Falling to Earth

A Ranma ½ Fanfiction
by
Sinom Bre

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Chapter Two

Nagareboshi
(Falling Star)

Part Two

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Kasumi came downstairs just as the phone rang. Usually, Nabiki was on the device in a flash, but since Kasumi was standing right next to it, she answered it quickly. "Hai. Tendou residence... Oh, hi, Mari-san. You did?" She listened for a moment. "I see. Interesting. And your friend has seen this? No?" Another pause. "I see. No, I don't actually know this person, but I'll keep it in mind. Thank you ever so much, Mari-san... Yes, Tuesday Tea will be fine. See you then." She hung up the phone and walked into the dining room.

Nabiki lounged at the table, watching the television. She turned and peered up at Kasumi. "Was that your friend you called yesterday?" At her sister's nod, Nabiki shook her head. "Your network's faster than mine. Oh, the shame..." She put the back of one hand to her forehead in mock distress.

Kasumi playfully swatted her with a cup towel. "Behave..."

Smirking, Nabiki said, "So what did you find out?"

"Does the name 'Jusenkyou' mean anything to you?"

"Not a thi—"

"Jusenkyou? I've heard that name before." Soun stood in the hallway, holding the day's paper. He'd startled both girls.

"Daddy, stop walking so softly!" Nabiki groused.

Soun grinned. "The path of a martial artist—"

"—is fraught with peril," both daughters finished for him in unison.

"Hmph! So one must walk quietly and carry a large, rolled-up newspaper!" Soun brandished the paper like a club, and then started poking the girls in the sides with it. "Have at thee!!"

Both girls shrieked. "Scary, Daddy! You're starting to sound like Kunou-chan!" Nabiki said.

Soun stopped. "Who?"

"Oh, right. You haven't had the 'pleasure' yet..." Nabiki shook her head. "Off topic. You know the word 'Jusenkyou'?"

"It's a place, or so I've heard." He took a seat at the table, unrolled the paper, and shook it. "It's an old martial arts legend."

Nabiki and Kasumi looked at one another and then back at their father. "Do tell..." Nabiki said.

"Well, yes, but I just know that it's supposed to be horrible in some way. I don't have any details."

Disappointed, Nabiki sipped her tea, but Kasumi said, "I think I can shed a little more light on the legend." Soun put down his paper, and Nabiki followed suit with her tea. "It seems to be a training ground for aerial combat. My friend Mari-san's friend says there are bamboo poles sticking up from about a hundred or so springs, and trainees are supposed to leap from pole to pole while fighting without falling in."

Soun nodded sagely. "I trained for a while in a similar arrangement under... the..." His pupils shrank to pinpoints, and he shuddered involuntarily.

"Daddy?"
"Father?"

"Eh?" He shook the sensation off. "Forgive me, girls... Ahem. Now, what were you saying, Kasumi?"

Kasumi gave him one more concerned look. "At any rate, the 'horror' is that the water of the pools is cursed. If you fall in, you take the form of whatever last drowned there."

"Oh, my!" Soun exclaimed.

"Oneechan, was there a pool for girls?"

"I asked, and Mari-san's friend called it Nyanniichuan."

Nabiki frowned. "How does Mari-san's friend know all of this?"

"Her friend's uncle is a martial arts historian and specializes in collecting old tales and legends. She called him up on the phone."

"It's all in who you know," Nabiki said, smirking.

"Bah! All bad news today." Disgruntled, Soun folded up the paper, set it on the table, and then moved out to the backyard to smoke a cigarette.

"So what, if anything, are you going to do?" Kasumi asked quietly.

Resting her chin on her upturned palm, Nabiki tapped her lower lip while staring out the open shoji to the backyard and watching the bit of morning mist still hovering over the koi pond, yet to be burned off by the encroaching line of sunlight. "I don't know..." However, the memory of a loudly growling stomach surfaced, and the middle Tendou daughter smiled on one side of her mouth.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Nerima open market was like an endless buffet if you happened to have the option of going around in the form of a buxom redheaded girl, bursting with healthy beauty. Okay, that might be a bit much, Ranma thought to herself as she made googly eyes at a taiyaki vendor.

"Wow! I bet you make the best taiyaki EVER!" Ranma squealed. She'd made sure earlier that the top three buttons of her shirt were undone and presented for view a calculated amount of cleavage.

