ryoga, the travelling martial artist, finally roared deciding to let out his confusion in the best way he knew. He had gone for three hours straight, trying to find a place where he could buy supplies, but so far he had only found: A police station, a hospital, a pet store, who sold cute little piglets, a cinema, the police station again, a butcher,-Ryoga shuddered at the sound of the knive cutting into pork- two highschools, none of them Furikan and finally he was back at the police station where he had started.
"I hate my life", he screamed, startling a few bypassers, who had just bought some groceries from the supermarket at the corner. Unfortunately Ryoga didn't notice this important fact in his current state of mind. *That is not my day*, he mused. He looked down the street, in a desperate attempt to locate his position. His eyes fell on a newspaper, someone had tossed in a wastebasket, the current date was visible on the front page, November 23. Memory hit him like one of Ranmas punches, or more like a hundred of them. He remembered the day before, the calendar in the shop window, how he had completeley freaked out and finally collapsed at the damn construction site, consumed by depression.
*Oh shit, I-I totally forgot about it, must be the exhaustion, damn, I already lost almost a whole day. That means I have only six left. There is no way on earth that I can make it in time.* Shock and despair were once again painted on the Lost Boys face, but somehow he managed to keep his turmoiling emotions in check this time. He found an empty lot in a nearby street and sat down to think about the situation.
He calmed himself, not letting depression or anger taking over and guiding his actions for once. He didn't use his meditation techniques very often. He just wasn't the patient type, but today he needed a clear mind to came to a solution for this problem. He blocked out the red haze of anger and fury as well as the black clouds of depression until he had found the somewhat white shining place of inner calmness and rest. Then he started thinking over his situation.
*Let´s face it Ryoga, you need help*, the reasonable and somehow underused part of his mind argued. *But who will help me*, his more fatalistic and depressing side contered, still not completely put aside. *It's not that I have any friends to help me out and I cant't think of anyone who I could tell about this*. *Well*, reason wasn't about to give up this easily, *you've got Akane, you know she likes you a lot she called you a good friend a bunch of times*. *No way in hell I'm gonna trouble Akane with my problems and I would die of embarassment anyhow, not managing a single word to say to her*.
Finally Ryoga decided that he had enough of the pro and contra battle going on inside his head. He had crumbled a few medium sized rocks while thinking, a clear sign that he was nervous. *Well, if I can't ask Akane, who else I know. Hm, let's see*. Flashes of his travels and wanderings came to his mind.
Over the years of his wandering around Japan and the rest of the world, Ryoga had made a few acquaintances, a lot of peole owned him a favour for saving them from an attack of a vicious beast, or a gang of thugs terrorizing their small village, or the one time where he had saved a whole town by extinguishing a huge fire by shi-shi-hokoudaning it.
He didn't think of these actions as anything special, just what everyone would do to help others, and besides, it was a martial artists duty to protect the weak. He had never wanted any kind of reward for his heroic actions, but all around the world you could read newspaper articles, where people described their saviour as a boy wearing black and yellow with a bandanna and a huge umbrella.
In Italy, every Sunday some old women would go to church and pray for the boy who saved their houses from a landslide by shattering the ground with just his finger and creating a gap where the mud and rocks could be stopped without causing any harm. But despite so many peole all around the globe felt grateful for the boy, from they didn't even know the name of, he had stayed nowhere long enough to make real friends.
*I don't know any place wher I could possibly...,or perhaps one place. Nerima. Of course Nerima.* After he had dismissed the idea of asking Akane he hadn't thought of Nerima as a possibility, but finally he realized that of all the places he had visited and all the people he had met, he had spent in Nerima more time than in any other place he had ever come to and the peole he knew there, where by far the closest thing to friends he could think of. Akane wasn't the only person he had come closer to, during the past year.
