Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Chapter 21

"Who are you? Where am I?"

The next day
10:36am

"Mmmm..."

The warmth of the bed was too tempting to resist, however a nagging feeling permeated her fuzzy head. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes.

Hang on... This isn't my pillow...

She sat up fast and saw an unfamiliar room with little furniture. There was a mangy cupboard against the right wall which had a door hanging off, but some nearby nails and wood indicated that it was currently being worked on. To her immediate left was a small chair, again old looking.

An old chest opposite was untouched, save for the teddy bear on top. As she saw that her brain tried to recall something to do with it, but for the life of her she couldn't understand why it triggered anything. Her thoughts clouded over and returned to a happy state. Next to it was a beautifully carved statue of an eagle, which she appraised for a few moments before looking on.

The only two other items were a wrapped long thin bundle, propped up in the right corner, and on the wall facing her was a staff with a circle and wings on one side. It was held up by some hooks that seemed to be hammered in recently, as the silver finish gleamed in the sunlight entering from the window.

To the left of the chest of drawers was an open door, and the smell of something tasty was flowing in. She wriggled about and found that the bedsprings were very squeaky, and drew the attention of someone in the next room, as footsteps approached her. Looking around fast, she saw nothing to hand that she could use as a weapon, so instead tensed up her muscles, ready to sprint from there if need be. Her eyes levelled at the doorway.

"Ah, you're awake." The person who came in seemed friendly, but she wasn't taking any chances, especially since the shadows didn't show the face. "I hope you slept okay, you must've had a long trip." The person sat in the chair, twisting around to rest the figure's arms on the backrest. "I found you outside half dead, I was... a little worried about you."

"Who are you?" Nabiki asked.

The person sighed, and stood up, pulling the chair back from her and sitting in it normally. Nabiki blinked at the young man staring at her. He can't be older than me, and he lives here? He scratched his head.

"Well, my name's not that important, I live here alone. What I want to know is why you were all alone outside. I've not had visitors for a while, and it's not like you were hiking either. Did you get lost?" His voice was kind and soft, though for some reason his eyes pained.

Weirdo... "It's all a bit hazy... I was looking for something, but I can't quite remember, and I thought that I found the right place." She looked at him sternly. "Apparently not though. Am I free to go now?"

"Ah... Y-Yes..." He waved his hands in front of him nervously. Doesn't look like the manner of a kidnapper... "Your suitcase is in the next room."

Nabiki looked to the side of her bed and saw two slippers. Putting them on she was annoyed at the fact that they were too large and kept moving about as she walked into the larger room. It was a combined dining area and kitchen all combined into one.

"Hey, these are bothering me, haven't you got any others?"

Ranma stared at her, surprised, then grew embarrassed, holding his hand behind his head. "Well, I kinda didn't have any other pairs. I don't get guests often..." He looked off to one side then returned to the kitchen to tend to the food.

Nabiki watched him walk off and noted that his steps were louder than before. Looking down, she saw that he was walking barefooted on the hard wood floor. The realisation was sudden, as she glanced at her own pair of slippers, then adding everything together.

"Did... Did you give me your slippers...?" She didn't know his name, so couldn't finish the sentence on it.

"Umm..." He didn't look back, instead flipping the fried egg over to make it land upside down. "Yeah... I hope that's okay..."

"But..." Nabiki was still in two minds about him, he seemed like a nice person, but was being far too secretive. She also didn't know why she was here. "Won't your feet get splinters?" The floor had long past its best days, and segments between the floorboards were jutting upwards. She sat on the chair facing him at the dining table.

"Nah..." He waved her off with the spatula, still not turning back. "Splinters don't bug me as much as they used to. It's the rats that really get me..."

"Rats!" Nabiki raised her feet cautiously, then she frowned as the boy chuckled, chucking the two fried eggs up and onto two plates he had in his other hand, landing on the slices of toast.

