by ufomanne
Disclaimer: I have written this story, but I do not own the characters or anything of the work they originate from.

STIGMATA

Chapter 02 ~ Locusts
part 03

100414

a tale that tells itself
of brittle bone and broken shell

III

Ranma strolled slowly homebound, shuffling through the sparse midday crowd, walking carefully to avoid limping. His bandaged wounds were well hidden beneath his hastily acquired change of clothes. Thoughts milled in his head, way too much had happened the last few days to digest. Ranma hurt, his wounds smarted but worse was his mind. He had existed in an emotional vacuum for many months, content in being alone and just surviving without thinking. But now he found it harder to ignore what was bubbling inside him, just as the inexplicable attacks had forced him to interact with his surroundings on more than a superficial level. He shook his head as he was drawn to thinking about things he wanted to stay gone.

Instead he directed his thoughts to shift to Usagi while he walked on, he focused on the image of her face. Her beautiful face, he frowned, he wanted to reject her. Just to ignore her and refuse any kind of contact, then she would go away eventually. Everyone did when you gave them the cold shoulder long enough. But since the first violent meeting he wasn't so sure he wanted her to go away anymore. He didn't understand this urge that had suddenly worked itself free inside him. He wanted contact again. These last few days had been too much.

These last years had been too much.

He wanted desperately to be alone, but at the same time he felt the need for contact. Letting out a low growl he felt the need to lash out violently in frustration, feelings tearing to be free, diametrical opposites trying to overwhelm him, burn him and drown him. He didn't understand and he hated not understanding.

Stepping down from a side walk to traverse a street a jolt of pain shot up his side, the pavement was hard, dirty grey, the grey of his mind. His thoughts slipped from Usagi to how they had met. He had become dull, slow and unfocused. He hadn't thought about it before, but it was awfully plain to him now. He had lost himself back then and now he was an empty shell of martial arts, his body knew how to move, but there was nothing there to truly move it.

Where once confidence and spiritual strength were plentiful as seas, enough to move mountains, were now emptiness. However misguided he may have been he had been strong, now he was a shadow, a dilapidated husk of meat. And these monsters with eyes that he knew had came from nowhere and killed him, twice, if it had not been for Usagi. His heart revolted against it, his pride would not allow it. He relaxed the fist he had unwittingly made, to let the blood flow back into his knuckles.

His dark eyed mulling came to an abrupt halt as he noticed a familiar silhouette in the crowd a ways in front of him, on the other side of the road. She looked lost among the people, ignored, small, and curiously content. Hotaru's dark purple hair neatly combed and her clothes seemingly changed and in order since the debacle earlier in the morning. It seemed like she had been home, and he felt compelled to check up on her, even though he had nothing to offer if she was lacking anything. He watched as she made a turn and headed into a park, seeming less secure after leaving the side walk crowd behind.

He drifted through the people around him, traversing the street at a green light, flowing with the pedestrians that milled over it. He turned and moved over the sandy path of the park and ended up behind her. She did not look up, oblivious to his approach. Until his light touch on her shoulder startled her out of her reverie. She turned abruptly to face him with hands up in defence.

"Hello, Hotaru," he intoned calmly, soothingly, none of the turmoil inside of him showing, he was reminded of the breakfast he had shared with her as he saw her face and he felt how his agitation slowly drained. When she saw him and heard his greeting she visibly deflated in relief.

"Oh it's you, hi Ranma, you scared me," she meekly told him, her eyes downcast and slight blush shining through on her pale cheeks. They stood still, silence like an island in the din of the crowd and moving cars not far from them. Hotaru's eye's flicked up to look into his for a short second, then avoiding his gaze again; she adjusted the dark purple scarf she had around her neck. Her small pink tongue flicked nervously over her lips. "I was on my way to, mm, to you," she admitted, her embarrassed blush intensifying.

Ranma wasn't sure what to say, her twirling with the corner of her scarf made him painfully aware of its purpose to hide the bruise upon her neck, a bruise he was partly responsible for. He simply nodded, and calmly stated "I'm not home at the moment, sorry," Hotaru's eyes met his again in surprise, embarrassment gone from her countenance and a small giggle slipped forth, hiding her mouth with a hand.

"Did you want to ask something? Since I doubt you wanted to visit my house for the view," he asked her after a moment, to coax her from the pensive silence. She wordlessly eyed him for a moment more, then nodded and looked around them on the sandy path and the people close by. Ranma was about to comment again but Hotaru hesitantly grabbed his left sleeve and pulled him lightly further into the park.

