Disclaimer: I don't own and didn't create Ranma ½ or any of these characters.

Chapter Two: Pursuit

Tendrils of flame from the small campfire danced into the night, accompanied by the gentle pop and crackle of burning wood.

Ranma and Tarou had set up camp for the night in a small clearing on the mountainside, near a small stream. Since it was a clear night, the two boys hadn't bothered to pitch the tent and had spread out their bedrolls under the stars.

All things considered, it hadn't been a bad day. Ranma had a hunch that Ryouga would be trying to reach the mountains, since the lost boy seemed to have spent much of his life in the mountains, either lost or in training. A quick check of the newspapers confirmed his suspicions. There had been three reports of a winged monster: one slightly north of Nerima, the other two heading west. Surprisingly, Ryouga was moving more or less in a straight line for the mountains. Ranma had been anxious about how much more lost the lost boy could get with the ability to fly.

As for his travelling companion, Pantyhose Tarou had promptly rebuffed Ranma's initial attempts at conversation, but had been content to walk in silence rather than counter with his standard stream of sarcastic barbs and insults. He couldn't tell whether the Chinese boy was making an effort at being less obnoxious or was simply being more antisocial than usual, but in either case, it was probably a good thing. Their past history was proof that they were unable to hold a conversation for more than a few minutes that didn't end in one trying to clobber the other.

There was a gentle snore from the other side of the fire, indicating that the other boy had fallen asleep. Ranma laid down on his own bedroll, trying to work out the best way of tracking down Ryouga. It had to be done quickly, before the lost boy managed to leave the country – after all, he was bad enough on foot. For what would no doubt end up being a fortune, Ranma had arranged for Nabiki to report any possible Ryouga sightings and to keep the real reason for the trip a secret. He would check in periodically using a public phone.

He had tried to think of a way to explain the real reason for the trip that didn't expose Ryouga's Jusenkyou curse, but couldn't (much to Tarou's amusement). In the end, the reason he gave was that he was going on a training trip with the other two martial artists, and that they would meet Ryouga at his camping spot in the nearby vacant lot. He had been surprised at how easily the lie had been accepted, especially considering how unlikely it was that he and Tarou would willingly spend time together. He suspected Akane hadn't completely believed him, but fortunately she had been more upset about the prospect of his missing school and the fact that she hadn't been invited.

Ranma closed his eyes. At home, they would have finished dinner by now. He pictured Kasumi washing up the dishes, always so cheerful; his mother would be helping; Nabiki would be trying to work out how to fleece some poor jerk for a few thousand yen; Soun and Pop would be playing yet another game of shogi; and Akane... she'd probably be in her room getting ready for bed, maybe wondering where P-Chan had gone. He smiled, remembering the warmth that he had felt coming from her when she held him as P-Chan… feeling safe, secure… loved.

He sat up abruptly, shaking his head to clear the thoughts. She'd thump me if she knew that was me, he thought ruefully. The un-cute tomboy.

Wrapping his blanket around him, he snuggled down back onto his bedroll. Within a few minutes he was asleep.

---

The clammy night air drew in close around him, but his great bulk and thick shaggy fur kept him from feeling the cold. He curled himself tighter as he felt the knot in his stomach tighten. He hadn't eaten in thirty-six hours. He had no provisions and he had no idea what this body needed to eat. In desperation, he had tried eating grass – part of him was ox, after all – which was the cause of his current stomach ache.

He had taken to travelling on foot. His mind, attuned to the instincts of his little piglet body, couldn't block out the clamour of the multiple creatures that now made up his cursed form. It was worse in the air: the torment of an octopus out of water, of an ox high above the ground, all screaming at him from within. Briefly he wondered what type of mind could handle it; it would take a will far stronger than his – or a mind less open – to block it out.

Maybe he could find a hot spring and change himself back.

"But how long do you think you'd last out here?" a little voice piped up from within. "Alone. Lost. Naked."

Maybe not. With his luck, he'd probably end up wandering in circles out here in the wilderness until he died of starvation or hypothermia.

What had happened? Had he swapped curses with Tarou? Merged them? Was P-Chan still in here somewhere too? What about Ranma's girl curse? He ran his huge hands over what he could reach of his body, trying to find some part of him that could have come from a pig or a girl. Nothing.