"Heh, sorry about that, there are no rats here, I made sure." He handed one plate over to Nabiki and sat opposite her. "Oops... Need a fork and knife."

"No, it's okay..."

Nabiki picked up her toast and proceeded to bite into the cooked bread and part of the egg on top. She started chewing slowly, realising too late that he could have poisoned her, but the way he kept on eating ravenously meant that he didn't even think to put something else in her food. She swallowed the portion and was genuinely surprised.

"This is actually quite good... My sister Kasumi is the only one who make eggs taste this good." As she took another bite she failed to see a pained look pass over Ranma's face. To cover it up, he changed the subject slightly.

"I got the eggs from a local farmer, she gets me some about once a week and I get twelve free each time." Seeing the curious look from a chewing Nabiki, he went on. "I did them a few favours and some odd jobs here and there."

Nabiki finished off her breakfast and looked the boy over. I still don't know his name, I can't imagine why he wants to keep it secret. "So, why are you living all alone in a tiny place like this? Where are your parents? Do you go to school? Are you working?"

"Ah, hehehe..." Ranma put another hand behind his head, smiling nervously. "That's a lot of questions..." His face grew serious as he picked up the plates to deposit them in the sink. "I... I have no parents..." His shoulders shook slightly as he said this, and he tried not to crack the plate beneath his hands. "I used to go to school, but I dropped out, I wasn't that interested in it anyway. I don't work that much, I just try and keep this place dry, the roof needs replacing first..."

"So... You have nowhere to go then?" Nabiki stood up and looked around the little house, calculating in her mind how to expand the place if need be.

"No..." He answered her rhetorical question. "I have no family, and no money either..."

"She jerked her head in the direction of the bedroom. "You had four new things in there, two of which could be sold to make money. What's in the thin package?"

His face grew sadder. "My family katana, the last thing I have of them."

"Well, then you have three things, that bird statue, the katana and that odd staff." She quirked an eyebrow. "Why do you have that teddy bear though? You don't strike me as the type of guy who plays with bears?" She sensed his mood fall further. "A childhood present?"

"Yeah... I suppose you could call it a gift..." He smiled a bit. "A gift from someone I would like to call a friend..."

Nabiki said no more and looked out the back window, over the kitchen sink. Another part of the clearing was recently dug up, and six large wooden stumps were sticking out of the bare earth. Wait a sec... Those aren't stumps... "What are those foundations for?"

Ranma walked up to her, and she moved away slightly, not wanting this stranger to grab or touch her, even by accident. He face seemed to light up for once.

"Oh that? I'm building a dojo." He beamed at her.

"Dojo, eh?" Nabiki looked him over again from the corner of her eye. That's right, he did look like he worked out, I should've figured out he was into martial arts... "What form? Karate, Aikijutsu, Tae Kwon Do?"

He did that awkward laugh again. What is he hiding? Ranma spoke after a few seconds of his private joke. "Well, it's an art I've learned most of my life, it has similar moves to loads of other styles, I never bothered checking how many... Just a personal form of Kempo…" My, he seems overconfident of his abilities... "I... don't have a name for it..." He looked away and muttered in sotto, though Nabiki heard him. "Not any more..."

"I see..." She looked about the place and saw her suitcase, and walked over to it. "Well, if you want some advice, think about your art. If it's so free in everything you practise, then give it a 'free' name, it shouldn't be hard to think about if you put your mind to it..." She opened the door and looked back, dragging the suitcase with her. "One other thing, before you start building a dojo, you should get a job first so you can get good materials, and check if you have permission also..."

Ranma held the door open for her as she grabbed the door frame to lower her bag.

"Wow... I didn't expect that... You gave me advice for free. Usually you'd blackmail me or take all my money..." He laughed heartily, not spotting his crucial mistake.

However, Nabiki wasn't budging, as her hand was still gripping the wood tight, her eyes widening. Wait... Blackmail... Money...? A burning headache was attacking her as she tried to put things together. Think damn you!