*Hm, yeah but if not Akane who else*. The faces of the Nerima Gang came flashing through before his inner eye. First of all Ranma, of course. The arrogant, food-thieving, cocky grin wearing, smug, all-time rival. Always teasing and making fun of him, calling him "pork-boy" and "piggy" and... ohh the nerve of him. *Ranma the nemesis of my life. Sure he has been okay a couple of times, usually when I had something he wanted, like a new chance for a cure. But on the other hand, I'm not exactly a saint either when it comes to him. No, he deserves it. He has made my life hell. He knocked me into the spring, and HE DID STEAL MY BREAD!*
Ryoga continued his contemplation of his enemy/rival/friend, after letting loose a small shi-shi-hokoudan to let off some steam, and thereby creating a medium sized crater in front of him. The topic of Ranma stealing from him and causing his curse where always sensible matters to him. *But I have to admit, Ranma has helped me out before, if you can call that jerks actions during the fiasko with the Sign of God, or the de-aging mushrooms really help*.
Ryoga was usually not very sure what to make of Ranma when they were not fighting or arguing or insulting each other. Sure those occasions were rare enough but still. On some occasions Ranma had almost acted like a friend, like he had been concerned about Ryoga. The Lost Boy, also had a grudging respect for Ranmas abilities as a martial artist, even if he would deny it when asked about it.
And deep deep down, in the deepest bottom of his soul actually, Ryoga knew that Ranma was probably the best friend he had in this world. But he would rather rip out his own tounge and dance naked through Furinkan High before ever admitting this, his best kept secret in life. *The day, I ask Ranma for help is the day pigs learn to fly*, totally missing the irony of his comparation, he went on.
*Hm, the only other person I could think of would be Ukyo, I mean she has helped me before, and she always shows me the way to the Tendo Dojo when I'm lost, and she even makes me sometimes free Okonomiaky, and she's kinda cute*.
Ryoga blushed with a deep shade of red, remembering Ukyo's sweet smile and her joyful spirit, so contrary to his usual dark or angry mood. Her habit of naming anyone "sugar", even Ryoga who was as much "sugar" as the vinegar in Akanes cookies. He also admired here sharp mind and cleverness. Something he open admitted to lack himself. She always would come up with a new plan to break up Ranma and Akane and usually he would play the part of co-conspirator in her little schemes. Even if no plan had worked out so far, Ryoga admired Ukyos sense of persistence, something they both had in common.
*She is always so positive about everything, nothing can bring her down, I sometimes wonder how she manages to do this. And why is it always me she asks to be part of her plans, I mean she could find someone who isn't that shy around girls, or who can find his way to the bathroom without ending up in Paris for that matter.
Ryoga had only one explanation for this. *She must like me somehow, I mean sure I'm no Ranma, bust she seems to think of me as a friend. Even when she calls me jackass all the time and beats me repeatedley over the head with that damn spatula.* He couldn't help but smile, remembering the fury temper of the spatula swinging chef. He really liked Ukyo, even if his heart belonged to Akane. He could always talk to Ukyo without getting nervous or stuttering and she had a somewhat dark sense of humor, which Ryoga found really attracting and unusual for a girl her age. *Well not that I have that much experience with girls her age anyway, but compared to the other girls in Furinkan I've seen, she seems to be so mature and independent, kinda like me I guess. We both hadn't real normal childhoods. We had to grow up faster then most others and make it on our own.*
Ryoga thought of the other residents of Nerima he was familiar with, but nobody was as close to a friend as Ranma and Ukyo. Sure he liked Mousse, he was a good fighter and also somehow a friend, and they had even teamed-up once. Sometimes he came to the Cat Café to visit him and have a talk.
Before he could talk to Ranma there was usually a lot of fighting involved, and sometimes he didn't want to punch or kick but just sit down and talk about his problems with an other guy who would understand. Mousse was a pal and when he wasn't talking to a plant or a wall he wasn't the love-blind idiot he was, when around Shampoo. Mousse had a similar situation with her, Ryoga had with Akane, if not to the extremes Mousse went. *Heck I didn't even had the guts so far to tell Akane how I feel*. But still somehow they could relate to the others position. And of course they shared their rivlary with Ranma.