He was beginning to regret leaving so suddenly. With help, perhaps he could have figured out what had happened. Ranma might even have been able to help find a cure.

"Why would he want to? You think he won't remember all those fights you had? The time you tried to kill him with the Bakusai Tenketsu?"

He had no other choice than to try and fix this on his own. In the morning, he would begin the search for the shrine where he had initially picked up the cursed water. He sighed. If only he could remember where that was, or work out where he was. Or head in the right direction if he did find out how to get there.

He wrapped his arms around himself and curled up as small as possible. He was alone.

---

Tarou awoke to the warmth of the sun on his face. He stood up, shielding his eyes from the slivers of sunlight that filtered through the trees, and looked out over the concrete sprawl of Tokyo spread out below him to the east. It was still early.

He wasn't surprised to see that ex-fem-boy was still asleep, sprawled half-way off his bedroll and his mouth gaping wide. Obviously it took something greater than mere unconsciousness to keep Ranma's mouth shut. Tarou decided to leave him asleep for as long as possible; he was a great deal easier to ignore that way.

He prodded the remains of the campfire with a stick: there were still a handful of live coals. A few twigs, and some gentle blowing on the coals, and the fire was soon revived. He then tossed on a couple of pieces of wood that were lying nearby to keep it going while he had a look around.

The stream was barely ankle-deep but it was crystal clear. He filled the kettle and hung it above the fire to heat up, and then put on some rice to cook. After checking that Ranma hadn't woken up, he pulled a bar of soap and washing bucket from his backpack, stripped off and returned to the stream.

Bracing himself against the cold, Tarou filled the bucket and upended it over himself. He tensed as he felt the unfamiliar change in his body: his chest swelling; hips spreading; other parts disappearing altogether. It was sickening, his body twisting and shrinking; the complete opposite of that red-hot surge of power and strength he normally felt during the transformation to his monster form. He closed his eyes briefly to steady himself.

Awkwardly, he soaped himself, trying to avoid the parts of his body that didn't feel like they belonged to him, and then rinsed off. He tentatively ran his hands over his female body, examining the changes: his shoulders were narrower, his limbs long and slender. He flexed a bicep, frowning at the lack of muscle on his new frame.

He bent down to pick up the soap and bucket, catching a glimpse of his reflection in the water. With a growl, he turned and strode back up to the campsite. Thankfully, the water in the kettle was hot enough to change him back; he poured it over his head, relief filling him as his body returned to normal.

He pulled on his white pants and scaled vest, trying to ignore the image he had seen reflected in the stream: his own face, instantly recognisable and hardly changed, atop an obviously female body. From somewhere in the back of his mind a thought surfaced, how attractive the combination had been… how right it looked. He squashed that thought, angrily. At least fem-boy's cursed and normal forms had been different enough for others to mistake them for two separate people; his could not.

He checked the rice. It was cooked.

"Hey fem-boy, wake up." Tarou called. He gave the sleeping Ranma an impatient nudge with his foot. No response. With a grin, he upended his water bottle over the pigtailed boy, who instantly woke up with an indignant – and now porcine – squeal.

"Bwee! Bweeeeee!"

Chuckling, Tarou emptied the last of the kettle on the little pig, transforming it into an angry, wet Ranma.

"What the hell didja do that for, you jerk?!" Ranma yelled, folding his arms across his chest. "You could've just woken me up normally!"

"I tried," Tarou replied, smirking. "Besides, I prefer this way." He scooped some rice into his own bowl, and then tossed an empty bowl in the pigtailed boy's direction. "Eat up. It's time to get going."

---

Ranma and Tarou set off shortly after breakfast and continued further into the mountains looking for signs of Ryouga, but finding none. Whatever mood Tarou had been in the day before that had kept him civil had left as of that morning, and, as the day wore on, was acting more and more prickly and irritable, throwing around insults and snide remarks at every opportunity. Naturally, Ranma had responded by calling the other boy by his name, and before long, all conversation between the two had degenerated into name calling and exchanging blows as they walked.

As the afternoon wore on, heavy storm clouds began to roll in and a cool wind began to blow in short, damp gusts. Ranma decided to make camp early and hurriedly pitched the tent, finishing only minutes before the first raindrops fell.

Ranma opened the tent-flap and peered into the darkness. He had known the storm was still raging outside, but the act of checking took his mind off the storm brewing inside the tent.