The flat hardness of asphalt and concrete changed to the springy solidness of dirt, grass and living wood. Cherry trees growing high whispered in the slight wind, dark green, waiting for the time to come to bloom once again. A convenient bench came into view, the path was corrected accordingly and soon Hotaru sank down on top of the bench seat. Ranma stayed standing, afraid to rip open his hip wound if he sat down, leaning as comfortably as he could favouring one leg. He noticed Hotaru's breathing was rather ragged, and while always pale when he had seen her before she now her face looked rather bloodless.

"You all right?" he asked, suddenly worried. Maybe the damage she had taken was more serious than he had thought? His eyes narrowed as he felt anger and guilt surge, those monsters and his carelessness! Hotaru nodded her head and interrupted his thoughts.

"I'm ok, it's just a new medicine Father gave me today. I feel a bit dizzy," Hotaru said with a weak voice, her hands grabbing the edges of the bench to stabilize herself. On a pure whim Ranma reached out with a hand and softly stroked it over her dark hair. Hotaru flinched at the touch at first, but seemed to relax after the initial surprise, soon leaning back against the back rest, her breathing evening out.

"Medicine?" asked Ranma idly as he continued with his unfamiliar impulse for a moment more, gently caressing the top of her head, before letting his hand fall to his side when Hotaru seemed to have recovered a little bit. She nodded in response, her face tinted with pink from embarrassment.

"I'm not very strong, something in me is broken," Hotaru explained timidly, lifting a small hand to hold over her heart. "My father is trying to help me; he is doing research to make me strong again," Hotaru's face twisted sadly. "But the medicines often make me sick."

Ranma looked at her for a moment without saying anything. No longer caring about the risk he took a step and carefully sat down on the bench next to her. He grimaced as the healing wound in his hip complained at being stretched. After a moment to adjust, he sank down and relaxed slightly, letting his head drop back to watch the sky through the trees. It was quiet, Hotaru sitting lost in thought until Ranma spoke up.

"Well, if medicine helps then you should take it I guess. I would say that I was jealous of you, that I wish my own problems could be solved with medicine..." he turned his face to the side to regard her, she met his gaze and her eyes were curious. "Once I would have, but I guess it's not that easy is it?" Hotaru looked unsure and shrugged her thin shoulders slightly.

"I don't know," she said softly. Ranma chuckled and smiled at her, an amused smile that was in stark contrast with his usual dark or blank expression.

"Indeed, that's the point! That's the reason," Ranma nodded sideways at her, eliciting a small smile from her in reply. He looked at her silently, seconds slowly trickling past, both drinking in the smile on each other's face, the world falling away for a moment. Hotaru broke the gaze and watched her hands, cradled in her lap, biting her lower lip in hesitation.

"Have you, seen any more of those, um, Them," her voice wavered but the question seemed to force its way through her lips. Ranma felt a shiver run up his spine as the moment broke. He grunted in reply and nodded. Hotaru glanced at him sideways under her bangs, violet eyes glittering in remembered fear. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't stop thinking about them, worrying," she said hastily, Ranma shrugged, and then shook his head idly, not looking at her.

"It's all right, I guess. I don't like thinking about them, but yeah they seem to increase in activity. Whatever or whoever they are," Ranma shivered again at the end of his admission. Hotaru watched him intently.

"It called your name, it wanted you for some reason. I- I wonder..." Hotaru stumbled on her words and blushed, halting her inquisitive outburst with an embarrassed expression, she glanced at Ranma and his face was blank and unreadable. She sighed. "I'm sorry, it's not my place to pry, but yesterday and this morning was just... I can't stop thinking about it," she added, her last words hardly more than a whisper. Ranma's expression hardened, the muscles in his jaw visibly clenching.

"You're right it's not your place," he said through clenched teeth, Hotaru shied from the bound anger in his voice. But then Ranma sagged, and he let out his breath slowly in a sigh. "But it's not your fault you got involved. I don't know what they want, but maybe..." Ranma felt his stomach knot as he watched the bruised girl in front of him intently. He bit his lower lip in an uncharacteristic display of uncertainty, and Hotaru was hit by the doubt shining in his eyes as they studied hers. After a moment he closed his eyes and seemed to sink in on himself.