The happy, oblivious feeling was returning, and she realised that it shouldn't be happening. Ignore the good thoughts, ignore the good thoughts...

As they continued to grow, she was recalling a purpose for her travels. I was looking for something... Something... A figure floated into view. No... It was someone... Who?

"Umm, Nabiki, are you okay?" Ranma was looking at her, extremely concerned, as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Wait... How does he know my name? How did he know that I blackmail people or charge them? She finally reached some form of barrier in her mind, something was blocking her from remembering exact details during the previous year. Each fight seemed to end suddenly and without reason. Every day of school began with a short fight against Kuno, but the winner was always a blurry shape or covered in static.

Her migraine reached epic proportions, and she collapsed onto her suitcase. No... This isn't going to beat me... She thought back to the four months she'd been travelling. I was looking for someone... I even saw his grave... Wait... 'him'? She tried to think back to the graveyard. 'Here lies...' The name refused to make any normal shape, and she forced herself further. 'Here lies...!' Beads of sweat poured down her face, before, at last, everything clicked, all the clues added up to form one insurmountable truth.

'Here lies Ranma Saotome!'

Memories, so many of them, came surging back at her, how he turned their lives upside down with his arrival, to the fiancées, the fights, kidnappers, rivals, friends and enemies. They all revolved around one man.

"Ranma..." She growled.

Her left hand crushed the old wood of the door frame, as her other hand held the handle of her suitcase. She gave him no time to react.

"Ranma, YOU JERK!"

His shock was only stopped by the twenty kilo bag slamming onto his head as he crashed into the floor, his hands again warding her off. He surfaced quickly, and swallowed hard at seeing Nabiki's purple aura swirl about her.

"How DARE you mess with my memory!"

She pulled a grenade out of her bag, and didn't care which one it was, so long as it hurt him. She raised her left hand then winced and cried out loud, dropping the explosive before she could withdraw the pin.

Kicking away the inactive flashbang, Ranma ran up to her, and once more Nabiki was worried he would erase her mind once again.

Yet, he went straight for her hand and held it gently. "Hey, you idiot! This house is old, and splinters really hurt you girls!"

"Oh?" She was talking dangerously. "I've been through worse than that. Splinters can't even reach the limits I've tested." She pulled back her fringe, which had since grown longer, and showed her scar. "See?"

Ranma paled. "Ah... Uh... I… I thought I saw that…" He was looking mortified and guilty. "H-How did that happen?"

"Never you mind." She pulled her hand out of his grip. "You don't know the hell I've been through to find you, now you want me gone. You want to get rid of me so bad, then finish me off! Make me forget for real this time!"

She spread her arms out in a defiant gesture, but Ranma wasn't moving. Nabiki's left hand began bleeding as the wood cuts remained open. He walked up to her, keeping his eyes on her face, a mixture of anger, betrayal and sadness. Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears, and she shook slightly as he stood close, inches from her crumpling face. She closed her eyelids, not wanting her last moments to be crying, like the last time.

A warm pair of hands lowered her arms, and she was pulled forwards with her right hand. She crinkled her eyelids, not wanting to see what was happening.

She stopped, and the firm grip pushed her down, and for a moment she was reminded of Lime's strength, and the countless misunderstandings between them. Her left hand was raised up, and she felt something cold and metallic brush against her skin. She winced as a sharp but momentary pain hit her. She opened her eyes to see what was going on.

They were seated at the table, and Ranma somehow found a pair of tweezers, and was pulling out the splinters from her injured hand. His face was focused entirely on his task, and he wasn't saying anything. Nabiki watched in wonder as he scanned the palm to find even the tiniest sliver of wood to pull out.

She couldn't forget how warm his supporting hand felt beneath hers.

He turned over her hand and began pulling them out again, however this took less time since it wasn't in contact with the old wood for as long.