"So let me just sum up our situation. Your moronic friend can get lost walking down the street. He can now fly, so you have no idea if he's even still in Japan. On top of that, your brilliant plan to track him down consists of what? Strolling around Japan until he just decides to show up?!"

Oh gods, Ranma thought, here we go again. Admittedly, his plan didn't seem quite so stellar when spelt out like that, but the sheer smugness of the Chinese boy and his obvious enjoyment of yet another verbal sparring match was making his fists itch. "Well, he usually does just show up. There've been heaps of times when we've run into each other while out training or something."

"Young love," Tarou interjected sarcastically, clasping his hands over his heart.

Ranma cradled his head in his hands while he fought back the urge to clout the other boy over the head. "Someone's gotta have seen him," he continued. "Maybe Nabiki's got some leads. A two story tall butt-ugly, tentacled, flying monster doesn't just disappear." He grinned as Tarou bristled at the insult.

"And who were you going to ask, genius? It was your idea to avoid other people."

"Because that's what Ryouga will be doing. Unless he's found a way to change back, he'll be hiding."

"From you?"

"From everyone. He won't like scaring people, and when he gets upset he tends to disappear."

"Do I need to guess who normally upsets him?" Tarou smirked.

"You'd know all about upsetting people! It's all you ever do. Ever wondered why you got no friends? It's got nothin' to do with your name. It's just you, Pantyhose!"

"Shut up! And stop calling me that!!"

Ranma never even saw it coming. A swift kick sent him flying out into the rain, instantly triggering the pig curse. He gave an involuntarily whimper as his whole body constricted and shrunk around him, his mind seeming to contract in on itself.

Growling, Ranma bounded back into the tent and launched himself at Tarou's face, scrabbling with his little hooves furiously.

"Cool it, piggy," the Chinese boy said, seizing the piglet by the scruff of the neck. "I quite like pork," he added with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

Ranma struggled against the vice-like grip, his flush of rage unexpectedly engulfed by waves of terror rising up from the back of his piglet brain. His heart was racing; beating so fast it was practically humming in his chest. He fought to push the fear away; telling himself that Tarou was only teasing, but his rational mind had completely lost control to the survival instincts of the little pig.

Tarou chuckled, apparently enjoying the little pig's reaction, and then lowered Ranma to the floor. "Tomorrow morning, we are going to head back down to that village we saw before we made camp, and find out if anyone has seen any trace of your friend." The phrase 'your friend' had been spat out contemptuously, as though it were even more of an insult than any of his standard derogatory nicknames. "And when you phone home, I suggest you get Nabiki to expand her search area to outside Japan. That idiot could be halfway across China by now." He pressed his hand to the side of the kettle and smiled. "The water's gone cold. I guess you'll be spending the night like that."

Ranma's heartbeat didn't slow completely until Tarou had curled up on his bedroll. He walked over to his own bedroll and lay down. Ranma knew he was no coward, but he was stunned to realise how completely helpless he had been in the face of such abject terror. Had he actually been in danger, could he have regained enough control to save himself?

Ryouga had almost been eaten on several occasions. He remembered Ryouga telling him how he had nearly been turned into sweet and sour pork at Jusenkyou. Later, Shampoo had tried to cook him for Ranma's lunch. What else had the lost boy faced while alone out here in the mountains? He couldn't blame Ryouga for wanting to be rid of his curse; maybe he'd be happier as a monster than a helpless, tiny, black piglet.

Ranma heard Tarou's breathing slow, indicating that the Chinese boy had fallen asleep. He wondered how long it would be before the two had a serious fight. Not that he would mind giving the jerk a thrashing, especially after tonight, but he didn't want to risk having Tarou leave. He couldn't risk the Chinese boy finding Ryouga and a cure without him, and although he didn't like to admit it, he knew just how long he would survive if he were abandoned out here in piglet form.

---

The next morning, Ranma awoke to the mingled smells of wood smoke and … roast chicken? He sniffed again. Whatever it was, it smelt good.

He nosed open the tent flap and peered outside. The rain had stopped, quite recently judging by the amount of water on the ground, but it was still overcast. Despite the damp, Tarou had managed to get a fire going, and he had put on some rice to cook. Somehow, he had also caught, plucked and gutted two small ducks, which were now skewered rotisserie style over the fire. Best of all, the kettle was sitting beside the fire, still steaming.