"I don't know why they want me. I haven't made any enemies the last while that would do anything like this," Ranma explained slowly and shrugged. "But certain parts of them remind me of, things that has happened before I came here. But I don't know if it's just me," he turned a serious look at Hotaru, seemingly studying her for something intangible. He shook his head slowly. "Lately things have been strange, like the borders of the world has become kind of runny, smeared," Ranma gave a grunt in frustration and gave up on his explanation. "It's just weird. Magic and such I've been exposed to plenty before but this is more..." not finding any words to define his thought he simply shook his head. Finally he turned to Hotaru.

"What do you think? You've seen it too," he said, and Hotaru hesitated, seemingly thinking deeply for a moment, her brow furrowing cutely and her fatigue forgotten for the time being in the light of the mystery.

"I have only seen a little of what I guess could be called magic," she said carefully, watching Ranma, but as he didn't react she continued. "But this is like a nightmare turned real, it's like a horror movie. That thing was unnatural," she shuddered and lightly rubbed her throat through her scarf. She looked up at Ranma, who was watching her intently. "I keep being afraid of another one showing up to hunt me. It terrifies me, I felt so hopeless against it," she shivered lightly as she cradled herself. Ranma was hit by how vulnerable she looked like that; sitting on the bench hugging herself like she tried to shield herself from the world. He felt like he wanted to reassure her, but he didn't know what to say. She turned her eyes on him again.

"I even felt like staying at home today to rest, but Kaolinite was mad at me..." Hotaru fell silent and shut her eyes, her face paled as something replayed itself behind her eyelids. Ranma frowned at her expression; he didn't like whoever could bring out that kind of face in Hotaru.

"Who is Kaolinite?" Ranma asked, curious and a bit angry. Hotaru opened her eyes and looked straight ahead, still distracted.

"She is Father's assistant, she lives with us and takes care of me as well. But she doesn't like me," Hotaru told him in a subdued tone.

"Doesn't your father protect you?" Ranma asked, but felt like kicking himself when Hotaru shook her head and hid her eyes behind her dark bangs, shoulders visibly deflating.

"He gets so absorbed in his research; he didn't even notice that I was gone last night," Hotaru shrugged slightly and smiled weakly. "Kaolinite noticed but she said she didn't want to interrupt his work," Ranma regarded her worriedly, he had his own experience with a hostile home and hadn't thought it all that strange when he lived through it himself, only realizing the toll it had taken after he had left. But hearing a similar story from someone else, someone as seemingly innocent as Hotaru disturbed him, it just didn't seem right.

"Your mom then?" he didn't want to hurt her by asking but couldn't avoid it, his curiosity wanting to find a bright spot or a solution. Hotaru just shook her head.

"I don't have a mom. She died when I was born," her words were dead and inert as they left her mouth, entirely lacking emotional inflection. Hotaru kept staring straight forward, not moving. Ranma grimaced inwardly as he had seemed to do nothing but put his foot in his mouth so far. He watched her sit there, and suddenly she looked very lonely. He knew that kind of pain, many aspects of what she told him were true for him as well. He shut his eyes, and took a deep breath and let it go slowly. Then he turned back to face forward, watching the leaves of the cherry trees.

"I never knew my mom either. Well when I was very young I did, but I don't remember anything of that," he started, glancing at Hotaru as she tilted her face slightly to look at him, white-faced but with curiosity in her eyes. He turned his gaze back to the green.

"Yeah, I went on a training trip with my pop when I was little. It was just me and pop, I missed my mom a lot at first, but after a few years it was ok. I still missed her though," he talked on, it was surprisingly easy. Like talking about what someone else had experienced. Hotaru seemed distracted from the previous topic now and watched him with shy interest.

"A training trip?" her voice expressing her interest in something that she couldn't imagine doing herself or even something others might do. Ranma nodded in response.

"Yeah, you know, I fought before right? It's a family martial arts style that I've been training for a long time. My pop trained me, and we went on a training trip when I was little, five or so," Ranma started to explain the preliminaries of his training trip, and then started telling how they had wandered around. Always training and never staying long at the same place, all the crazy training regimens as well as the different other martial arts masters and such that they had met.

A breeze leisurely rustled the leaves and the grass, the sun slowly wandered on the sky, herding clouds that were travelling over the heavens. People came walking past in fast forward through the winding paths of the green park and past them as the shadows slowly moved. Hotaru and Ranma sat on the bench, both absorbed in the story that was being told.

Ranma was in a rather good mood, distracted by the memories in his life that had been harsh but not bad, and tried to put as much effort to describe his trip as well as possible. Hotaru shifted between incredulity, horror and delight as Ranma laid bare more than half of his life. After a long while Ranma came to the end of the training trip and where they had decided to go to china, and then he started hesitating, finally he faltered.