But on the other hand Mousses mind was usually so occupied with Shampoo that he didn't even notice someone was there, talking to him. And sometimes he was such a stupid moron that Ryoga couldn't stop himself from punching him to knock some sense into the chinese weapons master, and well yeah, also for the shere fun of it. Mousse was good, no sweat, but he was nowhere as good as Ranma or Ryoga when it came to close hand-to-hand combat. Once Mousse ran out of weapons or came in too close range, the simple advantages of superior strength and endurance decided a match between "Pig-Boy and Duck-Boy" in favour of Ryoga.
Another problem with Mousse was the fact that he usually was around the Old Ghoul and Shampoo who really gave Ryoga the creeps when remembering, that they had almost cooked him. Sure Shampoo had saved him that day and Cologne had trained him. But the two amazons weren't exactly on his list of trustworthy persons.
*Who else, I know..., well the other Tendo girls. Hm, Kasumi is sweet and always treates me very nice but there is nothing beyond that, Nabiki is just a selfish, money-grabbing, manipulating, witch. Well and that was it, I can't think of anyone else. Hm quiet a short list you could say. My best friends are the boy I swore bloody revenge on seven years ago, his second of countless fiancées with a habit of pounding everything into the ground with here titanium cooking utensil, and then a boy who has the eyesight of a blind mole in a sewer. Pathetic.*
Finally Ryoga came to a decision. He stood up, facing the sunlight and roared to the world: "All right. I'll do it. I'll find help and make it through this." After he had thought about it Ryoga had realized that he wasn't so alone after all in this world. His depression was finally gone and had made place for a defiant kind of determination. Just like the sun had replaced the previous night's strom.
His "friends" might not be the most friendly ones or in case of Ranma and Mousse peolpe he liked to beat up on a regular basis, and peolpe who made fun of him, but they were all he had. They might not be friends in the traditional sense of the word, but he knew he could count on them where it mattered. And Ryoga Hibiki might have his pride but he wasn't stupid. He knew that he needed help and of all the places and the people in the world, he would only find it in Nerima, with some strange martial artist.
To be continued...
By Seed
A new day, a new deal. The last day was already past, gone and never returning time. There was a comforting fact when you thought about time. It never stopped. It just went on and on. What mistakes you might have made, what pain you might have gone through, which chance you might have missed, time didn't care. There would always be a new sunrise, always be a new day. Day following night and followed by night again. Time didn't remember, only humans did.
Time was flowing, never stopping, never "being". Just a constant transformation from future into past. The "now" was just a brief intermission, as short and flutile as an eye-lash. You thought of it, it was already gone and had become past. Future was time's eternal promise of a fresh start. Neither determined nor conditioned. Time gave you always a new chance. It gave you a blank piece of paper every day. Time didn't remember, only humans did.
So what would this new day bring the boy, who held on to his past so tight, who rememberd so much and couldn't let go as easily as most pepole. Would there be a new chance for him too? Only time could tell.
The rain had finally stopped. The first beams of early morning sunlight chasing away the darkness of the previous night. The horizon was colored in different shades of red and purple. The air felt fresh and everything from the dew on the grass to the chirping of the birds in the nearby trees semmed to be filled with new life. It was like nature had taken a little break, a deep breath and was now going back to business with renewed power.
Even the muddy ground of the construction site for the new shopping mall seemed to have a touch of freshness to it, as the sun touched the scenery in a bright golden wave of light and warmth. But despite the bright light and buzzling activity already noticible in the surrounding streets, one person was still sound asleep. Even when the workers of the early shift started to make the unique sound of sledgehammers meeting steel, it couldn´t shake awake the martial artist lying in the concrete tube right in front of them.
The sun stood already high above when finally a figure wearing black pants, a yellow chinese style tuniqe and a yellow and black bandanna could be watched, slowly creeping into the outside. Ryoga hadn't fallen asleep until the early hours of the morning. It was the pure exhaustion, physical and mental which had finally brought him some sleep. After leaving his shelter for the night he blinked a few times to adjust his eyes to the bright light.
