Disclaimer: I don't own and didn't create Ranma ½ or any of these characters.
Chapter Five: Convalescence
Falling. He could remember falling through the dark.
His head was an explosion of agony. It was all he could feel, all that he was; a supernova of pain threatening to bust out through his skull. He focused on his breathing, on feeling the pain ebbing and flowing with every breath, trying to will it away.
His eyes flickered open. Sky. It was daylight. He let his head roll to one side. He was by a campfire, on the grass. A figure walked past him, carrying a second over its shoulder. The figure laid the other down on the grass, and then walked off out of sight again.
He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He allowed his eyes to close, and drifted back into that world of pain.
Falling.
Jumbles of images floated past. Places, faces. He could only watch them, not think or feel. A pretty girl with short black hair and kind eyes. A fish jumping out of a pond. A panda landing on a bamboo pole, high above the water. A red umbrella flying through the air. His memories, fragmented.
Throbbing.
Someone was touching him, their hands soft and gentle on his head. They were dabbing at the side of his head with something warm and wet. It stung a little, but the pain was nothing compared to that inside his head.
"… hurts…" he managed to gasp out.
"I'm not surprised," came the reply.
It wasn't a kind voice, but the hands were, so he didn't mind. Whatever they were doing didn't help the pain much, but he was grateful for the attention. The pain seemed to be fading on its own, anyway.
He opened his eyes and found himself looking up at a face. It was a little out of focus, but it was a pretty face with short black hair.
"Akane…?" he murmured.
He could see that it wasn't, now that he looked harder. The eyes were wrong, but the shape of the face was similar.
"No… pretty like 'kane…"
The eyes narrowed slightly, but the hands didn't stop their dabbing and wiping. He smiled and closed his eyes, happy to let whoever it was look after him for a while.
Blood on his hands. Ranma's blood. Hell, that didn't surprise him. He'd always expected that one day he'd have fem-boy's blood on his hands, but not like this…
The last person who'd called him pretty, he'd had that person's blood on his hands, too.
"Do you want to make a few yuan, pretty boy?"
The man's lascivious grin deepened when he saw the predatory gleam in Tarou's eyes, obviously mistaking it for something else.
"Oh, really? You'd like some of this, would you?"
The man ran his fingers through his greasy hair and nodded, his eyes glazed with lust. Tarou cracked his knuckles and stepped forward slowly, almost languidly, all the while chuckling to himself quietly.
It was over in just a few moments. The man's nose shattered under his knuckles with a satisfying crunch, followed by his jaw, and then both his arms. And as for the rest of him, there were some parts he wouldn't be able to make use of for a long time, no matter how many pretty boys came along.
Tarou had no intention of killing him; it was far more of a punishment to let him live with the pain. Far more of a punishment to make him explain his injuries to his wife; in Tarou's experience, despite their tastes for pretty little boys, most of these men had wives and children of their own.
Tarou opened his hands again and examined the drying, copper streaks. Blood on his hands, but not from hurting someone. From helping them.
It hadn't worked, last time.
A child's voice sobbing. "Please, wake up!" Tiny hands caked with blood. "Don't leave me!"
No. Don't think about that.
Tarou washed the last of Ranma's blood from his hands with a stream of warm water from the kettle, and then wiped them dry on his pants. He hadn't hit fem-boy. To his surprise, he hadn't even felt a need to. Ranma had been barely conscious when he'd said it and probably hadn't even recognised him. And hitting him might have made his injuries worse. The pig-tailed boy's skull appeared to be more or less the right shape, but he couldn't tell any more than that.
Still, he had to give Ranma some credit – but only grudgingly, he reminded himself. The boy was tough and a fast healer. A couple of hours of rest and he'd be back to his usual annoying self.
The other boy was less of a problem. For some reason, the idiot had allowed himself to become starved and dehydrated. Stupid, lazy city dweller! It was easy to catch food in that body, and there was water everywhere. The fool obviously had no idea how to survive in the wilderness. That big pack he carried around must be for show.
Tarou unfastened the water bottle from his sash and knelt down by the lost boy. He'd need some water and something to eat if he was going to recover.
"Hey, porkchop." Tarou slapped the sleeping boy lightly on the cheeks. "Wake up."
Ryouga began to stir. Tarou slapped him a few extra times for good measure, and then sat back on his heels. The other boy's eyes flickered open. He blinked groggily several times, trying to focus on the Chinese boy. He tried to speak, but nothing came out other than a hoarse whisper.
"Good. Now drink this." Tarou opened the water bottle and held it out.
Ryouga ran a tongue over his cracked lips, and then grasped the bottle with an unsteady hand. Tarou kept his own fingers wrapped around the bottle to prevent it from spilling, and then cupped his other hand under the lost boy's neck to help him sit up. He was far weaker than Tarou had thought; he must have used up the very last of his strength bringing them from the cavern.
Ryouga took a tentative sip of the water, and then drained it in several gulps, his lips pressed to the bottle as though his life depended on it. Despite the boy's weakened condition, Tarou had to wrestle the bottle from his fingers to get it back from him. Ryouga hiccupped, and then suddenly turned away and vomited the water back onto the ground.
"Lovely," Tarou said, wrinkling his nose. "It's not going to do you any good if you don't keep it down."
Looking shamefaced, Ryouga wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Tarou sighed and went to fetch the second water bottle. This time, he unscrewed the lid and tipped most of it onto the ground before offering it to the other boy. Obviously, his stomach would only be able to take a small amount at a time.
He pried Ryouga's fingers off the empty water bottle and screwed the lid back onto it. By the time he had returned from refilling the bottles, the lost boy should be ready for some more.