The poor vendor, in his mid-twenties or so, never knew what had hit him. "Of course I do!" He threw out his chest at the same time he threw his gaze down Ranma's shirt. "Just try one! You'll see!"

Ranma bit her lip in a fetching manner. "Well, I would, but I guess I have to wait. My allowance ran out." She sighed heavily, causing all manner of interesting movement of brassiere-less flesh underneath her shirt. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched a thin line of drool escape the corner of the young man's mouth. She exaggeratedly sighed again and rubbed along the top of her chest, the late afternoon sunlight causing her alabaster skin to fairly glow.

The vendor, in a daze, held out a white paper bag overflowing with fresh taiyaki. "It's... on the... house... Can I have... your phone number?"

Ranma squealed, jumped up and down, making the vendor's eyes move up and down, and snatched the bag out of his hands. "Thanks, and when I get a phone, I'll be sure to give you the number! Bai-bai!" She scurried away and rapidly moved out of sight of the vendor. Finding a handy bench under a tree, she wasted no time in cramming the first of the sweet bean-jam pastries into her mouth. Alas for her hunger, the sound of slow clapping, caused her to whip her head around. Ranma blanched.

"Bravo... Oh, Braaa-vooo!"

The girl Ranma had saved from a fall the day before slinked over to her bench and sat down. With half a taiyaki stuffed in her mouth, Ranma continued to stare at the smirking girl.

"I haven't seen such a shameless display of feminine 'charm' in a while, and coming from me, that's saying something." She crossed her legs. "Tendou Nabiki, if you remember my name, at your service. While my younger sister, Akane, surely thanked you, I never got the opportunity to do more than get carried around by you, so... Thanks... for saving me."

Ranma stared for a few seconds more before starting to say something, "Mmmf!" and then realizing her mouth was otherwise occupied. She crossed her startling blue eyes on the tail of the taiyaki sticking out of her mouth, and Nabiki laughed, amused at her savior's antics. Ranma bit off the taiyaki, chewed, and swallowed. "Uh... Sure... Tendou-san. No problem," she said, nervous, and looked away, the half-eaten food forgotten in her hand.

"So which one is you?"

Looking back at her, Ranma frowned in confusion. "What?"

"You've been to, ah... What did Kasumi-oneechan call it? Oh, yes! You've been to Jusenkyou, right? So which is the real you? The man or the woman?" She raised an eyebrow. "Although considering your eating habits, the good money's on you being male."

Jaw slack, Ranma said, "How did you...?"

Nabiki smiled a million-yen smile, loving the ability to shock others with knowledge. "Let's just say thaaat... I've got connections and leave it at that."

Ranma blinked several times. "Oh..." she said distantly, trying to figure out how anyone would know someone who knew about a lost training ground of cursed springs without having been there themselves.

A brief silence ensued. "So... which is it?" Nabiki finally asked again, breaking the lull and bringing Ranma out of her study.

"Huh? Oh. Guy. I'm a guy," Ranma said.

"Thought so. You were very comfortable with yourself the other day, and your portrayal of a girl is... stereotypical."

"Steering... What?"

Nabiki sighed. "Not terribly educated, are you..."

"Hey! I know my letters!" Ranma glared.

Holding up her hands, palms forward, Nabiki said, "No offense! No offense! What I meant was that you act like a guy would think a girl acts. Not how they really do." She paused, thinking. "Of course, in a way, that works to your advantage, especially with scoring free food, since you would know exactly how to reduce a man to jelly, being a guy yourself." She put down her hands and smirked at him again.

Ranma worked that notion around in her head for a few seconds and then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I guess so..." She then frowned again. "Not that I LIKE being a girl, but... Anything goes, right?"

Raising an eyebrow, Nabiki wondered at the word choice, but let it pass. "So where do you live, ah, Saotome-san, was it?"

Finishing off the taiyaki in her hand, Ranma reached into the bag for another and, surprising Nabiki, held it out for the other girl. Nabiki took the hot pastry, smiled at Ranma, and nibbled it. "Delicious."

"Live? Ohhh... Here... There... Wherever Pops drags me."

Nabiki almost dropped the taiyaki. "You live on the street?!"

"What?" It was obvious that Ranma didn't understand what Nabiki meant.

"You're homeless?"