Tarou himself was in nearby clearing, moving quickly and fluidly through a series of difficult kata. He was very good, Ranma admitted grudgingly. Ranma's own style was very fast and graceful, but the other boy moved like a dancer. The Chinese boy's skill did not lie with simply with his speed though; he could put a deceptive amount of power behind his kicks and punches as well.

When he'd finished, Tarou returned to the fire and rotated the ducks. They appeared to be cooked.

"Bweee!" Ranma squealed. He sat down by the kettle and gave it a tap with his hoof to attract attention. Tarou stared down at him intently for several moments, and then picked up the kettle and poured a stream of hot water over him. Ranma sighed with relief. The Chinese boy seemed to be in a slightly better mood this morning; perhaps it would be best to try and keep him that way.

"Thanks, man."

Ranma looked around for the clothes he had lost when he'd transformed in the rain, and found them slung haphazardly over a low hanging tree branch. They were still damp, so he grabbed a spare pair of clothes from the tent and pulled them on. He sniffed again. "Smells good. Where'd the ducks come from?"

"Where do you think? I caught them," Tarou said quietly, deftly separating a duck into portions with a knife.

"With a trap?"

"No. With a stick." Tarou picked up a foot-long length of wood, and mimed throwing it with a low, sweeping motion before tossing it onto the fire. "You've never had to hunt for yourself?"

"Not really. Pop and me used to fish sometimes. Mostly we just bought stuff." Or stole it, Ranma thought to himself. Or went hungry. "So, is this an apology or something?"

"What?"

"You know… for tossin' me out into the rain and stuff."

The withering glance he received indicated exactly what Tarou thought of that idea. "Don't flatter yourself," he snorted contemptuously. "This is just what I'd normally do if I didn't have you hanging around."

So much for trying to keep the jerk in a good mood, Ranma thought. "I guess you do this a lot, huh?"

"None of your business," Tarou muttered.

"Hey, I was just being friendly," Ranma said, raising a hand defensively.

Tarou's grey eyes locked onto Ranma's, observing him coolly. He handed Ranma some meat and a bowl of rice, and then sat down with his own.

"Thanks. I guess I'm lucky it's not pork, right?"

Tarou chuckled. "I figured you wouldn't taste very good anyway."

Ranma tasted the duck cautiously; Tarou had apparently found something in Kasumi's travelling supplies to season it with. "Hey, this is really good," he said appreciatively. He took a bigger bite.

"It should be. This is how I live."

Ranma barely heard the words; they had been said so quietly. "Really? So you got no home or nothing?"

"No"

"What about your village?"

"What about it? Don't get me wrong, I choose to live like this," Tarou said, the barest hint of defiance entering his voice.

"Why? Don't you have family?"

"None of your business."

Tarou gave Ranma a stern look and continued eating. Realising that the other boy wasn't going to be answering any further questions, Ranma did the same.

---

By late morning, the two boys had arrived at a small town nestled in a valley. Tarou was surprised that his idiot travelling companion hadn't argued about going there, especially since he hadn't been in much shape to argue last night. At least fem-boy did seem to be making an effort to be less irritating this morning. Maybe Ranma wasn't the type to hold a grudge, or perhaps he just come to terms with who was the brains of the pair. And besides, Tarou thought to himself with a smile, he had a vested interest in getting fem-boy back to his original form.

He looked around to confirm that Ranma was still talking on the phone. He had talked to the middle Tendou girl for several minutes. From the sound of it, she hadn't found out anything useful, but Tarou had been pleased to hear Ranma take his advice and ask her to start checking for sightings across all of Asia. He had then asked for Akane, at which point Tarou had moved out of earshot; the last thing he needed to hear was Ranma fumbling his way through a conversation with his fiancé.

Finally, he heard the click as Ranma hung up the phone.

"She didn't find anything?"

"No," Ranma answered as he approached, "but she'd come up with a long list. It took us a while to go through it. She said something about lights in the sky near here though… you didn't splash yourself with a spring that adds the ability to glow in the dark, did you?"

"Spring of Drowned Firefly?" he chuckled. "No."

"Time to start asking around, I guess."

The first door they came to was opened by a dainty, middle-aged woman. Ranma gave her a broad smile and swaggered forward.

"Excuse me. I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts," he said. He gestured towards Tarou, eyes glinting mischievously. "And this is..."