"What about something to eat?" he asked.
Ryouga nodded slowly.
No doubt ex-pig-boy would throw up any solid food he was given. He'd need something light to start with, something easy to digest. Tarou remembered the packets of instant miso soup he'd seen amongst the food supplies. Yes, he thought to himself with a smile, they should be suitable.
He started to rise to his feet, and then stopped when he saw that the lost boy was trying to say something. His voice was raspy and hard to understand, and Tarou eventually managed to make out the words.
"Thank you."
Tarou blinked, surprised at the unaccustomed flush of warmth that those words had brought to his face. "Not a problem," he replied awkwardly.
Without another word, he grabbed the kettle and both water bottles, and marched off through the trees towards the waterhole.
When Ranma opened his eyes again, the sun was sitting low in the sky and the pain in his head had lessened to be no worse than a severe headache. He raised his hand to his head, gingerly feeling around the sore spot on the left side of his head; there was a large bump and the skin had been split, but it didn't seem too serious. He worked himself onto his side and looked over to the motionless figure lying on the other side of the campfire.
Ryouga. They'd found Ryouga, but when? They'd been looking for him, and then... he'd fallen… and he couldn't remember. He sat up slowly, trying to avoid any sudden moves with his throbbing head, and then crawled over to the lost boy's side.
Ryouga was lying wrapped in a blanket, asleep or unconscious – Ranma couldn't tell which – and his face was gaunt and pale. Without his bandanna to keep them in place, his thick, dark bangs hung low over his eyes; Ranma gently brushed them aside with his fingertips. At the light touch, the lost boy groaned softly and murmured something under his breath, one of his pointy canines protruding slightly from his lips. Ranma smiled and laid a hand on Ryouga's shoulder, happy to see that he was safe.
"Good to see you're not planning on lying around all day."
Ranma turned his head to see Tarou approaching, kettle in hand and a large smirk plastered across his face.
The Chinese boy moved the cooking pot from the campfire and placed it on the ground nearby, where it sat, steaming fragrantly. He poured some water into a pot full of uncooked rice, and then hung both it and the kettle over the fire.
"I guess you found Ryouga," Ranma remarked, as he sat down beside Tarou. "Where was he? In that cave?"
"He found you, actually. He caught you after you fell."
"Fell? That's right. The cliff broke." Ranma brushed his fingers over the bump on his head. "What happened? Why does my head hurt?"
Tarou gave a contemptuous snort. "He thought I'd done it. Hit you over the head and thrown you off. You must have hit your head on the way down, otherwise he'd have known it wasn't me."
"And that was you touching my head earlier?"
"I was washing the blood off so I could see whether you'd broken your fool head open." Tarou gave a chuckle. "You haven't, so it looks like I'm stuck with you for at least a little while longer."
"Oh," Ranma said, nonplussed. "Thanks… I think." He gestured at the sleeping lost boy with a thumb. "So he's gonna be okay then?"
"He needs food and water. He might take a couple of days to get back to full strength, but he should be fine."
"I don't understand," Ranma said. "He knows how to survive, does it all the time."
Tarou shrugged, apparently unconcerned. "By the way, it's watering time again. Since you're awake, it's your turn."
"Huh?"
"He needs water, remember?" Tarou said, rolling his eyes. "Give him some. The bottle's over there." He pointed towards Ryouga.
Ranma moved over to the lost boy and knelt down beside him. He rummaged around for the water bottle, and soon found it nearby, lying beside an empty bowl that still contained drying shreds of seaweed.
"Oh, and make sure you wake him up first."
"Just how stupid do you think I am?" Ranma shot an angry glare at the grinning Tarou, and then turned his attention back to the sleeping figure beside him.
"Hey, Ryouga." He gave the other boy's shoulder a gentle shake. "Wake up."
Ryouga peered up at him groggily through half-closed eyes that were sunken deep into shadowed sockets. "Ranma," he whispered in a ragged voice, "you're awake."
"Hey, that's my line!" Ranma grinned. "How are you feelin'?"
"Tired. Thirsty." Ryouga sat up carefully, his blanket sliding down his bare chest to his waist. "What about you?"
He handed the water bottle to Ryouga. "You know me. Takes more than a bump on the head to keep me down."
"That's because there's nothing in there to get injured," Tarou quipped.
Ranma rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored the Chinese boy. His head was hurting too much to want to get into an argument now. "Looks like Tarou's already given you somethin' to eat, at least."
Ryouga took a large swig from the bottle and then nodded. "Yeah. Instant soup, I think." He stared off into the distance, his expression troubled. "You came after me," he added in a quiet voice.
"Course I did. We're pals, right?"
"We are?"
Ranma nodded and then, sensing that it wasn't quite enough, gave the lost boy a reassuring pat on the shoulder for good measure.
"I thought I'd have to stay like that forever. I thought I'd never..."
Ryouga's large, brown eyes filled with tears. He hid his face in the crook of his arm and began to weep. Ranma watched in awkward silence, unsure of what to say or do, just like he always did when someone cried. Unable to think of anything better to do, he reached around and tentatively patted the other boy on the back.
Ryouga peered up at him, his eyes reddened and watery, and sniffed loudly. "What happened? Why did I turn into… that thing?"
Ranma opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a flood of cold water streaming over his head, triggering his curse. He looked up to see Tarou standing over him and grinning, water bottle in one hand and a steaming kettle in the other. Ryouga was glaring at the Chinese boy with barely concealed distaste.
"Bweee!!"
"I'm sure you can guess what happens to me," Tarou said to Ryouga. He then poured a stream of hot water over Ranma's head.