Ranma blinked. "I, er... I don't really know if we have a house or not. Pops never said."

"Ah... Hmmm... Maybe you should start your story from the beginning."

The redhead looked at her in confusion and not a little suspicion. "What for? I mean, why are you so interested?"

"Hello? Remember me falling off that building and you saving me?" Nabiki said, pointing at herself, but the redheaded object of her current curiosity still radiated suspicion, which Nabiki found strangely aggravating. "Is it a crime?" she huffed. "I'm interested, all right?!"

"Sheesh! Okay, okay. Don't get your undies in a twist." Ranma took an exaggerated bite out of another taiyaki, casting sidelong looks at her companion. "'Sides, ya can't be too careful. Ever'body wants somethin'..." She looked off into space at a point somewhere in front of Nabiki, and then turned fully away and scowled. "Can't be too careful, even with your own family," she growled under her breath.

"Well, that's surprisingly cynical, but... I tend to agree," Nabiki said, having quickly lost her irritation through further fascination. This girl was such a study. "I suppose if I were in your shoes, I'd be worried that I was trying to take advantage of you somehow... especially since you are... ah... since you have such an unusual condition."

Ranma actually laughed. "I guess so, but if there's one thing my old stupid panda of a Pop has taught me, it's how to run like hell when things get bad." She turned to Nabiki and unexpectedly speared her with sharp blue eyes and a small feral smile, causing that worthy to take a mental step back. "I can take care of myself and my problems... if I have to."

Nabiki crossed her arms, a purely unconscious defensive action, and studied the other girl. She'd almost written the redhead off as some kind of bumpkin with unusual skill and a most unusual problem, but there was something chilling in her attitude just now. A certain street-wise, or maybe life-wise, hardness lurking underneath. It made this person very interesting to Nabiki, all of a sudden. She uncrossed her arms, but turned such that she faced forward from the bench. "So... Your story?" Nabiki kept herself from looking at Ranma.

"Hmmm... Okay. Easy enough... I guess." Ranma adopted a overly melodramatic tone. "Oh, man! Am I thirsty now or what?" She sighed loudly.

A short stretch of laughter burst from Nabiki. "Not a very subtle performance." She received another weird smile from the girl, albeit decidedly less feral than before. "All right, all right," she said, waving her near hand up and down. "I suppose I'm intrigued enough to pop for a soda. Besides, we'll—rather, I will be more comfortable at a table," she said smugly.

"Great!"

"There's a place just down the mall. Come on..."

- - -

They sat at a wrought-iron table outside of a small café, a pair of cream sodas and a half-full bag of taiyaki in front of them. Both Ranma and Nabiki had eaten another of the pastries and sipped their sodas before Nabiki began their conversation completely off of their previous thread.

"You know, if you'd take your hair out of that pigtail and fluff it out and put on a nice, low-cut dress, you could probably get all the free meals you could stomach. As much as I, being a girl saying this to another, ah, girl, even if you are one only some of the time, you are... stunning, Saotome-san. You're very beautiful."

Nabiki watched, fascinated, as different emotions waged war across Ranma's face, including but not limited to disgust, surprise, pride, and embarrassment.

"Yeah... Well... I do all right." Ranma's blush had crept down from her face and made serious inroads onto the still visible cleavage. She stumbled over her next words. "You're, ah... You, ah... pretty, too."

That had been hard to say for Ranma, socially unskilled as she appeared to be through her speech and actions, and Nabiki recognized it as such. If it had been Kunou-chan expressing the same sentiment, it would've included poetry, endless praise in stilted language, and obsessive stalking. It was almost startling to Nabiki to abruptly realize how much more meaningful Ranma's few words were in comparison. She smiled broadly at the redhead. "Thanks, Saotome-san. I wasn't fishing for a compliment, odd as that is for me, so it was sweet of you to say so."

"Ranma."

"... What?"

"Call me Ranma. I keep lookin' around for Pops when you call me Saotome-san."

"Okay, Ranma-chan." Nabiki realized her mistake immediately after using the diminutive honorific usually reserved for use between girls, but another surprise awaited Nabiki when Ranma seemed to drift a million miles away. "Ranma? Okay there?"

"Ranchan..." Ranma said, still distant. "Ucchan..."

Nabiki blinked. "Ucchan? What?"