*Woah, must have gone out like a light this morning. Where the hell are all these peole coming from. And why are they all wearing yellow helmets. Hey is this guy shouting at me, what does he want?* Ryoga's mind was still in early morning half-shut-down mode, he was completely unaware of his surroundings and how he had gotten here in the first place. He also diddn´t notice the huge steel bar hanging above him like the sword of Damokles until it was too late. The second of the two steel wires, which had held the bar in place, snapped and the result was a short fall, and a sound not unlike a baseballbat bashing on a melon.
After he had found his consiousness again, Ryoga saw a group of nearly thirty construction workers in blue overalls standing around him gazing at him and a huge steel bar lying at his side. "Did you see that?!" "Yeah unbelivable."
"I thougt the kid was dead for sure." "No normal human being can survive something like that." "I bet he's gonna sue the company, heh-heh serves them money-bags right." Finally Ryoga took a look himself to know what everyone seemed so excited about. Then he saw it. A dent in the red steel bar shaped exactly like the upper half of his head, just until short above the eyes. *Oops, that was what the guy wanted to tell me, funny I havn't even got a headache, must be the surprise effect, or the shock hm...*
Ryoga decided that he had caused enough of a spectacle already and quickly stood up. He also couldn't shake off the feeling that he had forgotten something really important, something about last night, or was it the day before. *Man I'm so dragged, guess I need breakfast first to get going again* He slowly headed for the exit of the construction site, the workers in front of him parting to his left and right side, like soldiers standing guard of honour for their commanding officer. He didn't know who started the clapping. All he knew was that he left under the thunderous applause of the early morning shift of the Tanaka Construction Company, Tokyo INC.
"Where on earth am I now?!?" Ryoga, the travelling martial artist, finally roared deciding to let out his confusion in the best way he knew. He had gone for three hours straight, trying to find a place where he could buy supplies, but so far he had only found: A police station, a hospital, a pet store, who sold cute little piglets, a cinema, the police station again, a butcher,-Ryoga shuddered at the sound of the knive cutting into pork- two highschools, none of them Furikan and finally he was back at the police station where he had started.
"I hate my life", he screamed, startling a few bypassers, who had just bought some groceries from the supermarket at the corner. Unfortunately Ryoga didn't notice this important fact in his current state of mind. *That is not my day*, he mused. He looked down the street, in a desperate attempt to locate his position. His eyes fell on a newspaper, someone had tossed in a wastebasket, the current date was visible on the front page, November 23. Memory hit him like one of Ranmas punches, or more like a hundred of them. He remembered the day before, the calendar in the shop window, how he had completeley freaked out and finally collapsed at the damn construction site, consumed by depression.
*Oh shit, I-I totally forgot about it, must be the exhaustion, damn, I already lost almost a whole day. That means I have only six left. There is no way on earth that I can make it in time.* Shock and despair were once again painted on the Lost Boys face, but somehow he managed to keep his turmoiling emotions in check this time. He found an empty lot in a nearby street and sat down to think about the situation.
He calmed himself, not letting depression or anger taking over and guiding his actions for once. He didn't use his meditation techniques very often. He just wasn't the patient type, but today he needed a clear mind to came to a solution for this problem. He blocked out the red haze of anger and fury as well as the black clouds of depression until he had found the somewhat white shining place of inner calmness and rest. Then he started thinking over his situation.
*Let´s face it Ryoga, you need help*, the reasonable and somehow underused part of his mind argued. *But who will help me*, his more fatalistic and depressing side contered, still not completely put aside. *It's not that I have any friends to help me out and I cant't think of anyone who I could tell about this*. *Well*, reason wasn't about to give up this easily, *you've got Akane, you know she likes you a lot she called you a good friend a bunch of times*. *No way in hell I'm gonna trouble Akane with my problems and I would die of embarassment anyhow, not managing a single word to say to her*.