He stood up and put the tweezers back on the kitchen counter, and wiped away the splinters into a dustpan, and throwing them into the old wood stove, shutting the metal door. He then hid the plastic tray in the counter next to the sink, and walked over to sit by Nabiki. He remained quiet.

Nabiki and incensed, and her pulsing anger cross finally popped.

"What!"

Ranma flinched and sat back, a little further away from her. "I can't... I can't make you forget... Not for another week..." He chuckled ruefully to himself. "Then again, I couldn't really do it... I didn't want to do it the first time, and now that I had no choice, my... my heart wasn't in it. I never finished the job completely..." He looked up at Nabiki.

She grit her teeth, her anger still seething. "But you still did it." She looked away, then heard a loud crack as Ranma slammed his hand on the table, the wood splitting at the seam.

"No! I... I..." He got up and began to pace between two points. "I thought of everything... After the wedding... I..." he closed his eyes, the obvious pain returning fast. "I didn't mind get married to Akane... I lo-liked her, a LOT." Nabiki caught his word change. "But..." He looked directly at Nabiki. "You ruined it for us..."

She swallowed as the pressure was on her, but she noticed that Ranma wasn't angry at her.

He shook her head. "Sure, it was bad, the dojo was damaged, the Nyannichuan was gone, and we never got married in the end..." He looked up and had a new look on his face, one of realisation and wonder. "I knew then, that if we got married, nothing would ever change... Ukyo would still feed me, maybe more, Shampoo would use more drugs, and might even kill Akane this time." He looked down, his face downcast and he miserably sat in the chair opposite Nabiki. "Even though I don't like them that much as fiancées, Akane... Akane would still be jealous..."

Nabiki watched him patiently as he told his unburdened feelings.

"Not just them... Kodachi, Ryoga, Mousse, Kuno, Hinako, Gosunkugi, the principal, dad, and... mum..." He sighed heavily. "My honour has been spread across so many people, there was no way to make anyone happy. I have enemies... Mousse because Shampoo likes me, Kodachi and Kuno chase me when I'm cursed or not, Ryoga because of Akane and because he's my rival..."

"Ranma..." Nabiki began, she already knew where he was going, and didn't like the look of his destination.

"I couldn't take it... So much time, and nothing changed... I... I..."

"Shh..." She put a hand on his shaking one. "It's okay... All those worries are behind you now, so don't make them haunt you forever." She smiled. "There is nothing wrong with these feelings you have, but you shouldn't make them self-destructive. Guilt is a poison. If you bury yourself in it, you'll never let go, never be able to live, and most importantly, never able to forgive yourself." She slowly rubbed his hand. "Your honour is intact, you are still yourself, and you are still Ranma Saotome. That's what matters."

The boy in question looked up, his eyes not allowing tears to fall. He was almost pitiful, but he sucked up the courage, sniffed loudly to eradicate his soon-to-be runny nose, and smiled a little.

"Do you think so?"

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "The return of the ego... But still so fragile... "Yes, I do. Who else in the their right mind would go so far to solve all their problems in one fell swoop, run away as far north as they can go, and then start building a dojo in the middle of nowhere?"

Ranma's chest expanded, and for a wild moment Nabiki thought that he became female, but it turned out that he was merely feeling prideful, and puffed himself out accordingly.

Rolling her eyes, Nabiki chuckled to herself, her first laugh around him. Since... Well, ever I think... I never laughed at anything Ranma did, apart from the festival... She stopped quickly. That's right; he still went through with everything...

She put on her business face. "So, tell me, what happened to you?"

"Huh?" He cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean?"

She waved a hand over his appearance, the rather tattered red silk top and black bottoms, remnants from his time in Nerima. "How did you get so intelligent? This plan, I'm sorry to say, is way over your head. You managed to completely erase yourself from everyone's lives. I know about the modified incense, I'll get to that later." She added, as he opened his mouth. "Not only that, you destroy all existence of 'Ranma Saotome', going so far as to remove your birth certificate from public records, and putting on fake death ones. You even had a grave made up, in case anyone really looked into it!"

