Disclaimer: Nothing here really belongs to me, I'm just borrowing the characters to tell a story right quick. If someone wants to borrow from me, for whatever reason, feel free. I can hardly complain, since I'm borrowing from Ranma, Sailor Moon, and likely other anime and fanfiction for that matter :)
Authors Notes: Here's chapter three. I've settled on a style of writing for now. Thank you all for giving me so much advice. :) If you have more, feel free to share it with me! As always, I have nothing like a pre-reader, just me, myself, and a spell checker. I will appreciate any commentary, useful, or flame-like :) Useful commentary will be put to use as soon as I take it in :)
Life Without a Home
With a tired groan, Ranma stretched out his arms and legs as best he could inside the tent he was currently laying in. He had found a two story building to camp on that seemed to be mostly abandoned. With a bit of jury rigging, his tent had been placed up against the side of a retaining wall around the buildings edge. With a bedroll and a single change of clothes in it, the tent was more than enough to hold him.
The rest of his supplies were left in the grip of the hidden weapons technique he maintained. That way, he never had to worry about losing much if he was forced to run or an attack landed nearby. The bedroll got tucked away into the technique, every time he got up in the morning as well.
A wide yawn greeted the morning air as Ranma began to stir.
Ugh.. Still not used to waking up without someone trying to either splash me or kill me. Oh well, it's only been three days of the new routine. Guess it'll take a little longer to feel normal.
He picked up the bedroll and quickly rolled it up and stored it away. Pulling on the clothes he had set out, he left the tent to begin his morning training routine.
Looking around, he spent a moment to study his surroundings. There wasn't much to see really, just a bunch of warehouses in this area. Most of them were either run down or rarely used as far as he could tell. Still, it served him well enough. He had access to enough training area for his needs, relative privacy, and no neighbors to wonder at his presence on the roof.
No one had bothered him in his new location, not yet anyway. He had little faith in things staying that way though. He figured that his old problems, along with his usual luck in gathering new trouble, would crop up sooner or later. Peace had never been a big part of his life.
No point in worryin about stuff that hasn't happened yet. Time to get to work.
That said, he launched himself into his warm up routine. A set of simple kata done at normal speeds were completed without fanfare before he began to get serious. Moving into the styles and techniques he had been steadily adding to his base style, he started bringing his chi to bear on his efforts.
A faint outline of white-blue light surrounded his body as he moved into Chestnut Fist levels of speed in brief bursts of effort. Arms, as well as legs, flashed out of sight as a staccato cracking sound erupted at each burst of speed. He had been trying to get his whole body to perform the speed technique, but had not been able to control the results. For now, he was pleased to be able to add these high speed kicks to his list of abilities.
He went through every trick he knew that wouldn't damage the building itself. He kept the chi usage down as low as he could manage, and still get some training benefits from it. Two hours worth of pushing himself later, he finished up his cool down routine.
Time for food.. Better head out a ways this time. I'd hate to wipe all the food out in any one spot.
Putting thought into action, he started heading in the direction of a local park he had made note of as he entered this new ward. His food wasn't exactly the best choice in the world, but it did fill his belly. Various birds had become his meal of choice. Toss in a few herbs and a rare scrawny vegetable, and you had his menu. The birds were easy to catch and kill for someone like him, even without any sort of ranged weapon. A handful of stones, thrown at rather absurd speeds, did as well as any armed hunter could manage. The rest was just a matter of scrounging and luck really.
I've gotta find some kind of job soon... This sort of thing is getting a little old. I want some real food one of these days, and a roof over my head would help too... Oh well, there's still a whole day left to ask around again.
His luck with jobs and an address of his own had been miserable so far. No one wanted a boy his age without family, a home of some kind, or any references working for them. Never mind that he had no experience in dealing with business people, or normal people of any kind really. He was starting to understand just how much he hadn't learned about the rest of the world while he was off with Genma. He had begun to wonder if he would ever be able to work and live like a normal person would.
