Vermilion Concerto No. 1 - Nerima By Moonlight
3rd Cadenza
Ten minutes later
Kasumi and Nabiki were searching the nearby empty lots, checking the half-built homes or the piles of wood and metal, on case someone was hiding or sleeping there. In Nerima there were no vagrants or homeless people, so if someone was staying there, it would probably be someone new.
"I can't see anyone here..." Kasumi spoke sadly, "This is the third one, we'll check the last one and head to some of the side streets."
"That's fine with me..." Nabiki's face was stern, "I've got your back, let's get to the next one."
Hearing her odd choice of words, Kasumi turned for a moment, "What do you mean by that?"
Nabiki was neutral, as she strode by, her face set hard, "Nothing sis, nothing..."
Meanwhile
Several blocks away
Akane panted lightly, having cleared another area of housing. She couldn't sense his ki anywhere, but found it strange anyway since his level was too similar to that of normal people. Thinking about it further, she vocalised her thoughts.
"How can he move so fast if his ki is normal?" She puzzled over this for a second, "I mean, his punches weren't that strong, but he still hurt me a little, which shouldn't have happened..."
Sighing once, realising she was drifting from her task, she ran on, jumping fences and walls to get to other streets, trying to find Shiki.
Ten minutes later
Tendo Dojo
"Genma, why aren't you telling me what happened?!" Nodoka was getting frantic at her husband's lack of cooperation.
"Nodoka, I've said already, it's too terrifying to say..." Indeed, his white face bore the fact that whatever he was holding back was scaring him even now.
"But..."
"I know you love your son, that's why I'm not telling you..." Genma opened his eyes from his failed meditation, "I don't want to change that image you have of him in your mind. I would trade all my martial arts skills to forget that night. You aren't ready for this; just, please trust me, you are better off not knowing..."
Nodoka stood up, furious, but after seeing her husband's sad, haunted eyes, her mood lowered and the anger faded away as concern burgeoned up inside her. Sitting down next to him, she placed a hand on his back, trying to soothe him.
"Was it that bad, Genma?"
He nodded in reply, not saying a word more as he continued his meditation.
Six years ago
Genma and Shiki were traipsing through another stretch of forest, but this time at a jogging pace. Shiki was having trouble keeping up, sweat glistening on his face, his cheeks bright red from exertion.
Genma glanced back and saw this. "Can you still go on, Shiki?"
"Y-Yeah..." Shiki knew that he should at least try to do it, despite his body protesting at taking another step.
The Saotome recognised the limits of Shiki, how despite being an ordinary boy on the outside, his internal body was woefully weak. He had frequent blackouts, unrelated to his training he hoped, for the first few months requiring many trips to a doctor for his medicine and some rest.
"Okay, one more mile and we'll set up camp for the night, Shiki." He smiled, trying not to let his disappointment show. "You can rest while I put up the tent."
Shiki grinned, happy for the break, and pushed himself for that last mile.
It's been a whole year now, travelling with Genma, and I feel as if I haven't made any progress...
I can throw some good punches and kicks, but not very strong, just fast. Genma praised me for my dodging and avoiding attacks by lunging away, but said I need to work on my actual jumping now.
He's been heading for some higher trees now, with sturdy branches, I think we might going up them soon...
I miss my sister a lot, I haven't been able to send a letter to her. At least I have my school books, Genma carries them in his bag for me, and sometimes changes them at a nearby school for newer versions. I think Nodoka wanted me to learn more about the world, and not just through fighting or training...
Trouble is, I haven't been to a school since I left the Saotomes that day...
Several months later
Late evening
In a barren field, left fallow by some farmer, in a different area to the previous one a week earlier, Genma stood reading a small tattered book.
"The Ultimate Technique..." He turned to Shiki, "I think this might help bring you up to speed, my boy, we can try it and see."
Shiki stood there bemused at the numerous sausages wrapped around his body, tied with string.
"What is is this, dad?" He added wryly, "Anything Goes Butcher Training?"