She leaned forwards and poked him in the chest.

"How the hell did you come up with something like this?"

Ranma was flabbergasted, and Nabiki couldn't understand why. "You think I came up with something like this?" He was incredulous. "I needed help... I asked Herb a few times for advice, but he wouldn't give me a straight answer. Kirin and Toma told me of the stuff needed for the memory thing. But that was all... I needed to disappear from Nerima, but not only them, but anything about me, stuff I don't know about like records and later cases..."

Nabiki groaned at his wording. "I think you meant 'databases', right?"

"Yeah, those things... I couldn't just break in and hide the files. It's all on computer now..." He closed his eyes and calmly spoke. "I was desperate, and sent Herb a letter, begging me to give me ideas..." His fist was shaking. "I... I hated myself, I've never begged anyone for anything, ever!" Nabiki chose not to mention how Mousse made him beg with the special glasses of the Joketsuzoku. "It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life."

"And?" Despite getting a little bit tired at his monologue, she was hanging on every word he said. "What did Herb say?"

Ranma stared at Nabiki, trying to determine something by looking into her brown eyes, however all his blue eyes could find were mild trepidation and confusion. "He only wrote down two words... Then it all made sense."

"Two words!" Boy, Herb was being a bit mean... A man begs you and all you give him are two words... But, Ranma said they helped him... "And what were his two pearls of wisdom?"

Ranma spoke slowly and surely, but even then she had trouble understanding. "'Ask Nabiki'."

"Wh-What?" Her voice trailed off as a cold blurry feeling overcame her. She stood up fast, making her chair topple over. "What do you mean, 'ask Nabiki', what the hell does that mean!" Her purple aura covered her and grew sharper and malevolent."

Ranma fell backwards in his chair at her outburst. He crawled up and peeked over the edge of the table. "It... It was easy enough for me to read..."

"I know that!" She considered throwing the table over to the side, but decided not to given his utter lack of good furniture. "What did you do then?"

Ranma stayed standing and looked at her without a hint of malice nor fear. "I asked her." Upon seeing her puzzlement, he went on. "I asked you."

"B-But..." Nabiki pawed at her head. "We never spoke about it... We..." The blurry moments came back to her, but it was so fleeting she could never lock on to it for longer than a second. "You..."

He nodded, but his face wasn't victorious, more to do with failure. "Yes... I'm sorry... I had to make sure you forgot the talk. I couldn't risk anyone finding out about my plan... I couldn't let anyone follow me, not even if it was just you..." He sat down. "Some plan..."

"You... You already made me forget..."

Once again, the betrayal struck her deep. Her worst fear had come true, part of her memory was lost to her forever, never to be recovered. The only thing she prided in her life was her ability to remember and recall the smallest detail, each and every discrepancy, numbers and passwords to countless items. She even abstained from excessive alcohol to retain each waking moment of life, lest something important be lost.

Now, the stain, the black mark inside her brain, was permanent.

I've lost some of my life. Who knows how long we talked for...? What was I doing then...?

I'll never know again...

"I... I hate you..."

Her aura flared up, then retracted completely. She stalked over to the door and picked up her backpack and suitcase and kicked the door open, not caring if the house collapsed on the person behind her.

"If I ever see you again... You'll be sorry..."

She put one foot outside onto the dry earth, fully prepared to walk out of his life forever.

"Wait!" Ranma ran up to her, but didn't touch her as her aura returned. "Don't go..." His voice was losing its happiness at speaking to somebody who knew him.

Nabiki wasn't moving a muscle, and stared out into the morning sun. "There's nothing you can say or do that will stop me from leaving."

She lifted her other foot, the one still in the house.

"I can make you remember..."

The foot paused in midair.