He shook his head to clear his mind of distractions.
"No point wasting time going in circles about that now. Back to hunting." he muttered irritably.
The park came into view quickly as he bounded along the roof tops. Dropping into the park itself, he began searching for today's meal. He quickly chose a clump of trees to start in and silently padded towards them. About halfway there, all the birds in the park shot off into the sky in a frightened mass.
Ranma stared at them in confusion
What the heck? I know I didn't set them all off!.
A moment later his senses suddenly spiked with a feeling of threat coming from nearby. He whipped around to face the general direction of the sensation. At that same moment, the sound of a fairly large number of people screaming from further in the park began to reach his ears.
Shit... That feels a lot like one of Happi's old demons.. Not exactly right though. Better take a look. It can't be a good thing, whatever it is.
Ranma took off at high speed toward the screaming and whatever it was giving off the greasy feeling of wrongness. A handful of seconds later, he got a view of the commotion from a perch on a tree branch above the area the screaming was coming from.
What kind of nut case summoned this thing? It's even weirder than most of Happosai's usual efforts!
To all appearances, a demonic, mutated tree was currently flailing around in the clearing just in front of him. Dozens of people were running and screaming in all directions, trying to get away from the creature. Several had actually been picked up by a few of the trees arm like branches and were hanging either limp, or only feebly moving in its grasp. To his senses, it looked a bit like it was using a very weak imitation of Ms. Hinakos aura draining technique.
Crap, I thought I'd left this stuff back in Nerima. Oh well, better nail this thing before those people lose enough of their aura's to really hurt em..
With that, he tossed himself off the tree he was in and into the whipping arms of the creature. He called out as he jumped towards it, "Time to say goodbye ugly, I don't play around with your kind."
A blur of motion ensued within the branches of the demonic creature. A series of loud cracks and brief tearing sounds were followed by bellows of pain from the creature. Shortly after he disappeared from view, he reappeared a short distance away. Suddenly, nearly every limb fell off and dropped to the ground. The people it had been holding dropped to the ground as well.
"Geez... you must have been the runt of the litter. None of the demons the old letch sicked on me were as weak as you are. Oh well, still gotta take care of ya. You are a threat to normal folks anyway.."
With that, he simply tossed a middle strength chi blast at the focal point of the demons aura. With a brief howl, the thing simply fell apart into drifting ash.
Huh... I wasn't expecting it to do that... oh well, at least its gone.
He shrugged and headed toward the people on the ground next to where the demon had been.
He could already see that they were stirring as they lay there in the grass, their aura's seeming to recover once they were released. After looking them over quickly, he decided that he'd leave the rest to the paramedics and such.
Time to go, before I get noticed.. I don't want to explain much to the police till I'm old enough to be on my own...
He made a few quick gestures and simply faded from view and headed elsewhere to find a meal.
Back in Nerima, things had not been going well. Ranma's abrupt departure had torn a massive hole in the balance of things in the ward. The Tendo's had been stunned for most of a day following Ranma's explosion of temper.
Akane had disappeared up into her room and refused to talk with anyone. She was completely surprised by Ranma's extreme reaction. She had no way of dealing with it, as she really had never seen him react this way. She had never realized that Ranma was feeling enough stress from recent events to do more than grumble, as he had in the past. He hadn't shown any signs that she had seen up until today...
"Damn that idiot.. now what do I do.." she mumbled as she stared out her window.
"He's really messed things up now. Now no one can marry that idiot! That stupid, crazy...", her voice cracked a bit as she fought not to cry.
"Crying won't make anything better... why cry over him anyway!" she threw herself down on her bed and stared into the sky through her window.
"I wonder what he'll do now... Damn it Ranma... why didn't you just say something instead of wrecking everything!" With this final shout, she finally gave in, and cried softly into her pillow.
Soun had begun to wail about the schools never being joined. In response, Genma attempted to comfort him, saying that he would simply have to find the boy, and make him return to marry Akane! The fact that Ranma was no longer his son didn't seem to have penetrated Genma's thick skull yet.