Coming to herself, Ranma blushed again. "Sorry. I was thinking of an old friend I had when I was six. Ucchan. He called me Ranchan. Wow. I hadn't thought of Ucchan in a while."

"Ranchan." Nabiki tried the feel and sound of that out, thinking. Ranma had looked up at her quickly, though, apparently startled. "Ah! Sorry. That was presumptuous of me."

"Er, no! No... It just... surprised me, that's all." Ranma smiled shyly. "It sounded pretty good, actually. I, er... I don't mind... Nabiki-chan."

She fought it! Oh, how she fought it! Alas, her cheeks pinked, anyway. Nabiki coughed once... twice. "Right. Turn about and all that... Ahem!"

Ranma laughed a carefree laugh, blue eyes sparkling, and Nabiki understood down to her bones that it was a fine thing that she wasn't male and that she wasn't easily swayed in her emotions by others. She was quickly coming to realize that the girl... the person across from her was almost a force of Nature. Everything about her was powerful. Her skill as a martial artist, evidenced by Nabiki's continuing good health against what should have been impossible odds. Her feelings; pure, honest. Her laughter. And that voice! That slight whiskey rasp and clear tone. It was dead sexy. And more to the point in Nabiki's mind, there was gold in that girl's voice! Nabiki entertained a brief fantasy of managing an idol-star and voice-actress Ranma's career. She shook that thought loose and returned to the present and to presently important topics.

"Okay, Ranchan. Time to pay for the soda. What's your story?"

"Well... Nachan..." Nabiki scowled, causing Ranma to chuckle again. "It's pretty boring until I was six. Pops took me on a training journey that is still going on, although he's said we're staying in Nerima... for a while at least. He still hasn't said why." Ranma trailed off, frowning.

Nabiki frowned, as well. "Where is your father, anyway? Did he just dump you here or what?"

Ranma rolled her eyes. "One thing you gotta understand about Pops... He ain't the most honest person around. Let's just say he's coolin' his heels for a little while 'cause he took some food that didn't belong to him."

"I... see..." Nabiki said slowly. This put an entirely different spin on things, and Nabiki found herself becoming grounded over the topic of Ranma very quickly. "And has your apple fallen far from the parental tree?"

"Uh... What? My apple?"

Nabiki sighed. "Did you spend any of that training journey in school?"

"Uh... Sometimes. Mostly when the local truant officers caught me. But Pops'd pull up stakes and move on most of the time right after that. Pop learnt me my letters, but mostly, we trained. Why?"

Nabiki pursed her lips. Lack of education was a problem—a big one. Nabiki felt her fascination concerning Ranma sag even more. "That's... complicated. Can we come back to it another time?" Ranma shrugged her acceptance, so Nabiki continued. "No, what I was really asking about with the, ah, apple, ah, phrase... is whether you consider yourself honest or do you think you're like your father?"

A red eyebrow rose. "Awful personal question."

A brown eyebrow matched. "I like knowing things."

"In other words, you're nosy."

A practiced smirk was all Ranma received in answer, so she dug another taiyaki out of the bag and ate quietly for a moment, watching people walk up and down the shopping district mall. She polished off her pastry and took a long pull from her soda before leaning back in her chair and focusing on Nabiki.

"Have you ever been hungry?"

Nabiki blinked a few times at the question. "Well... sure, I—"

Ranma cut her off with a raised finger. "No, I'm not talkin' about 'Is supper ready, yet?' hungry. I mean when ya haven't had anything ta eat for more'n two days except a few wild berries or whatnot. When you're so hungry, your belly hurts bad all the time."

"Um... No."

The redhead nodded. "That's great, really. I'm glad you don't know what that's like. I do know what it's like. Been there two or three times... and I stole food to survive." She absently fingered the tie on her pigtail. "And I'm not sorry I stole that food." She sighed and put her hand on the table and drummed her fingers. "But I've stolen food when I wasn't so hungry, too. My Pop thinks stealin' is great trainin'."

"Training for what?" Nabiki crossed her arms. "Becoming a thief?"

"Well... Not exactly. Pops is probably what you'd call a thief, but I don't like it much. No, Pops thinks it's the situations that thievin' puts you in that's great trainin'. Personally, I think he likes thievin' too much ta stop. Pops is allergic to gettin' a job, and when he does get one, he just gripes about it the whole time and can't wait until he's done and we can move on." Ranma laughed suddenly. "Kinda funny, though. Ever since I got this girl curse, I haven't had to do any thievin'. I can score food just about anywhere. I reckon there's some good that's come out of it all."