"Hey!" Ranma sprang to his feet, and immediately regretted it. He waited for the pounding in his head to pass. "What'd you do that for?" he growled.
"I would've thought that was obvious," Tarou replied dryly.
"I could've just explained it to him!"
"I prefer the practical approach."
Ranma glanced at the empty water bottle in the other boy's hands, and then down at the one Ryouga had drained earlier. "I bet there's no more cold water around here either, is there?"
"Nope," Tarou said, no longer bothering to hide his amusement.
"Why you sneaky little-" Ranma growled. Every time! Every damn time he started thinking that the Chinese boy maybe wasn't so bad, he'd go and do something like this again. He dropped back onto the ground beside Ryouga and started to tug his damp clothes back on.
Ryouga flicked his eyes back and forth between Ranma and Tarou, bewildered. "So we all swapped? How?"
"You tell me," Tarou said flatly. "It was your water." He knelt down beside Ryouga and gave a menacing smile. "The question is how do I get my body back?"
Ryouga blinked, confused. "I don't know. I don't know what happened."
Tarou gave a derisive snort and leaned in closer toward the lost boy. "What do-"
"Jeez, Tarou, not now!" Ranma snapped. He placed a hand firmly on Tarou's chest and tried to angle himself between the Chinese boy and Ryouga. "At least wait till he's feeling better."
The Chinese boy looked down disapprovingly at Ranma's hand and then locked eyes with the pig-tailed boy, his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed tightly together in an insincere smile, and then stalked off back to the campfire.
"He's a jerk," Ranma muttered, lowering his voice so that only Ryouga could hear. "Not as bad as he used to be, but he's still a jerk."
Ryouga paused, his brows furrowed. "Does Akane know?"
"Yeah, she's met him."
Ryouga rolled his eyes. "No. About the curses? About P-Chan?"
"Nah," Ranma grinned. "She thinks we're out training together."
"Really?" Ryouga frowned slightly. "You lied to Akane."
Ranma slapped a palm to his face and sighed. The idiot couldn't have just been grateful that he'd kept his secret, could he? "Damnit Ryouga! What was I s'posed to say?"
"I don't kn-"
"Are you two hungry?" the Chinese boy called from the campfire.
Ranma's irritation vanished as quickly as it had come at the prospect of food. "Yeah, I'm starvin'!" he called back brightly.
"I'm still pretty hungry, too," Ryouga agreed.
Ranma clambered to his feet and began to head towards the campfire, where Tarou was scooping rice into bowls. As he approached, the Chinese boy glanced up.
"You want to find some clothes for him?" Tarou said. He nodded stiffly in Ryouga's direction.
Ranma peered over his shoulder. Ryouga had managed to work his way to his feet and was swaying back and forth unsteadily, clasping his blanket around his waist with one hand.
"Oh yeah, in here."
Ranma grabbed the lost boy by the arm and led him into the tent, where he quickly dug out a pair of pants and a shirt from his backpack. He was glad that he'd thought to bring so many changes of clothes; between the clothes he'd lost when he'd been turned into a pig, the ones he'd lent to the others, and the ones that were too filthy even for him to wear, he was nearly out.
"You need a hand or anythin'?" he asked, handing the clothes to Ryouga.
"I can dress myself, Ranma."
Ranma shrugged and headed back outside. He eagerly accepted a bowl containing some rice and leftover pork and vegetables from that morning, and some chopsticks from Tarou. Ranma sniffed appreciatively and took a large bite. The Chinese boy wasn't a Kasumi level chef, of course, but the food was much better on this trip than it had been on previous ones when it was his father – or Akane, he thought with a groan – cooking.
Ryouga soon emerged from the tent, wearing the black pants and green Chinese style shirt that Ranma had given him. With his recent weight loss, the shirt hung loosely around his usually broader frame. He knelt down beside Ranma and picked up the third bowl of food and a pair of chopsticks.
"What is this?" he asked, peering curiously into the bowl. He sniffed it tentatively.
"Pork and vegetables," Tarou replied.
"P-pork?"
"What's the matter? You don't eat pork?" Tarou casually popped a piece of meat into his mouth and then smirked unpleasantly at Ryouga.
Ryouga looked down into his bowl again, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. "Well, I… don't…" He cleared his throat and fixed Tarou with a steady gaze. "Sure, I eat pork. Why wouldn't I?" He picked up a piece of pork in his chopsticks and gave it a stern look, as if daring it to contradict him, and then hesitantly placed it in his mouth. "You eat beef, right?"
"Of course. Beef, eel, octopus, birds… all good."
Ranma scraped the last grains of rice clinging to his bowl into his mouth and then helped himself to another serving. "What about yeti?"
"Never seen a yeti."
As he ate, Ranma watched Ryouga out of the corner of his eye. He could see the lost boy was only picking at his food, although Ranma guessed that was because he was squeamish about eating pork, despite his protests to the contrary. He did wonder briefly about the lost, desolate expression in the other boy's eyes, but then decided that was probably caused by his recent illness.
Ranma blinked his eyes, waiting for them to adjust to the dark. Idly, he wondered what time it was, but then quickly decided that it didn't matter. Time had no meaning out here in the mountains; you travelled when it was light, slept when it wasn't and ate whenever you were hungry, just like he had all those years with his father. No timetables and no limitations. It was refreshing.
He lay still for a while, not sure whether it was worth trying to get back to sleep or not. To his left, he heard Ryouga whimper in his sleep and roll over. Ranma waited until he had settled back down and then silently crawled to the tent entrance. Perhaps if he went outside and stretched his legs for a while he might feel more like sleeping.