Genma chuckled, a little too evilly he thought, "No, Shiki, this is a secret technique, that hundreds of people have struggled to learn, but none have succeeded. I have chosen you to be the one to make it!"
"Huh?"
Shiki felt his hands, only now noting that they were tied back thanks to the strings, but Genma conveniently forgot about his trusty knife, which was within distance of his fingers.
"The legendary technique, the Nekoken."
"Cat Fist?" Shiki looked down at the sausages, and his eyes darkened, boring deep into Genma's own pair, "Are you telling me that these are dead cats around me?"
"N-No! Not at all!" Genma backed away whenever Shiki changed his eye shapes, they made him look like a completely different person to his calm lively demeanour. "Those are part of the training." He spoke as if was a professor all of a sudden, "It is said when starving cats are introduced to a person with meat on them, that person will have to learn how to become a cat in order to survive, or else."
"Or else what?" Shiki didn't like the sounds of it.
"So, we're going to try this, hopefully to speed up your training..." He walked forwards a few steps before turning around to face Shiki again.
Shiki didn't bother asking him again, as Genma had the tendency to avoid the dangerous questions and lie, such as the money he received for Shiki's healthcare. He figured that some of it was also going to a little too much sake at the local inns.
Glancing around him, Shiki was confused. "I don't see any cats, dad, where are they?"
Genma said nothing and crouched, pulling up a rope. "Good luck, son."
"W-Wait!"
He yanked the rope, and the wooden ground beneath the soil gave way, dropping Shiki into a dark pit, full of yowling creatures. Letting go, the doors closed again with a snap, the springs closing it tightly.
Genma fell on his knees and clasped his hands together. "I'm sorry Nodoka, I'm sorry Shiki, I failed you both..." He prayed to himself, "Please let this work. Please let him be okay..."
"GYAAAAH!"
Darkpaindarkpaindarkpaindarkpain
Hissscratchhissscratchhissscratchhissscratch
I have to get out of here!
I grabbed the handle of the knife, opening it to split the string tying the sausages around me. I was free, but it was
Sodarkcannotseetoodarkmustseeneedlight
Opendoorgetoutuseknifeslicedoorcutlines
Killcatsouchpainkillcatskillkillkillcats
NO! I won't do that!
I had no choice. I had to do it of my own accord...
I took my glasses off, tucking them in the collar of my blue uniform.
The lines are usually dark, but I could see them as a pale silver. Jumping up with my new strength from our recent training, I cut the sole line holding the door in place.
Genma gasped as the slicing noise alerted him
He startled himself by falling backwards as the pit doors were blown open, the middle lock had broken and the springs, too strong for their own good, imploded upwards, sending the wooden doors flying up into the sky, the dust clouding over what little remained of the light from the crescent moon hanging overhead.
The bespectacled martial artist stood slowly, after seeing a figure stalk towards him.
"Sh-Shiki, are you okay?"
The person didn't speak, and kept moving, until it cleared the cover of the disturbed soil in the air.
"Shiki! You're okay!" Genma, for once in his life, was happy for his son to be alive and well. "Son? Why aren't you speaking, are you feeling faint?"
Beneath the shadow created by the sudden brightening of the blue blue glass moon, a sneer emerged.
Lifting his head up, Shiki stared into the heart of Genma, his eyes cruel and calculating. That was when the latter noticed.
He wasn't wearing his glasses.
The last time that happened, it was over a year ago... With that tree...
"Genma Saotome..." Shiki's voice was deeper and more arrogant than the cheerful than his usual tone, "I hope you have prayed to your Gods, for you will be joining them soon!"
Brandishing the Nanatsu-yoru in a lethal stance, Shiki pounced in for the kill, aiming straight for the lines in Genma.
Present Day
Genma shuddered again, somehow the meditation was only helping to bring up the memories faster. He opened his eyes as the warmth of Nodoka hugging his back, she looked to be napping.