Tarou's heart sank. He should have known better than to think that Ranma wouldn't take advantage of such a perfect opportunity to humiliate him. "Don't," he warned quietly.

Ranma continued, laughing, "…his name is…"

"Shut up!" Tarou growled, clouting the pigtailed boy over the head with a fist.

"Okay, he's sorta my sidekick," Ranma conceded, rubbing the back of his head. "Anyway, we're tracking down a dangerous monster that's s'posed to be hanging around here. Have you heard anything about it?"

The woman eyed the two of them warily.

"Fighting monsters is a sacred part of a martial artist's duty," Ranma added, striking what he presumably thought to be a heroic pose.

The woman apologised and closed the door.

"I think you scared her," Ranma offered, sniggering.

"No, that was you being an idiot." Tarou cuffed the other boy over the head. "Sidekick?" he snorted disgustedly.

"Oh, so you'd prefer Pant-"

Ranma's next words were cut off abruptly when Tarou clamped a hand firmly over his mouth. Surprisingly, the pigtailed boy didn't struggle, but instead just looked up at him, blue eyes still twinkling with merriment.

"Shut up! Just …don't call me that. And I'm not your sidekick." Tarou slowly released his grip on Ranma's mouth, and they started walking on towards the next house. "I'll do it myself. That way you won't screw things up."

"Lemme guess," Ranma said, rolling his eyes, "you're gonna beat it out of them?"

"I don't beat up people for no reason," Tarou growled.

None of the next dozen people they interviewed had seen or heard anything either. It was starting to look as though Ryouga hadn't been through the area.

"No, I haven't seen anything but Kaitou told me that something big had gotten into his garden. You should ask him. He lives in the last house on this street, on the left."

It didn't sound like much of a lead but, being the only one they had, Tarou and Ranma went to investigate. Kaitou, as it turned out, had several fruit trees in his back yard which had been destroyed by an animal sometime during the night.

"I don't know what kind of animal could have done this, though," the old man said. "Whatever did it was really big. It even stripped the fruit off the tops of the trees. It left tracks everywhere too… cloven hooves, like a pig or a cow."

With a smirk, Tarou turned to Ranma who grinned back at him. "That sounds like our monster. Could we see your yard?"

The old man hadn't been exaggerating: the orchard was a mess. The fence had been knocked down, and every one of the fruit trees had been completely stripped of fruit, and by something either clumsy or in a great hurry judging by the discarded branches on the ground. More conclusively though, there were hoof prints the size of dinner plates dug into the soft ground: the hoof prints of a giant ox.

Tarou bent down to examine a hoof print. It had water in it, and had been partially washed away; Ryouga had been here not too long before the end of the storm last night. He looked up to see Ranma following the tracks away from the orchard. Apparently ex-pig-boy was on foot, which would make it much easier to track him down. Things were looking up.

Tarou jogged over to Ranma. "He's about twelve hours ahead. If he's stayed walking, we should be able to catch him by sunset."

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's go."

The hoof prints were obvious enough to allow the two boys to follow them easily at a jog, a pace they could both keep up for hours on end. The tracks led in a vague, meandering path, but were generally headed in the direction of the mountains.

"Is the idiot incapable of walking in a straight line?" Tarou asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, pretty much."

By late afternoon, the two boys were high in the mountains. The clouds in the sky had thickened ominously, and the wind blew in gusts, cool and thick with moisture. Tarou could smell damp earth on the wind: rain wouldn't be far off. He pulled his cloak out of his backpack and draped it around his shoulders. He turned around to Ranma who had been watching him in bewilderment; the pigtailed boy's expression soon turned to shocked realisation.

"I knew I forgot something!" Ranma groaned.

"What?"

"I didn't bring an umbrella or anything! I'm such an idiot!"

"Looks like we finally agree on something," Tarou said smoothly.

"What do I do? I'll turn into a pig!"

"Hope I'm wrong about the rain, porkchop."

Smirking, Tarou hoisted his backpack back onto his shoulders, and both boys set off again at a run. He was astonished how anyone with a Jusenkyou curse could forget about the weather. He always had his cloak with him, and he had seen the big red umbrella that Ryouga carried. Fem-boy was obviously even denser than he had imagined; either that or perhaps he didn't dislike his girl body as much as claimed to.

There was a rumble of thunder and then the rain began to fall in fat, cold drops.