The moon shone down full and bright, bathing the land in a silvery light. Surprisingly, the fire was still going strong. Ranma knelt down by it and prodded the coals with a stick, watching the flames dance in their twisting, hypnotic rhythm.
He caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Tarou, clad in only his white pants, performing a kata off in the distance. The Chinese boy flitted back and forth like a ghost, gleaming white in the moonlight, throwing punches and kicks that were almost too fast for Ranma to follow. Ranma watched in rapt attention, comparing the moves to his own, the same way he had used to watch his father practice as a small boy. Back then, Genma had moved with a raw, savage power that had seemed almost god-like to his young eyes; and now… he saw images of Genma drinking sake, playing shogi with Soun, lolling around on the floor in his panda form… Ranma shook his head in disgust; at least he wouldn't end up like that.
Tarou whirled around as if he were being attacked from behind, and planted a series of punches aimed at the phantom enemy's nose, throat and sternum. Ranma continued to watch curiously. How often had the Chinese boy practiced like this? Every morning? And what about Ryouga? He had spoken of training in the mountains, numerous times. And what had he, Ranma, done lately? Some katas one morning, a sparring session, and a brief scuffle in the past week. And before that? He had used to spar with his father every morning, but then that had fizzled out and he started spending the mornings sleeping in rather than practice on his own. At the time he hadn't minded; he was getting more than enough training fighting the many mad martial artists that lived around or visited Nerima, but in the months following Saffron and the failed wedding, there had been less and less of them, too. Ranma shook his head again and chuckled to himself. He didn't know what he was worried about; the other two only needed to practice so much because they didn't have the raw talent that he possessed. He was still the best, wasn't he?
He watched as Tarou slowed his movements, eventually coming to a standstill. For a moment, the Chinese boy dropped his face into his hands, shoulders slumped, and then stood upright again and walked slowly back to towards the tent. He seemed to stiffen slightly as he noticed the other boy, but it was gone so quickly that Ranma was left wondering whether he'd imagined it. Without saying a word, he sat down a short distance from the fire, one knee drawn up against his chest, and stared into the flames.
"How come you're up?" Ranma asked.
Tarou turned his gaze upon Ranma. "How come you're up?"
"I just woke up, I guess. Prob'ly spent too long asleep today." Ranma paused, waiting for the other boy to answer his question. After a while, he added, "What about you? Dreaming, again?"
"How did you-"
"You talk in your sleep, remember? It wakes me up sometimes."
Tarou looked mildly embarrassed.
"I think Ryouga was having a bad dream when I left. It wouldn't surprise me." Ranma gave a small chuckle. "I don't think he thought much of your curse."
"Good. He'll be happy to give it back then."
"At least we found him in time," the pig-tailed boy said, "and he's getting better. I don't understand what happened to him. It's like… I dunno… like he just gave up." Tarou looked at him blankly, although Ranma couldn't tell whether it was because he didn't care or didn't understand. "How did you know what was wrong with him? And what to do?"
"You think I've never been without food and water before?" the Chinese boy snorted. He paused, a distant look in his eyes, before continuing in a quiet voice, "When I first left, I didn't know how to look after myself. I could set some basic traps, and that was it. I had to teach myself everything." He rested his chin on his raised knee, and wrapped an arm around his leg, pulling it close against his chest. "I nearly starved to death that first winter."
"So why didn't you go back?"
"I…" Tarou wrapped his other arm around his leg. "It just wasn't an option, okay?" He dropped his arms to his sides and then sat up straight, gazing at Ranma calmly. "Anyway, that's how I knew what to do. I've seen it before."
"Lucky you did. I wasn't really in a position to do much at the time… what with hitting my head." Ranma rubbed at the spot on his head, and noticed the pain had all but gone. He guessed he had his rapid healing to thank for that rather than anything Tarou had done, but still, the Chinese boy had carried him back to the campsite and taken care of him, despite his earlier claims that he wouldn't. "It's funny. I never imagined you helping someone… helping me and him… doing all that healing stuff."
Tarou held out his hands, palms upwards, and examined them closely. "No." He clenched his fists briefly and then opened them again. "No, neither did I."
For a moment, he seemed about to say something else but nothing came. Instead, he went back to staring intently at his hands in the firelight. Ranma shuffled slightly closer, trying to see what it was that had the other boy so entranced, but couldn't see anything: no marks, no injuries, nothing. Tarou hadn't even appeared to notice him approaching; normally the Chinese boy was almost preternaturally aware of his surroundings.
"Tarou? What's goin' on? You're actin' kinda weird." Weirder than usual, Ranma corrected himself. The Chinese didn't normally answer questions about himself like that, either.
Tarou turned away stiffly and stared into the fire.
At least he hadn't been told to mind his own business. He cast about for an appropriate subject. "How old were you? When you left?"
"Twelve. Just a stupid little kid."
"What about your family?"
"What about them?"
"Didn't they… I dunno… miss you after you left?"
"I doubt it," Tarou answered grimly. "My mother's dead. I never knew my father."
Well done, Saotome, great choice of question. "Jeez, I'm sorry," he said out loud.
He looked up to see Tarou staring at him, his eyes cold and his face hard. "Why are you sorry? You didn't do it."
"What? You mean someone…?"
"No, it was an accident. A wild bear. I was six years old." The Chinese boy lowered his forehead onto his raised knee and began to speak softly, making it difficult for Ranma to catch the words. "She was out in the forest alone – I don't know why – looking for food perhaps. The bear attacked her. She managed to make it back to the village by nightfall… she had been bitten, scratched, bones broken… must've been hurt inside, too." He looked up, his eyes and earrings glittering golden in the firelight. "The elders said she was too badly hurt," he continued, his voice growing bitter. "They didn't want to waste medicine on someone that would die anyway. She lasted most of the night. I was the only one who stayed up with her." He trailed off and he sat with his head bowed, the silence broken only by the sound of his breathing.