"How long was I out for?" Genma mumbled to himself, as he held the hand of Nodoka draped around his waist.
Looking to his left, where the house lay, he could sense Shiki, and another person closing in fast.
Genma sighed, it would be a long day tomorrow.
Meanwhile
The Tendo roof
Not really wanting to get lost in such a new area, Shiki had returned to the only place she knew in Nerima, and that was the place she had just run from.
"Yeah... 'She'..."
Shiki stared at her hand, before clenching it into a fist.
Having been training and fighting with Genma, Shiki knew the proportions of each part of the body, but now they had all changed thanks to Jusenkyo. Now 'he' could become a 'she' at any moment, and those deadly urges might come back.
At that moment, Shiki had reined 'it' in, the strange presence that demanded the death of her body, despite it being one and the same.
"Perhaps it's adapting to the changes..." Shiki didn't want to tempt fate by looking down any further to see the two modest additions from the curse, "It maybe it's just tolerating it for now..."
A soft tapping behind her signalled the arrival of someone else. Glancing back to confirm the person, whose ki he only learned recently, she nodded at the figure.
"Hello again, Akane..." Shiki spotted what she had in her left hand, and smiled, "Thanks..."
Taking the warm kettle, Shiki poured it over herself, letting it run through the clothes to revert the gender.
Setting it down beside him, Akane sat the opposite side, staring off into the same space Shiki was.
"You didn't go far..." She remarked jokily.
"I didn't know the area..." He replied sincerely, "I knew that I had to come back, anyway."
"Were you that afraid of my dad?"
"Not really, it just shocked me, that's all... I fell in the water though, that's why I ran away..." Shiki glanced at his now male fist, "Whatever is wrong with me, I'm getting used to my curse. I didn't try to..."
He trailed off, not really wanting to finish that sentence, but Akane understood immediately.
"Well, that's good news then, isn't it?" She stood up and stretched, "I haven't been for a run like that in a while, it feels nice." She held out her hand to him, "Come on, the others must be worried."
Smiling, Shiki accepted it and used her strength to pull himself up.
Downstairs
Nabiki and Kasumi were just coming in the front entrance when Shiki and Akane landed on the grass. Moving in front of Kasumi, Nabiki took a mildly defensive position, raising an arm up to protect herself and her sister.
Not noticing this, and just thinking she was surprised at seeing him home before them, Shiki waved and smiled again. "Hello Nabiki, Kasumi, sorry to make you search for me..."
Akane did notice the faint stance Nabiki was in, and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"That's okay, Shiki." Kasumi spoke in lieu of Nabiki, who didn't say a word, "We're just glad you're here."
Nabiki realised Akane was watching her carefully, so she lowered her arm from over her chest and nodded, "Yeah, we couldn't find you outside, so we came back to get more ideas on where you'd go..."
As Nabiki and Kasumi walked closer to them, Shiki spoke so that all the sisters could hear, "Okay, Mr Tendo said that I have to marry one of you..." He sensed the mood deteriorating fast, so he had to speak quickly, "But I meant what I said back then, without knowing any of you, I can't just decide which person to go for with just a name, age and face..." They each stared at him with intrigue, "If we can just start with friends, I'd like that..."
The smiles on the girls were warm and accepting, although one was tinged with trepidation, as each agreed that it would be for the best.
Going inside, they met Nodoka and Genma, followed by Soun talking together in the living room. It was decided between the adults that Genma and Shiki stay in the Tendo home for the near future, since Nodoka's home was already small enough as it was back then, and it had barely been enough to hold the three of them.
As she said her goodbyes, she hugged Shiki.
"I'm glad you're safe, son. I'll be around often to see you, okay?"
Shiki nodded as he accepted the hug gratefully.
The next day
6am
Tendo home
"Why today?!"
Shiki cried out as Genma threw him out of the window. Landing on his feet, he prepared for the morning workout with Genma, as they began lightly sparring, before moving on to speed and strength training in the form of rapid punches and kicks, to much slower and hard hitting strikes.