Nabiki took her turn at watching the passers-by, giving herself time to digest this newest information about Ranma. After a few moments, she took note of an old man in ragged clothing, standing to one side of the foot traffic and holding out a hand to the pedestrians, bowing ever so often. He went largely ignored. She shuddered, realizing that the slide into poverty was never as far of a distance or took as long as one imagined. It was one of the many reasons she was so in love with cold, hard cash.

"Did you ever steal money?" she asked, abruptly.

Ranma had been busy polishing off the last taiyaki. "Eh? Once. Didn't get ta do anything with it, though..."

"Why not?"

"Pops took it away from me and spent it on sake. Never bothered with takin' money again. Same thing always happens—it gets spent on booze. With food, at least, I could eat my fill before Pops scarfed it all."

Nabiki rubbed her eyes. Yes, there had been... Well, to be fair, she thought, there was still something about Ranma that drew her in, even several things, perhaps, because Ranma was nothing if not personable and cute and strong and many other things, but at the same time, there was so much about her... him, rather, that Nabiki wanted no part of; ignorance, thievery, and, it seemed by all indications, a long-standing indigent lifestyle. She was no stranger to the kind of life led by martial artists, and she knew that many practitioners did leave on long-term training voyages, but without fail, they all came from somewhere, they all called someplace home. Ranma probably did come from somewhere, had something that stood for home, too, but it was suspicious that Ranma had no knowledge of it and suspicious in the extreme that the jailed father had, rather pointedly, omitted any knowledge of that important somewhere to his child. There were also thinly-veiled hints of casual cruelty and borderline criminal negligence on the part of the jailed father, at least by the standards by which Nabiki had grown to judge such things, and this engendered a whole other list of don't-see-hear-or-say issues in Ranma's life. All manner of warning bells clanged in Nabiki's head.

Tendou Nabiki was going places in the world. After high school, there was university, and she fully intended to get into Tokyo University or at least one of the upper level colleges, and to that end, she studied fiercely. It was, after all, only another year and some months until the university exams. If she could manage that, she'd be set. And there was much to be done, much to be considered, and, very much to the current point, contacts and references to be cultivated on her way to her goal. People who lived from moment to moment, from hand to mouth, had no place in that scheme, as friend or even as acquaintance. They were, simply put, of absolutely no use to her. Nabiki made up her mind.

She abruptly straightened in her chair, and pointedly checked her watch. "Sorry, but there's somewhere I need to be, shortly," she said in a dismissive tone. She found Ranma had been watching her, and the redhead's eyes noticeably dulled at her announcement. Despite her resolve, Nabiki felt a pang of something rare shoot through her heart, but she squashed it ruthlessly. "Thanks again for what you did for me." She stood and bowed slightly to Ranma.

"It was nothing, Tendou-san," Ranma said quietly.

Nabiki nodded to Ranma once and then left, not noticing until much later Ranma's sudden formality.

- - -

Ranma sat at the table for another hour, relishing the all-too-brief friendship she'd experienced with Nabiki, wallowing in grief for its all-too-sudden ending. Ah, no. Perhaps friendship had been too strong of a word; a brief instance of companionship was more like it. Nabiki had bothered to seek him out and, like a falling star, briefly re-entered his life, leading a brilliant fire-trail of a possible, potential friendship but then dying out before reaching ground. Ranma had had no illusions about the other girl's thoughts before she left. Ranma was, for all intents and purposes, ronin. Penniless. Less than scum. Perhaps the only reason she'd been given any consideration at all from Nabiki was because Ranma had saved her life, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough. First Ucchan... then Ryouga. And since, no one.

Finally leaving the table and merging into the crowd, Ranma made for the local park where her pack was hidden. She didn't really feel like putting up with her Pop today, and she felt a great need for solitude, for it was in solitude, she knew from long experience, away from the distraction of other people, that one could most easily despise one's life.

END CHAPTER TWO

Ranma ½, its characters, and its situations are the property of Takahashi Rumiko, Shonen Sunday Comics, Shogakukan, Kitty TV, and Fuji in Japan. It is distributed in North America by Viz Communications, Inc.