Ranma sat and listened in sympathetic silence. He could still remember how difficult it had been when he could only see his mother as Ranko rather than as her son due to his father's stupid seppuku promise. He couldn't imagine how it would have felt to have never been able to see her again, or to have sat by her while she died, unable to do anything to help.
"Is this somethin' to do with the dreams?"
"No. Sometimes. I…" Tarou's fists clenched and he chuckled darkly, his voice sounding barely human. "None of your business. What do you care anyway?"
"Huh?" Ranma blinked. He'd only been trying to help the jerk! Why couldn't he see that? "You're right. If you wanna sit up half the night sulking, that's none of my business I guess." He climbed to his feet and yawned loudly. "I'm getting tired. Goin' back to bed."
Ranma dusted his feet off at the tent entrance, then ducked inside and crawled back to his bedroll. He heard a faint snore from Ryouga on his left, indicating that the lost boy was still fast asleep. He cast one last look at the Chinese boy's hunched form silhouetted against the firelight, and then closed his eyes.
Tarou scooped up a bucketful of water from the waterhole and emptied it over his head, suppressing a shudder of disgust as his body deformed into its female form. He refilled the bucket and stepped away from the waterhole to prevent contaminating their water supply. He quickly soaped himself up from head to toe and rinsed off, and then ran his hands over his body to scrape off the excess water. Strangely, his female body no longer repulsed him as it had a week earlier. How soon would it be, he wondered, before the transformation itself no longer bothered him? Would he eventually stoop to flaunting his feminine charms to get something he wanted, the way he had seen Ranma do so many times? Mincing around like the grotesque parody of womanhood that he was, exposing his chest for the likes of the old lecher to fondle? He chased that thought away angrily, and switched his attention scrubbing the last couple of day's worth of accumulated sweat and grime out of his clothes. There was no way he'd end up like fem-boy!
Once done, he headed back to the camp, wet clothes slung over his shoulder and the bucket in his hand. The two other boys were sitting together by the fire, talking and eating. He felt a twinge of shame as he saw Ranma. He had spoken so openly last night. Too openly.
As he approached, Ranma gave a curt nod in greeting and then resumed shovelling down his breakfast. Ryouga glanced up and his eyes widened in horror. He clapped a hand over his nose and turned his head away, a livid blush spreading across his cheeks.
"You never got a nosebleed for me!" Ranma grinned.
Cautiously, Ryouga unpeeled his hand from his face and sighed heavily. There wasn't a trace of blood around his nose. "Just caught me by surprise," he muttered. "I'm okay now." He looked Tarou up and down slowly. "Haven't they heard of modesty in China?"
Tarou looked down at himself in bewilderment; comprehension finally dawned.
"How 'bout I put the kettle on?" Ranma said brightly. "Just in case Ryouga here changes his mind and starts to bleed to death."
"Ranma!"
After quickly hanging up his own clothes to dry, Tarou ducked inside the tent and tugged on the pants and singlet that Ranma had lent him previously. As much as he enjoyed tormenting the lost boy, he had enough of an idea about what a nosebleed meant to not want to provoke him into getting one. He then ducked back outside and seated himself by the fire opposite the other two boys. The water in the kettle was now hot enough, so he poured a generous splash over himself and then helped himself to some breakfast. The three boys ate in silence, totally devoid of the usual inane chatter that he'd come to expect from Ranma at mealtimes. For some reason, he found the silence oddly unsettling.
Tarou felt a yawn rising and stifled it with his hand. He was exhausted. That must be why he was reacting to things differently. He didn't need a lot of sleep normally, but the last week of broken sleep and nightmares must be starting to affect him.
He looked up to see Ranma peering up at him strangely from under his bangs. He opened his mouth to demand an explanation, but the pig-tailed boy had already looked away again. Instead, he turned his attention to Ryouga.
"So, pig-boy," Tarou said, "do you want to tell me where you got that water from yet?"
Ryouga glared up at him menacingly. "The name is Ryouga Hibiki." Ranma chuckled to himself quietly. "What's so funny?" the lost boy growled.
"Nothin'," Ranma grinned. Ryouga crossed his arms across his chest angrily. "C'mon, man," the pig-tailed boy said, giving his neighbour an enthusiastic nudge in the ribs with an elbow, "are you gonna tell us about the water?"
"I just don't want him to call me that." Ryouga scowled in Tarou's direction for a moment longer, and then unfolded his arms. "Fine. Like I said back at the dojo, I picked it up at a shrine in the mountains. The waters from the spring running under the shrine have been used for centuries, to cure illnesses and magic curses."
"So why didn't it cure us then?"
"He's bloody lucky it didn't!" Tarou muttered.
"I don't know!" Ryouga snapped. "He said I had to share the water with someone pure of body to get it to work. That's all he told me. I don't even know what that means!"
"And that's why you came to see me?" Ranma asked.
Tarou sniggered loudly at the thought of anyone being desperate enough to require the use of Ranma's brain; it was just like someone asking pig-boy for directions.
"I thought he might have meant…" Ryouga cupped a hand and whispered into Ranma's ear, a vivid blush spreading across his cheeks.
The pig-tailed boy looked confused. "What?"
"You know…" The lost boy whispered something else, his cheeks burning an even deeper crimson than before.
Ranma shook his head and whispered something in return.
"But what about…?" Ryouga rolled his eyes in Tarou's direction.