Shiki fumbled a block to his midriff following a subtle twist in Genma's pivoted leg, and was sent hurtling in the air, hovering over the pond again.
Sensing that Genma was worried and running towards him due to the curse, Shiki shot his foot out to the only rock he was near as he fell, and bounced up to jump above Genma, before palming him into the water, though he got drenched as he cleared the pond.
The panda was on his front in the pond slowing getting up. His annoyed gaze bore down on Shiki, who only smirked. Her eyes shifted for a second behind the glasses as she looked at the animal form, but the rage inside had dissipated quickly.
"Remember dad, always take advantage of your opponent's weakness..." Shiki grinned, before pulling him out of the pond, the koi glad that the intruder had left their home.
A sign smacked her about the head lightly, "Don't get cheeky, boy..."
Shiki laughed as they went inside to the Tendo family, who were watching this with some confusion.
"Mr Saotome, why did you fight this morning?" Kasumi asked as she produced a kettle for them.
"Well..." He passed the remaining water to Shiki, "It's just training, we do it every day."
"Dad's right..." Shiki finished, "But I didn't think we'd do it today..." His half annoyed stare passed over Genma.
"I thought you would be glad you're going to a real school, son?" Genma was confused as he tucked into his rice.
"I am, but I didn't think I'd start immediately!"
Shiki picked up a bowl and started to eat fast, but not impolitely. Sensing danger from incoming chopsticks, he fended them off whilst stealing some of the better toppings from Genma's dish, knowing that for him, plain rice was a disgrace.
Once breakfast was finished, Nabiki started to go for the door, "Right, I'm going out first, Akane, show Shiki the way to school." She seemed to be eager to get out urgently, prompting curiosity from the younger sister.
"Okay..." Akane looked to Shiki, "I'm going to get my books now, you can borrow my textbooks if you want."
"Ahh, it's okay, I have my old ones, I'll check with the teacher if it's okay."
Shiki went to the room he and Genma shared and pulled out the books from the large rucksack his adoptive father carried, pulling out the rugged books from within its depths. Grabbing them in his hands, he went downstairs, reminding himself to buy a normal school bag later that day.
"Akane, I'm ready!" Shiki cried out, and waited patiently.
"Just a second!" The footsteps came from upstairs as she emerged into the entrance area, "Right, let's go."
Leaving the house, after Kasumi waved goodbye to them, they went out onto the quiet street and began to jog. Akane said that they were running a little late.
Shiki had a smile on his face looking forward to the first day at school for a long time, ever since that last time.
As he was running, he suddenly faltered as his head pounded once. Stopping in his tracks, he held his head as the world flashed white, then black.
"Shiki...?" Akane turned and saw him clutching his face and head, "Shiki! Are you okay?!"
"I'm... Oww..." He blinked once, seeing an old woman splash water on the road ahead of him. Another blink and the pain went, "I'm okay... I get faint sometimes, these headaches also happen because of my anaemia..."
"Ah..." Akane held her hand over her stomach, not sure how to help him, "Well, if you think you're okay, we can keep going to school..."
"That's right..." Shiki stood up straighter, "I can't be late for my first day."
They ran on, and Akane continued to speak to him, "If you're feeling unwell, we have a family doctor that is nearby. He's very good at what he does."
"I'm sure I'll see him soon anyway." Shiki smiled, "I need to have frequent check-ups anyway."
"Oh? Why's that?" Akane blurted out, before reddening, "S-Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that..."
Shiki chuckled in reply, "Well, it's not something girls should see anyway..."
Akane just exploded in her blush and refused to say anything more, until Shiki opened his mouth again, "That might have given you the wrong impression..." He turned serious as they approached the final street, "I'll tell you about it another time..."
He glanced at her, but saw her get angrier. Blanching, he got worried, "Ah! I-It's not exactly a secret, but I don't want you to get freaked out or anything!"
Turning to him, utterly confused, she shook her head, "Sorry Shiki, I wasn't angry at you..." Her face darkened, "But at them..."
