It's weird how our minds freeze sometimes.
After the third time they passed the debris-littered clearing where they started, Ranma came to the conclusion that, not only were they completely and utterly lost, but Ryoga had the worst directional sense in the universe.
Instead of getting frustrated, though, the redhead found this fact hilarious and pointed it out often, coupled with uncontrollable giggles.
"Oooo, lookit', there it goes." She said trying to keep a straight face as they went through the clearing once again. Ryoga ignored her and plodded along with an annoyed look on his face. Ranma decided to spare him further humiliation and quickened her pace to be slightly ahead, inconspicuously taking the lead.
"Why did you stop attacking me?" The redhead asked to distract him from her new position. He didn't need to think on the answer much.
"You don't even know what you did right now, takes all the satisfaction out of it." Ryoga gave her a fanged grin when she turned back to look at him and she smiled wearily in return.
"Well I'm glad you figured that, if you didn't I might've been lost and alone." Ryoga didn't answer to this and Ranma saw him looking off in the distance when she looked back. They walked in silence after that until finally coming to a small stream when the sun had just sunk low enough to paint the sky in sunset colors.
The stream wasn't very fast and made a soothing bubbling voice as it flowed on its way. The grass around it flourished with the constant water supply. They both decided that this would be a perfect place to spend the night.
Ryoga began gathering firewood close by on the edge of the woods after setting down his backpack and soon had a large pile. Ranma on the other-hand didn't have his work-ethic and settled down on a tree branch to keep watch, falling into a light sleep soon after.
When she woke back up completely, it was passed nightfall and Ryoga had a good-sized fire going, with a kettle and three instant noodle packets sitting next to it. Ryoga didn't look very happy when she jumped down to land across from him and proceeded to lecture her on how-rude-it-was-to-take-a-nap-while-there's-work-to-be-done, before settling down with a huff.
Ranma, still half asleep, lazily flapped her hand in his direction and muttered something unidentifiable back at him. Ryoga got an annoyed expression on his face from her apparent indifference to her wrongdoings and without thinking first emptied the boiling hot water on her head.
That finally woke her up and the red-head acquired a shocked and angry look on her face while the noodles dripped all over her comically. Ranma pieced together that Ryoga was the cause of her pain and took a swing at him, but was surprised when he didn't even move to dodge. The boy received a sound whack to the head but didn't even change his expression of mixed shock and confusion.
"What… how… why are you still…?" Ryoga began babbling still looking at Ranma like he'd seen a ghost.
"Um, you okay Ryoga? You're lookin' at me funny." Ranma put down her fist and scooted away from the, apparently crazy, lost boy.
"You didn't change back." was his only reply.
"Change back to what?" The red-head was beginning to get annoying at his rambling, and was nervous to find out what was bothering Ryoga so much.
"A guy, you didn't go back to your male-form." The shock was beginning to wear off fast and Ryoga had a thoughtful face on now. "But how?" he was zoning now. Ranma had just decided to leave him be when a faint crashing that had started in the middle of this caught her attention with its raising volume of the noise.
"Uh, Ryoga somth-"
Her warning came too late. In the middle of it a gigantic centipede-like demon broke through the trees and let out a deafening roar. Its pincers and tiny legs wiggled grotesquely as it set its sights on the nearest target, Ryoga.
"Move you stupid idiot!!" Ranma dived and knocked Ryoga out of the stupor he'd been in ever since sighting the ugly bug. Just as she'd predicted the monster's face crashed into the rock where Ryoga had been standing seconds earlier, shattering rock with the force.
Ryoga seemed to wake up then, and shook his head as if to clear it.
The bug righted itself and let out a pained roar, but recovered quickly and once again set its sights onto them. Ranma, before it could charge again, ran forward and kicked it as hard as she could in the head, trying for the same spot it hit the rock with. Alost instantly Ryoga was there with his fist out, slamming the weak point as hard as he could.
They both jumped back when the centipede moved to try to snap them up in its razor sharp pincers and had to cover their ears when it let out a blood-freezing screech. Their attacks didn't seem to be doing enough damage to end the fight quickly and Ranma saw Ryoga pull a few more bandanas from the one he wore, that seemed to harden before her eyes.
Without pausing to let the bug attack again, Ryoga threw the bandanas at it, they did more damage than any other attack and succeeded in copping off several legs and opening a wide wound one its stomach. This angered the bug more and it attacked him with it's pincers while simultaneously twisting around its spiked tail to attack from the back also.
Ranma saw the tail and realized Ryoga wouldn't be able to dodge both. Making a split second decision, she jumped up and aimed a punch at the open wound.
What she hadn't stopped to notice was the demon blood's reaction to the grass below. Anything touched instantly sizzled and blackened; there was no time for Ryoga to warn her, and he watched on helplessly.
Ranma hit the acid straight on, splashing the liquid up her right arm and over her front. Her scream was almost as loud as the creature's when her fist hit and broke through its spine killing it almost instantly.
Ryoga watched, frozen, as Ranma fell and had the ground with a crunch, bringing another scream. Nothing had ever scared him more than her eyes, staring blankly, emptily, up at the sky. The wounds covering her bleed and sizzled openly and he saw bone in some places sticking through.
'She's dead…'
(I was gonna end it here but decided it was too short)
Ryoga panicked and rushed over and felt the crushing feeling lift when she groaned and shut her eyes. He picked her up and, careful of the acid,tried not to look at the worst while he rushed over to the stream. His stomach turned at the amount of blood clouding the water as he tried to keep her head above the water without getting wet.
Thankfully, the acid did not stick to the flesh and a relieved Ryoga watched the green liquid come out of all her wounds. The tatters of her shirt followed the green liquid downstream.
Ryoga pulled Ranma out of the water when he was sure it was all out and bandaged her with the first aid in his pack plus a ripped up shirt to cover all the wounds completely.
Even though Ranma looked better now, Ryoga could already see red blossoming through the bandages.
'I need to find a hospital'
Ranma's face scrunched in pain when he picked her up bridal style, after grabbing his bag, but she did not wake. Her pale face was beginning to worry Ryoga. He'd seen the Centipede's attack and knew that Ranma was like this because she was saving him.
Ryoga's face tightened with determination, Ranma wasn't going to die. He'd make sure of it.
Just so you know, the Inuyasha ppl will be in the next chap. *I think ^^'*