Ranma snorted incredulously. "Him? He can't even talk to a girl!" he whispered, although it was still loud enough for Tarou to hear.
"What are you two on about?" Tarou snapped. That last comment had hit a little too close to home for his liking.
Ranma grinned, but there was little humour in it. "What Ryouga is asking me is if you're a virgin."
"What's that got to do with anything?!" Tarou growled.
("… such a pretty little thing…")
No. Don't think about that.
He waved a hand dismissively at the pig-tailed boy. "Why not blame the guy with all the girls hanging off him?"
"Jealous, Tarou?"
"Of you? Feh!" Tarou sneered with as much contempt as he could muster. "What could I possibly be jealous of you for?"
"I'm better lookin' than you, definitely sexier-"
"Never let it be said that Saotome lacks depth," Tarou quipped, smirking meaningfully in Ryouga's direction. To his surprise, he received a wry smile in response.
Ranma wrinkled his brow in confusion. "What? Hey!"
"So," Ryouga said, addressing Tarou, "you don't think the curse swapping has anything to do with whether or we've… you know…?" He blushed again.
Tarou shook his head. "No. Besides, did he ask you whether you were 'pure of body'?" Not that anyone needed to ask; Ryouga was as innocent as they came, even by his less than experienced standards.
"No. He only said the other person had to be."
Comprehension dawned. Tarou let out a guffaw of laughter at his own stupidity. The meaning was blindingly obvious when you considered how the water had affected them. "You dolts! Pure of body means un-cursed!" He chuckled again, earning puzzled looks from the other two boys. "The water doesn't cure the curse. It gives it to someone else."
Ranma blinked. "And 'cause we were all cursed, it gave us one right back!"
"That's right," Tarou nodded. He folded his arms and allowed a huge, self-satisfied smirk to creep onto his face. Who knows when the two idiots would have figured it out without him to help them along? Not that he'd ever get any acknowledgement from them, of course.
"So in order to get cured, I have to give this monster curse to someone else?" Ryouga said slowly.
"Uh, uh!" Tarou said, wagging a finger at the lost boy. "You're giving that back to me! Once we swap back I don't care what you do with your curse."
"Akari'd love to turn into a pig," Ranma offered.
"No way! I couldn't do that to her… to anyone." Ryouga shook his head unhappily.
"I could think of a few people who deserve to turn into a girl," Ranma grinned, cracking his knuckles. "The freak, for one! Or that idiot Kunou – he'd make a great girl!"
Ryouga shot a disapproving look at the pig-tailed boy, and then turned his attention to Tarou. "What makes you think we'll even be able to swap back?"
"The water worked once. Why wouldn't it work again? All we need to do is go back to that shrine and get some more." He tossed his head to flick the bangs out of his eyes and smiled. "Simple." Or not. He hadn't missed the panicked look on the lost boy's face. "You don't remember where it is, do you?" Ryouga shook his head. "How to get there?" No. "Any nearby landmarks?" No. "Or what it's called?" No. Tarou pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers in an attempt to quell his rising anger. "Is it even in Japan?"
"Of course it's in Japan! I don't get that lost!" Ryouga growled, his fists knotted tightly. "It was high up in the mountains. It took me a week to get from there back to Nerima. I didn't cross any water or go through any tunnels. And that's all I remember! Happy?!"
"No, a map of Honshu with a big X marking the location of your shrine, that'd make me happy," Tarou replied acidly. Something to beat up wouldn't hurt either, he reflected. A stupid, directionless ex-pig-boy something, preferably.
Ryouga dropped his head into his hands and moaned, a low animal groan somewhere between frustration and anguish. "I don't know! I don't know!" His fingers twisted roughly through his thick, shaggy hair. "I can't think straight right now… can't remember anything..." He paused, breathing heavily, and then there was a long, wet sniffling sound. "You don't know what it's like," he lamented, his voice barely above a whisper, "not being able to get anywhere you want to, not being able to remember how you got where you are, not knowing if you'll see anyone you know ever again. It's hell. Or at least I thought it was. Imagine having that and being only a few inches high, unable to even ask for directions, lost in the middle of China. Do you know how many animals, how many people, have tried to eat me?" He chuckled hollowly. "And then, I get turned into this huge, ugly beast. Not so bad, you might think. At least it won't get eaten. But no, it's worse. There was screaming. I couldn't go near anyone... they were afraid of me. And I could fly. I could've ended up in Africa or Australia… or flying around in circles out over the Pacific until I couldn't anymore." The lost boy raised his head and stared off into the distance for several moments, his brown eyes filled with sorrow. "What next, huh? What's going to happen to me next?"
Ranma opened his mouth as if to make some reply, but no words came out. Quickly, he closed it again and turned back to the campfire, an uncomfortable look on his face.
Ranma climbed to his feet and dusted his pants off with a couple of swipes of his hands. "Look, I wanna head back to the village. Maybe I can call Cologne, she might've heard something about this shrine. And I gotta tell Nabiki we've found Ryouga so she can stop looking."
"Why?" Tarou asked, curiously. "She didn't find anything, anyway."
"No, but it'll be costin' me a fortune every day she's looking. I gotta stop her before she sends me broke."
Tarou frowned. "And you want me to stay here and babysit him?" he said, jerking a thumb in the lost boy's direction.
"I don't need babysitting," Ryouga muttered, "and definitely not by him."
"Well, he can't stay here by himself," Ranma explained. "You don't want him to get lost again, do you?" Ryouga folded his arms and grumbled something under his breath, but Tarou couldn't make out the words. Ranma, ignoring the lost boy, gave Tarou what he presumably thought to be a winning smile. "C'mon, please?"