He turned forwards and saw numerous other boys loitering about in the entrance of the school, wearing different sporting outfits.
"That's odd, do all the clubs practice together in the morning?" Shiki wondered out loud.
Akane grinned a little too wryly, "Something like that..."
Putting on a burst of speed, she threw her bag back to Shiki who snapped out his arm to catch it, and stared as she was facing down a stampede of boys. Effortlessly, she knocked out each and every one of them with a single blow per person. Other classmates were cheering her on from the windows, one of them the sister that left earlier. He saw her eyes cloud over as she saw Shiki. He frowned in confusion, only to hear Akane argue with someone.
"I won't go out with you, Kuno!"
"Surely with that fiery demeanour, you would besmirch this chance to partake in a simple date?"
Shiki puzzled over his words before walking past the fallen sportsmen nearer to the two of them.
"Hey Akane, who's this?"
She was about to reply before Kuno got upset, "You would dare to call her name so roughly?" He pointed his bokken at Shiki, "Declare your person, foul knave!"
Shiki raised his arms, amused by his wild ranting, but seeing that he was also very angry, "Okay... Kuno..." He recalled the name Akane used, "I don't want to fight, I'm just joining this school, and Akane helped me here..."
Kuno fumed, "Once more you address her without appropriate suffix! I, Tatewaki Kuno, will not allow this!"
Shiki skidded to his right as the wall behind him collapsed. Somehow the wooden bokken cut through the concrete. He was mildly impressed, thinking back to his own ability.
"I attack!"
Turning immediately to defence, he threw the bags to Akane and began jumping from side to side, dodging the strikes, although he got hit several times from the wind pressure. Not expecting to get caught in the air, he was shocked when the pulses of wind punched into his stomach and legs, as he was flung into the sole tree in the playground.
As the leaves began to fall from the impact, Shiki felt his head. "Ouch... That hurt..."
His vision flashed red as he felt blood on his hand from where he scraped a branch. He grunted in pain as Kuno stalked towards him.
"So, do you yield, or must I further my point with this meaningless battle?"
Shiki stood up and dusted off his blue uniform. He recalled the words from Sensei.
"That's right, I have to do what's right..." He mumbled to himself, as he removed the Nanatsu-yoru from his back pocket, and took off his glasses, placing them carefully in his top. "I shouldn't be using this, but you leave me little choice..."
His arms were loose at his side as Kuno stood, feeling animosity from the boy, as the pupils of his eyes appeared more cat-like, and he almost backed away before his ego denied him that option.
"I see, you prefer to fight on. Honourable, but foolish..."
Kuno charged, ignoring the boy's complete lack of movement he readied the bokken for a strong head blow.
His vision suddenly saw two white curved lines, growing wider, and heard two distinct slicing sounds, before the world returned to normal.
Shiki coolly but seriously walked by a stunned Kuno as he hid the knife away and returned his glasses to their rightful spot.
"I told you, I don't want to fight you, Kuno..."
The kendo captain's weapon split into four pieces, one directly across it, and another through the centre, just missing his hand by a centimetre.
As it clattered to the floor, Shiki smiled peacefully at Akane, before he too collapsed onto the ground, his face pained.
Author's Notes
Hmm, poor old Shiki seems to be passing out a lot lately, huh? I'm trying to already veer from canon, like having him meet Tofu before school, although you may note that Nabiki is already different to when Ranma arrived.
I hope you recall the famous line that someone Aoko said, that 'special powers attract special powers', which obviously meant his eyes. Seeing as, so far, Shiki has used them four times (though the time in the dojo wasn't actually used per-say, so that's not a fifth one), and in Tsukihime, he never used them until Arcueid (or Satsuki depending), this will speed up things greatly in the Ranma timeline. This is great because there's an actual reason this time, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception attract strong people, so no need for contrived excuses!
Oh, and the people from Tsukihime are coming, don't worry about them...
- J