Finally Ryoga decided that he had enough of the pro and contra battle going on inside his head. He had crumbled a few medium sized rocks while thinking, a clear sign that he was nervous. *Well, if I can't ask Akane, who else I know. Hm, let's see*. Flashes of his travels and wanderings came to his mind.
Over the years of his wandering around Japan and the rest of the world, Ryoga had made a few acquaintances, a lot of peole owned him a favour for saving them from an attack of a vicious beast, or a gang of thugs terrorizing their small village, or the one time where he had saved a whole town by extinguishing a huge fire by shi-shi-hokoudaning it.
He didn't think of these actions as anything special, just what everyone would do to help others, and besides, it was a martial artists duty to protect the weak. He had never wanted any kind of reward for his heroic actions, but all around the world you could read newspaper articles, where people described their saviour as a boy wearing black and yellow with a bandanna and a huge umbrella.
In Italy, every Sunday some old women would go to church and pray for the boy who saved their houses from a landslide by shattering the ground with just his finger and creating a gap where the mud and rocks could be stopped without causing any harm. But despite so many peole all around the globe felt grateful for the boy, from they didn't even know the name of, he had stayed nowhere long enough to make real friends.
*I don't know any place wher I could possibly...,or perhaps one place. Nerima. Of course Nerima.* After he had dismissed the idea of asking Akane he hadn't thought of Nerima as a possibility, but finally he realized that of all the places he had visited and all the people he had met, he had spent in Nerima more time than in any other place he had ever come to and the peole he knew there, where by far the closest thing to friends he could think of. Akane wasn't the only person he had come closer to, during the past year.
*Hm, yeah but if not Akane who else*. The faces of the Nerima Gang came flashing through before his inner eye. First of all Ranma, of course. The arrogant, food-thieving, cocky grin wearing, smug, all-time rival. Always teasing and making fun of him, calling him "pork-boy" and "piggy" and... ohh the nerve of him. *Ranma the nemesis of my life. Sure he has been okay a couple of times, usually when I had something he wanted, like a new chance for a cure. But on the other hand, I'm not exactly a saint either when it comes to him. No, he deserves it. He has made my life hell. He knocked me into the spring, and HE DID STEAL MY BREAD!*
Ryoga continued his contemplation of his enemy/rival/friend, after letting loose a small shi-shi-hokoudan to let off some steam, and thereby creating a medium sized crater in front of him. The topic of Ranma stealing from him and causing his curse where always sensible matters to him. *But I have to admit, Ranma has helped me out before, if you can call that jerks actions during the fiasko with the Sign of God, or the de-aging mushrooms really help*.
Ryoga was usually not very sure what to make of Ranma when they were not fighting or arguing or insulting each other. Sure those occasions were rare enough but still. On some occasions Ranma had almost acted like a friend, like he had been concerned about Ryoga. The Lost Boy, also had a grudging respect for Ranmas abilities as a martial artist, even if he would deny it when asked about it.
And deep deep down, in the deepest bottom of his soul actually, Ryoga knew that Ranma was probably the best friend he had in this world. But he would rather rip out his own tounge and dance naked through Furinkan High before ever admitting this, his best kept secret in life. *The day, I ask Ranma for help is the day pigs learn to fly*, totally missing the irony of his comparation, he went on.
*Hm, the only other person I could think of would be Ukyo, I mean she has helped me before, and she always shows me the way to the Tendo Dojo when I'm lost, and she even makes me sometimes free Okonomiaky, and she's kinda cute*.
Ryoga blushed with a deep shade of red, remembering Ukyo's sweet smile and her joyful spirit, so contrary to his usual dark or angry mood. Her habit of naming anyone "sugar", even Ryoga who was as much "sugar" as the vinegar in Akanes cookies. He also admired here sharp mind and cleverness. Something he open admitted to lack himself. She always would come up with a new plan to break up Ranma and Akane and usually he would play the part of co-conspirator in her little schemes. Even if no plan had worked out so far, Ryoga admired Ukyos sense of persistence, something they both had in common.