"Go ahead," Tarou said, less grudgingly than he had intended. Ranma immediately brightened and bounded off in the direction of the village. "I'll be able to get some peace and quiet for a change," he added loudly, but the pig-tailed boy was already too far away to hear.
Ranma slowed to a walk as he approached the village. It felt good to have some time to himself again. It wasn't that he didn't like having Ryouga around – if nothing else, the lost boy might draw some of Tarou's barbs away from himself – but the mood he was in was making him too depressing to be around. With any luck, he might even remember some more about that shrine once he'd had a rest; provided that Tarou didn't try to bully the information out of the poor guy, that is.
Before long, he was at the public phone. He lifted the receiver, slipped in a ten yen coin and then punched in the number for the Tendou home.
"Hello, Tendou residence," a familiar female voice answered.
"Hi, Kasumi," he said.
"Ranma!" Kasumi exclaimed happily. "How is your training trip?"
"It's going well. Is Nabiki around?"
"No, sorry," she answered. "She's still at school. It's a school day."
Damn. He'd forgotten about school.
"Can I pass on a message?"
"Um, yeah. Could you tell her…?" He paused, thinking. "Could you tell her that we've found what we were looking for? She'll know what I mean." Yeah, that oughta do it, he thought to himself happily. It would get the point across while being ambiguous enough that it wouldn't matter if Akane overheard.
"Yes, I'll tell her. By the way, I heard you were on the news two nights ago."
"Yeah, they interviewed me and everythin'," Ranma grinned.
"I was busy with dinner," Kasumi said, "and Akane was out with friends, so unfortunately neither of us was able to see it. Mrs Saotome was very proud; she said you looked very manly."
Ranma allowed his chest to puff out a little. Naturally he'd have looked manly, especially standing next to Tarou.
"Anyway, Ranma, I need to go out shopping now," Kasumi continued, "but I'll be sure to pass on your message."
"Thanks, Kasumi."
It was only seconds after he'd hung up the phone that he realised that he should have asked Kasumi for the phone number for the Nekohanten. He wondered if he should ring back, but decided against it. The local convenience store would probably have a phone book – and, more importantly, food, his growling stomach added. He could grab something to eat, call Cologne, and then head back to camp. Or he could wait here a few more hours and then he could talk to Akane. Not that he needed to talk to the tomboy, of course, but surely she would like to hear from him again. Yeah, that sounded like a plan.
Ranma slid aside the door to the convenience store and stepped inside. It was pleasantly cool inside after being out in the heat of the sun. He quickly grabbed a few things off the shelves – some crackers, fruit and a can of drink – and then made his way to the small, mousy looking man standing behind the front counter.
The man looked him up and down, and then glanced out of the window into the street. "That'll be 420 yen, please."
Ranma slipped some coins onto the counter. "You got a Tokyo phone book I can borrow?"
The shopkeeper dug out a phone book from behind the counter. Ranma gratefully accepted it and thumbed through until he found the number for the Nekohanten, which he scribbled onto the back of his hand. He flipped the book shut and pushed it back towards the shopkeeper, who was gazing distractedly out of the window again.
"You… uh," the man began, nervously. "Your lady friend isn't around, is she?"
Lady friend? Ranma burst out laughing. "No, she's not here today." The shopkeeper looked crestfallen. "But I'll let her know you asked about her."
Ranma gathered up his purchases and left the shop, still chuckling to himself. He couldn't wait to tell Tarou; the guy would not be impressed.
"I hate boys!"
She hadn't said those words for over a year, but she said them now. She hated boys! Especially, one particular boy, who had left over a week ago on a so-called training trip and then been seen on television with a girl! How could he? After everything they'd been through; after nearly giving her life for him in China, and nearly getting married to him; after putting up with him flirting with Shampoo and Ukyou and then finally learning to trust him, how could he go and do this to her now?
Akane dropped her school bag onto the ground and leaned over the wire fence, watching an empty chip packet dance wildly in the wind and then land in the canal. She wiped at the tears that were trickling down her cheeks. She wasn't crying, damnit! What did she care what that pervert did?
She heard footsteps approaching and hurriedly dried her eyes.
"Akane Tendou," a familiar voice intoned. "The heavens themselves weep to see such tears. Surely, you are not mourning the loss of the villainous Saotome?"
Tatewaki Kunou, clad in his usual blue and black kendo uniform, slung his bokken over one shoulder and leaned back against the fence beside her.
"No! Why should I care what he does?"
Kunou produced a fan out of his kimono and opened it with a deft flick of his wrist. "Then we shall date!" he announced, beaming at her.
Akane clenched her fists and groaned. Kunou was an obsessive, deranged idiot. Normally, she wouldn't have bothered asking him, except that he had been the one to let slip about Ranma that morning. No-one else had, not even her family.
At least he hadn't wrapped himself around her yet. She allowed her hands to drop, and smiled sweetly up at him. "Upperclassman Kuno, you said you'd tell me more about the girl on the news report."
He nodded sagely. "Ah yes, the fair Panko. A cousin of the vile Ranma Saotome, but no more alike him than the day is like the night."
Ranma's cousin? That couldn't be true. Ranma didn't have any cousins. And Panko? It had to be a fake name; it was too close to Ranko to be a coincidence.
"Clearly, he has captured her innocent heart and enslaved her," Kunou continued passionately, clenching a fist tightly. "Oh, I nearly wept with pity when she put her arms around his neck!"
Akane felt her face grow cold, then hot. Ranma let himself be hugged by this girl… on television?!
She didn't know if she could trust herself to speak, but she eventually regained enough control of her vocal chords to ask what the girl had looked like.