Nabiki had reacted to the events of the day with an air of disbelief at first. She quickly hid her shock behind her cool business face though. She privately wondered how long the boy would last without help. The gods only knew how little dear Uncle Genma had taught him, outside of martial arts. She told everyone who remained at the table that she was going out for a bit, then left the home. She knew exactly what she needed to do. As usual, she had quickly come to terms with the new information and chosen a reaction to suit it. There was no way she was going to let him just disappear without so much as an attempt to find him. She had a few things she had left to do that involved the former Saotome.
Kasumi remained stuck between horror at the events, and sorrow at the loss of someone she had come to view as a wonderful little brother. Unlike most of the others, she had not been unaware of the strain that Ranma had been under. She didn't involve herself in his life all that often, but her presence in the background was never noticed. She had noticed the rarely seen honest expressions of anger and depression he let slip from time to time. She had also spent a few nights, once in a while, listening to him when he simply had to talk to someone. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen a way to help Ranma truly resolve the things that burdened him. So long as that disgusting panda was still his father, the problems would likely never go away. Sadly, she hadn't realized that Ranma would come to the same conclusion.. and act on it. The house was going to be a broken, unhappy place without his bright spark of life in it. She would do what she had to for her family, but the smile she usually wore was lacking for quite some time.
Ukyo had simply gone back to her shop, put up the closed sign, and placed a single call to her father. She flatly informed her father that Ranma Saotome no longer existed, and that she would be away training for a while. Without waiting for a reply she hung up, sat herself down in a booth in her restaurant, then allowed herself to cry. Life would go on, but it just wouldn't be the same. No matter what she chose to do now, Ranma was no longer someone she could hope to spend her life with.
Events at the Nekohanten were decidedly odd. Elder Cologne had returned to the restaurant after having spoken with Ranma. Once she had entered the building itself, she allowed a pleased smile to show on her face. Truly, things had gone much better than she had expected. The boy had accepted her offer without more than a token protest. This then, would be her new approach. No more clumsy attempts at seduction, magical coercion, or use of force to make him a part of the tribe. It was past time to take matters into her own hands.
"Shampoo! Come here child. I need to speak with you.", she called into the back of the building.
"Yes Great Grandmother! I'm coming", Shampoo called back.
Shampoo entered the dining area, and spotted her Great Grandmother sitting at one of the tables. She quickly came over and asked, "What you needing, Great Grandmother?"
"Sit down child, I have very important news for you that concerns Ranma. You may not like hearing some of what I have to say, but you will abide by my instructions. Is this understood?" she stared firmly at Shampoo as she waited for a reply.
Shampoo looked both excited and taken aback by the Elder's words, but nodded her acceptance quickly. She was extremely curious now, since she had never seen her Great Grandmother so serious about anything.
Cologne cleared her throat then said, "Shampoo, I must now take the matter of Ranma's membership in our tribe into my own hands. He is now released from all Kisses of Marriage, or Death." Shampoo's eyes widened and she almost began shouting, though she held back when she saw the elder's cane rise up a bit in warning.
"We will now be pursuing Ranma in the fashion we should have been using from the first day. I only allowed you to chase him as you saw fit, so that you could learn from your mistakes. The boy has become too valuable though, and your methods have not improved at all child. Ranma will never come to us using the methods you have chosen.", she eyed her stunned heir carefully at this point.
"From now on, you will treat him strictly as a friend and equal. He will be left alone for a time, then approached gently. The council has decided that he is too valuable to be lost, and has declared him an ally of the tribe.", She watched as Shampoo began to slowly show signs of despair, then she continued.
"All is not lost for you however. You may still find yourself married to the boy in the end. If you do things my way this time, you might get better results than you have had so far.", she smiled at the dawning look of hope on her great granddaughter's face.
"You will see Shampoo. All will be well in time. Patience is all we need now.", she smiled broadly at her great grandchild and then settled back to enjoy some tea... and wait.