*She is always so positive about everything, nothing can bring her down, I sometimes wonder how she manages to do this. And why is it always me she asks to be part of her plans, I mean she could find someone who isn't that shy around girls, or who can find his way to the bathroom without ending up in Paris for that matter.
Ryoga had only one explanation for this. *She must like me somehow, I mean sure I'm no Ranma, bust she seems to think of me as a friend. Even when she calls me jackass all the time and beats me repeatedley over the head with that damn spatula.* He couldn't help but smile, remembering the fury temper of the spatula swinging chef. He really liked Ukyo, even if his heart belonged to Akane. He could always talk to Ukyo without getting nervous or stuttering and she had a somewhat dark sense of humor, which Ryoga found really attracting and unusual for a girl her age. *Well not that I have that much experience with girls her age anyway, but compared to the other girls in Furinkan I've seen, she seems to be so mature and independent, kinda like me I guess. We both hadn't real normal childhoods. We had to grow up faster then most others and make it on our own.*
Ryoga thought of the other residents of Nerima he was familiar with, but nobody was as close to a friend as Ranma and Ukyo. Sure he liked Mousse, he was a good fighter and also somehow a friend, and they had even teamed-up once. Sometimes he came to the Cat Café to visit him and have a talk.
Before he could talk to Ranma there was usually a lot of fighting involved, and sometimes he didn't want to punch or kick but just sit down and talk about his problems with an other guy who would understand. Mousse was a pal and when he wasn't talking to a plant or a wall he wasn't the love-blind idiot he was, when around Shampoo. Mousse had a similar situation with her, Ryoga had with Akane, if not to the extremes Mousse went. *Heck I didn't even had the guts so far to tell Akane how I feel*. But still somehow they could relate to the others position. And of course they shared their rivlary with Ranma.
But on the other hand Mousses mind was usually so occupied with Shampoo that he didn't even notice someone was there, talking to him. And sometimes he was such a stupid moron that Ryoga couldn't stop himself from punching him to knock some sense into the chinese weapons master, and well yeah, also for the shere fun of it. Mousse was good, no sweat, but he was nowhere as good as Ranma or Ryoga when it came to close hand-to-hand combat. Once Mousse ran out of weapons or came in too close range, the simple advantages of superior strength and endurance decided a match between "Pig-Boy and Duck-Boy" in favour of Ryoga.
Another problem with Mousse was the fact that he usually was around the Old Ghoul and Shampoo who really gave Ryoga the creeps when remembering, that they had almost cooked him. Sure Shampoo had saved him that day and Cologne had trained him. But the two amazons weren't exactly on his list of trustworthy persons.
*Who else, I know..., well the other Tendo girls. Hm, Kasumi is sweet and always treates me very nice but there is nothing beyond that, Nabiki is just a selfish, money-grabbing, manipulating, witch. Well and that was it, I can't think of anyone else. Hm quiet a short list you could say. My best friends are the boy I swore bloody revenge on seven years ago, his second of countless fiancées with a habit of pounding everything into the ground with here titanium cooking utensil, and then a boy who has the eyesight of a blind mole in a sewer. Pathetic.*
Finally Ryoga came to a decision. He stood up, facing the sunlight and roared to the world: "All right. I'll do it. I'll find help and make it through this." After he had thought about it Ryoga had realized that he wasn't so alone after all in this world. His depression was finally gone and had made place for a defiant kind of determination. Just like the sun had replaced the previous night's strom.
His "friends" might not be the most friendly ones or in case of Ranma and Mousse peolpe he liked to beat up on a regular basis, and peolpe who made fun of him, but they were all he had. They might not be friends in the traditional sense of the word, but he knew he could count on them where it mattered. And Ryoga Hibiki might have his pride but he wasn't stupid. He knew that he needed help and of all the places and the people in the world, he would only find it in Nerima, with some strange martial artist.
To be continued...