"I know it's not much... If you really want to leave I'm not gonna stop you, but it's the least I can do... I don't have any money to give you..."

Her foot landed inside.

"Shut up." She turned back, her eyes aflame and strode up to him, her steps powerful. "There's something you can do for me..."

"O-Oh?" Ranma wasn't liking the look she had.

"You will promise, on your honour, that you will never, ever, purposefully use that shampoo, or incense, or whatever, to make me forget anything in my life." She lanced his blue eyes. "Do I make myself clear?" He nodded several times. "I won't ask you to write it down because I know, if you do use something on me, your guilt will kill you. Let me hear your vow."

Ranma was breathing fast, his heart pounding as if he just fought full out again Happosai and Cologne at the same time. He slapped both hands against his cheeks three times and did a short 'huff'. When he next looked at her, his eyes were stern and true, the same ones Nabiki made earlier in her 'business mode'.

"I, Ranma Saotome, promise upon my honour, to never use anything in any way, to make you, Nabiki Tendo, forget anything in your life." He breathed out and wiped the sweat beads on his face. "Is that okay?"

She analysed his sentence and found that it covered every possibility, even if Ranma charmed something else she might later touch and then forget in the usual manner.

"That's fine..."

She walked past him and sat down in his chair, folding her arms. She didn't remove her eyes off him as he went to one of the kitchen cabinets and pulled out a shampoo bottle, this time a different colour to the one she recalled from yesterday, and the standard comb.

He moved closer to her, and she found herself shivering again, the fear returning. Ranma saw this and went in front of her. He lowered himself to eye level and she only found compassion in there. He wasn't hiding anything from her, and let his own insecurities out in the form of shifting emotions.

"I don't go back on my word." He stated, and Nabiki inside grew warmer. She knew he was telling the truth, he always did. "Do you trust me?" He asked, certain he was going to get the right reply.

"Yes..."

Nabiki nodded, but didn't break the eye contact. As he stood up, she followed him until he went past the corner of her eye. The comb slid into parts of her hair, followed by the shampoo. He began to work furiously, and the pressure points were pushed. Nabiki felt a rush return to her, but Ranma wasn't finished.

The whole process took one minute, much longer than the near instant antithesis. Various new nerve endings had to be started up in order to reactivate the older ones, and as such was a cumulative process. Rerouting synaptic energies wasn't anything that Ranma knew about, but the directions were clear, and he followed them to the letter, even though he knew nothing of the science behind the method.

Nabiki sat the as the comb left her hair, feeling refreshed. As her brain began to fire up the old nerves, electrical pulses recharging the locked away memories, she began to twitch. Soon, convulsions racked her body for several seconds as the cobwebs cleared.

"Nabiki! Are you okay!"

Ranma held onto her, keeping her shoulders tight and holding her head lightly so it wouldn't loll about too far and hurt itself. That instant, her eyelids snapped open from the half-lidded state they were in. She looked around, recognising where she was, and saw Ranma bare centimetres from her. She raised a hand to his face, caressing his cheek, before slapping it.

Ranma moved with the blow, but he was surprised by how light she hit.

"Ranma, you jerk! Is that how you treat all your dates?"

He chuckled awkwardly. "Well... You know how it is..."

As they both continued to laugh, Nabiki mused over her newly awakened memories…

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Author's Notes

Well, despite writing 33 pages, I thought that it was still unfinished in its current form. However, this introductory scene should pacify you for the time being. Major editing is being done now for the latter portion, and should appear in the next chapter (obviously a major long flashback scene will appear first).

Nabiki's fears regarding memory, are unashamedly my own, though I feel that she would share them to an extent. Losing one's memory, even for a tiny period of time, would depress me, I have an excellent recollection ability (not photographic admittedly), as described by her. Seeing as this entire fic is about memory, I thought it prudent to illustrate what Nabiki's own perspective might be.

In the meantime, I hope this chapter satisfies most of your curiosity.

- J