"A true beauty, rivalling yourself or the pig-tailed girl," Kunou said. "Fair of complexion, dark of hair. And she wore a most curious shirt, made of some reptilian creature, I suspect."
Akane's heart sank. So, this Panko was pretty, too. That must be why Ranma liked her. He had used to say she was un-cute and flatchested all the time, but he hadn't said those things for a while. She'd thought that maybe – just maybe – that meant that he actually liked the way she looked, that maybe she was cute, after all. How could she have been so stupid? She felt tears start to well up in her eyes again, and turned away so that Kunou wouldn't see her.
"Fear not, Akane Tendou. When the villain returns I shall smite him, and free you, the pig-tailed girl, and fair Panko from his evil clutches!" Kunou raised his bokken high into the air and began to cackle wildly. There was a rumble of thunder.
Akane dried her eyes, thankful that Kunou's observation skills were up to their usual standard. For a moment, she wondered whether she should be putting much faith in his account of what happened, but then dismissed the thought. Deep down, she knew it had to be true. Kunou had described things in detail; he had remembered the girl's name, even remembered the clothes she had been wearing. A reptilian shirt? This Panko must be a real tom-boy to wear something like that!
"Methinks a storm is coming," Kunou said. Akane nodded, noting the thick, black clouds that had gathered in the sky. "Allow me to walk you to your abode," he added, sweeping a hand grandly through his hair.
"No, thanks," she answered. He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off as quickly as she could, adding, "I'll be home in a couple of minutes, anyway."
For a moment he looked crestfallen, but it didn't last long. "We shall date tomorrow, then!"
There was no point contradicting him; Kunou's listening skills ranked up there with his observation skills. Akane turned to go, but then stopped on a whim.
"What was the news report about?" she asked.
"There was a monster on the loose. The vile Saotome and his cousin Panko had vowed to stop it."
Not exactly a romantic getaway, then, but that probably didn't matter with Ranma. "Oh," she said dully. "What kind of monster was it?"
Why had she asked, anyway? What difference did it make what kind of monster it was?
"Some kind of vast, tentacled monstrosity, I believe," he replied, puzzled.
She blinked. Vast, tentacled monstrosity? She knew of only one creature that fitted that description – Tarou's cursed form. But why would Ranma and this girl be chasing him? She felt something at the back of her brain, trying to get her attention. There was something about the girl's description that seemed odd, too, but what was it?
There was another rumble of thunder, which almost drowned out Kunou's voice.
"What did you just say, Kunou?"
Whatever it was that was trying to get her attention was really jumping around now. The shirt! Had he meant scaled?
"I said they gave the name of that monster, since you seem to be interested." Kunou slung his bokken back over his shoulder and turned to walk away. "It was called Ryouga."
Akane felt her mouth fall open.
The thunder rumbled again. The rain began to fall.
Ranma frowned up at the rapidly darkening sky, slipped ten yen into the public phone, and punched in the number for the Tendou Dojo. He'd have to make this quick; it was going to start pouring down any minute.
The phone rang once, twice, three times.
"Hello, Tendou residence."
"Hi, Nabiki."
"Ah, Ranma. Kasumi passed on your message. Where are you, anyway?"
"Same place I was two days ago. Why?"
"Just curious. Don't forget, you might have found him yourself but you still owe me."
Ranma groaned inwardly. "How much?"
"1,500 yen per day, remember? That makes 10,500."
Ranma winced. It hadn't seemed like much at the time, but, then again, he had expected to find Ryouga within a day or two. "That's pretty steep."
"You agreed to it." She gave a small chuckle. "Tell you what, I could reduce it to 7,000 yen and a photo shoot. A special rate just for you, of course."
She'd make more than 3,500 yen selling photos of him, but at least it was less out of his pocket. And she always found a way to photograph him anyway; it was better to agree to it and then have some control over how compromising the photos were. He nodded dumbly, and then stopped himself when he realised she wouldn't see it over the phone.
"Sure."
"I could even reduce it to 5,000 if your little friend would agree to a photo shoot," she offered happily.
Ranma thought briefly about how he'd go about asking Tarou to pose on camera, in girl form, topless, just to reduce his debt by 2,000 yen. "Nah, I don't think he'd go for that."
"Pity. Kunou-baby's just dying for some pictures of 'fair cousin Panko'."
Ranma's mouth went dry. Tarou had been seen with his girl curse.
"I must say," she continued dryly, "it wasn't very clever allowing yourself to be interviewed on television with him like that. Not if you're trying to keep this business of yours a secret."
Kasumi had said Akane hadn't seen it. If it was only Kunou, everything would still be okay.
There was a rumble of thunder. He didn't have much longer.
"Is Akane home yet?"
"She's in the bath. She got soaked by the rain on the way home." There was a pause. "Actually, she seemed pretty upset. Did you do something to her, perhaps?" Nabiki was smiling now; he could hear it in her voice.
"How could I? You know where I've…" He trailed off. Nabiki knew exactly what he'd been up to. That had to be why she had asked.
Had Akane seen something, after all? Had somebody told her? How much had she found out?
Oh, crap.
He had to talk to her.
There was a flash of lightning, and an answering crack of thunder. A raindrop splattered heavily onto the ground nearby, followed by another.
"Look, I gotta go. I'll call tomorrow… same time, okay?"
"I'll tell her."
The phone crackled ominously, and then went dead.
Ranma hung up the handset and glared at the sky. He mentally calculated his chances of making it back to the convenience store before it really started raining. He'd have to worry about getting back to camp after the rain had stopped.
He broke into a run.
The thunder rumbled again. The rain began to fall.
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