"Bweeeee!!"

At the noise, Tarou stopped and turned to the piglet. It was sitting on the ground, looking pathetically up at him. Just then, an ear-splitting bovine roar came echoing through the trees: they had caught up with Ryouga.

Quick as a flash, Tarou scooped up Ranma's backpack and sprinted off in the direction of the noise. They might not get another chance to catch Ryouga; the little idiot pig would have to catch up as best it could.

Tarou caught sight of Ryouga-monster milling around in a large clearing between the trees. He dropped the backpacks on the ground and approached the huge beast. It returned his gaze, cautiously at first, then with increasing anger. It stepped forward, clenching a massive fist. Tarou raised his fists in an offensive stance.

"You think I won't fight you in that body, is that it?" he asked, quietly amused. "I know what that body is capable of, I know its weaknesses. So, you can come quietly or not. It's all the same to me."

Ryouga-monster lumbered forward, huge fist swinging down towards him. Tarou waited until it was almost on top of him, and then nimbly dodged out of the way, smirking. This boy was much slower than he had been in this body; this should be easy. Ryouga lunged again, faster this time; Tarou dodged again and ducked around behind him.

"I thought you'd at least make this challenging for me."

Ryouga growled and then rushed forward faster, his fist outstretched. Tarou evaded the fist easily, and darted around behind the monster again. As he had anticipated, the beast swung around in an attempt to catch him but its comparatively tiny hooves could not find enough purchase in the mud. One leg twisted under it awkwardly and it fell to the ground with a howl of pain. Before it had a chance to rise, Tarou sprung up onto the creature's head and aimed a series of devastating punches to its eyes.

The next thing Tarou knew, his cloak had been seized in the beast's fingers and he was dangling in the air. With a dismissive flick of the huge fingers, he was sent flying through the air and landed heavily on his back. He groaned in pain, cursing himself for not having removed the cloak earlier.

He carefully worked his way to his feet, and threw the cloak aside. Immediately, the rain washed over his body, triggering his transformation. This had to be one of the few times he hadn't wanted to trigger his curse during a fight, he thought wryly. He hadn't wanted to fight in this weaker body, but keeping the cloak on had been a dangerous and stupid mistake.

Ryouga-monster had lumbered to his feet. He was limping badly; his leg looked as though it had been badly sprained, but not broken, Tarou noted with surprise. The creature lunged towards him again, a single finger outstretched. Puzzled, Tarou sidestepped the finger easily. It impacted the ground, causing the earth around it to shatter in a massive explosion. He was flung through the air again along with a bunch of boulders.

He landed roughly, and then quickly twisted out of the path of two enormous rocks that would otherwise have crushed him. That was Bakusai Tenketsu, he realised. It was an old Joketsuzoku trick, one he should have recognised sooner. That explained why his opponent was so tough. It would be worthless trying to trick him into hitting himself with those boulders.

Ryouga-monster stepped forward again and jabbed a finger into the ground, angled away from him so that the resultant blast was directed forward towards Tarou. Then, as the Chinese boy leapt to avoid it, he jabbed at the ground again and again, filling the air with flying boulders. In midair, Tarou was unable to dodge the incoming onslaught and was struck from the left by what felt like a flying mountain. The force of the impact smashed it apart and he plummeted to the ground amidst the rubble.

Pain engulfed him, emanating from his shoulder. His left shoulder joint was grossly swollen and was sitting too far forward. He hoped it was dislocated rather than broken, but in any case it would be useless for the rest of the fight. Dazed, Tarou staggered to his feet and wiped a trickle of blood away from his mouth, fighting down waves of nausea. His whole body ached and it hurt to breathe. He prodded his side gingerly; by the feel of it, he had also cracked several of his ribs.

Curiously, Ryouga hadn't tried to close the gap between them again. The beast simply stood there calmly, its wrists pressed together and its palms cupped outwards towards him.

Tarou blinked. The world seemed to explode in a white-hot burst of light and pain, knocking him to the ground. It was heavy and dark, and yet somehow blinding and it pressed him into the earth so he couldn't move an inch. It was pressing him down and swirling inside him and he couldn't breathe. Finally the light passed; he closed his eyes and let the darkness swallow him.

Revision History: Spelling / grammar fixes mainly, plus some minor changes to establish Ranma and Tarou's relationship a little better.