Hotaru regarded him as he sat silently, tilting her head in question to the change in his mood. He noticed her unspoken question and shrugged.

"Yeah we went to china, but ah... That was the end of the training trip anyway," he gave a small grimace, but then relaxed and gave a slight chuckle, looking around him in the meantime. The sun hanged in the sky, slowly dipping toward the horizon, heralding the arrival of evening time. Hotaru also seemed to notice the obvious signs of the time for the first time and stood up from the bench with a slight blush on her face.

"I better get home, Father might worry and I have school tomorrow too," she nervously brushed her skirt, and looked down. Ranma watched her, scratching his neck and nodded, silently grateful she had not asked about his abrupt ending. He too stood, and hesitated still silently regarding her.

"I guess, I'll walk you home," he said, staring her in the eyes when she looked at him in surprise. He shrugged, put his hands in his pockets and looked to the side. "I don't want any of those things to attack you on the way back. They seem to hunt me, but you never know since you've been attacked before," Hotaru seemed hesitant at first but when Ranma mentioned the hunting monstrosities she froze up and looked around her in the park nervously. Her eyes sweeping over the deepening shadows for hostile forms, she timidly nodded her head and started to walk slowly, making sure to keep close to Ranma's side without touching him.

Ranma regretted frightening her, but while walking next to her, hands still in his pockets, he was satisfied he could do something to repay Hotaru, as well as reassuring himself she was safe. They walked slowly in silence for a good while, passing through the evening coloured park and into the streets of the city. There were still plenty of people on the streets, but most shops had closed up and the crowd was thinning out rapidly. As they moved from the small commercial district into the streets filled with smaller houses, mostly homes, the worn pavement was their only companion. A car or pedestrian passed by now and then, but otherwise the area left an empty impression. Many houses had walls around their properties, large houses with either traditional inspiration or modern creations, signifying that it was a rather wealthy area.

Hotaru suddenly stopped next to a large two-story building with rather nondescript design, having a low fence and hedge to promote privacy. Ranma looked up at it, the windows mostly like dark holes, a light on in what seemed to be the kitchen. Hotaru held the gate with one hand and looked at Ranma worriedly.

"Stay here ok? I'll be back in a minute to give you something," she said, a mix of determination and pleading in her voice and expression. Ranma regarded her for a second and then nodded mutely. She smiled a small smile at him, turned and pushed the gate open. Once on the small stone path up to the house she quickly, with nervous steps, went up to the dark door and disappeared inside.

Ranma stood silently and perfectly still, regarding the building that Hotaru went into, her home. It looked perfectly harmless, but with no lighting on it almost seemed abandoned. He saw Hotaru's small form entering the kitchen, the window only giving a glimpse of her as she rummaged around and then disappeared again.

A minute later the heavy black door opened again, soundlessly on well oiled hinges, and Hotaru came out, bearing a little bag. She came up to him, looking around nervously like she was afraid someone might see her, and pushed the bag into his hands.

"Here Ranma, some food for you," her voice as nervous as she acted, but she smiled at him, a small slight smile that made her pale face turn from pretty to beautiful. Ranma nodded and couldn't help to smile back, half in happy surprise at the treat and half in response to her shy smile.

"Thank you Hotaru, I appreciate it," he told her slowly, carefully choosing his words as if he had rarely used them in his life and was not accustomed to forming them with his mouth. An awkward silence started between them, but Ranma was distracted when he saw a figure in one of the windows back in the house. On the second floor a woman looked down on them from behind a window, partly obscured by the dark curtains. She was shrouded in shadows and he could not make out any features other than that she had deep red hair that cascaded around her face. He could not see her eyes or face directly, but he could see the glinting reflection of her eyes in the shadow where her head was. Suddenly he felt sick, a faltering, falling premonition of desperation and shrivelled decay that threatened to overwhelm him.

"Sleep well Ranma," Hotaru said, and turned away and walked into the house. Ranma was startled and held out a hand at her back and opened his mouth, but no words came out. He let his hand fall to his side again, and as she turned to him a last time, halfway through the door, and still smiled her hesitant smile toward him he stared back and then opened his mouth again.

"Goodnight Hotaru," was all that left him. She nodded and the door shut with a muted click. A shiver went up Ranma's spine as he looked up at the window with the feeling of dread lingering in his heart. The woman was no longer there, now the house seemed more like a sinister tomb than a harmless house. Trying to shake the feeling Ranma turned around and started his trek homeward.

III

Just thought I'd post something since it was nearly two years since last time, sheesh.