Prologue
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s Note: Well, It recently came to my attention that it has been well over a year since I updated my story ‘Lost Manhood, Lost Memory.’ Thus I decided it was about time to continue it and began to re-read it to remind myself what comes next. It was around this time, however, that a very interesting and important realization came to me.
“This sucks!” I exclaimed.
Thus, I am rewriting it. Hopefully it will now have something that actually resembles plot, and will be superior to what it once was. To those of you who will surely ask such a question, the basic premise will be kept. Events will occur differently, however, and changes will be made. So don’t get all pissy about it.
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“Shit. How the hell did we even get in this mess?” Ryoga asked of no one in particular, still running at full tilt. He had barely even bothered to re-clothe himself after unlocking his curse, and now he knew he had wasted more than enough time. He had to get back to the fight between Ranma and Herb. Ranma needed to change back into a man to win.
‘Now’s not the time to get lost! I refuse to let my limitations stop me from getting there.’ Ryoga thought, willing his direction sense into submission as he made a beeline for Ranma’s location. Ranma had sacrificed himself to let Him and mousse return to manhood, and he’d be damned if he didn’t repay the pigtailed jerk. The Hibiki boy briefly turned his gaze towards mousse, seeing that the boy was just as determined to get back into the battle as Ryoga was.
“This has gone on long enough!” Herb bellowed, drawing Ryoga’s attention to the dragon prince as a blast easily dwarfing the redhead it was aimed at in size.
‘Oh, hell no! I’m not letting you kill Ranma before I get the chance to repay him!’ Ryoga thought, putting his hand against a nearby boulder and sinking his fingers into the unusually malleable stone. Well, malleable for him at least. It was regular stone after all. Without even stopping his run, Ryoga yanked the boulder from the ground with a grunt of effort. He held it over his shoulder for a second before hurling the rock, managing to get it in-between the chi blast and Ranma. The rock exploded before it had a chance to hit the ground, drawing the attention of both fighters towards the two teens running in their direction.
“Ranma! You change back into a man too!” Ryoga shouted out, chucking the open water kettle at the redheaded girl. Her face lit up with a smile upon seeing Ryoga and Mousse human again, a smile that quickly turned into a look of determination.
“The Open Water Kettle!” Ranma cried, diving for the piece of mystic metal in question.
“I’ve got it!” She shouted, mere inches from being able to touch her fingers to its surface. She refused to let it get away, not now when she was so close to being a man again.
“I won’t let you have it!” Herb yelled in righteous anger, furious that the insolent bitch before him would try and take his kettle to unlock her curse. He charged a blast of pure white chi in his fist, preparing to vaporize the she-demon before she could lay a finger on the musk artifact.
“I won’t let you stop him!” Mousse objected. A thin cable, probably some form of steel wire, fired from his sleeve. The small weight tied at its end the only thing it needed to wrap around Herb’s forearm on contact, allowing him enough leverage to yank back on the cable and redirect Herb’s fist and blast away from Ranma. Under normal circumstances Mousse would have cheered any attempt at ending the life of Ranma Saotome, but Ranma had done him an immense favor that he had every intention of repaying. He wouldn’t sit idly by and accept the fact he owed a debt to Ranma Saotome, no sir! They would be even, and then Mousse could go back to trying to kill the woman stealing bastard.
“Thanks Mousse!” Ranma called out, seeing her temporary comrade redirecting the energy blast Herb had trained on her. She was still in mid leap and the kettle was still a few inches away. It would only take a few more seconds for it to be firmly in her grasp. Of course, at that very instance the Mountain beneath them had finally declared ‘enough!’ It was tired of taking such a beating from these foolish humans. If they were so keen in blasting holes in it, let’s see how they like it when the ground beneath them crumbles to pieces!
“What? Earthquake?” Ryoga questioned, trying to hold his footing as the ground shook. Mighty cracks appeared in the stone beneath them as fissures opened and rocks broke away from what was once their perch. Pieces of the mountain simply fell off and rained down upon the mystic waters at its base, sending slashes that did little to the rocks in the ravine. One particular fissure had the good fortune to open directly beneath the airborne Ranma, and while she was able to latch onto the edge for support, the open water kettle unfortunately lacked the appendages to do the same and plummeted into the darkness below.
“No! The open water kettle!” Ranma cried out, pathetically reaching out for the object that had already left her line of sight.
“Ha ha! It seems that I’ve overused my energy blasts. The mountain is crumbling from the strength of my Ryu Sei Hisho.” Herb gloated, smirking at the foolish girl that dared to defy him. Ranma growled in response, a few tears starting to enter her eyes. She didn’t care how impossible it was! She had to return to being a man! Unfortunately for her plans, one half of the mountain was currently overbalanced because of everything that fell off, leaning towards the other half. All it took was for a single rock to crack and it would come falling over.
Crack…
And with that, the mountain began to rumble again as the fissure started to close, sending Ranma into a panic as she noticed her hopes of manhood starting to vanish.
“Ahhh! It’s starting to close!” She exclaimed. Ryoga remained silent during this, his teeth clenched and fist shaking. He refused to let this go, he had to return Ranma back to manhood; his honor demanded it! But what could he do? Leaping into a closing fissure was suicide, and killing himself wouldn’t unlock his curse.
‘There has got to be a way to keep it open.’ He thought to himself, watching as the fissure became closer to sealing.
“Hey! How dare you trick us!”
“Yeah, there weren’t any huge breasts!” The light bulb appearing over Ryoga’s head was almost visible as he heard the two musk boys approaching. He wasted no time in his next move, grabbing onto the tiger skinned one with all his might and yanking him down into the rapidly closing fissure.
“Perfect! I need your help, Brute strength guy!” Ryoga said, lodging the tiger man in-between the two halves of the fissure to insure it stayed open.
“Now hold the crack open!” The Hibiki boy demanded, not about to take no for an answer.
“Eh???” Was the only response Lime could come up with regarding his current predicament. He was too busy preventing himself from being crushed to think anyway.
“H...Hey Ryoga!” Ranma began. She was confused about her rival’s current actions, not too sure what to think about it as he continued to climb downward.
“I’ll bring back the open water kettle! You can count on it! Finish your fight Ranma! And win! Our score will be settled after this.” Ryoga shouted up at the red head looking down at him in shock and admiration. He refused to let Ranma down. There was no way Ryoga was going to let Ranma stay a woman after he allowed him to become a man again.
“Ryoga...you...” Ranma began, but stopped when she realized she had nothing to say. Ryoga was already out of sight anyway, finishing her sentence would have been pointless.
‘All right Ryoga, I will believe in you. And I will defeat Herb!’ She promised herself, standing up and turning towards the dragon prince in question. A plan began to hatch in her mind as she looked around the area, feeling the intense aura that was saturating the place because of Herb’s haphazard use of energy blasts.
“I’ll rescue you lime!” Mint cried out, having already tied a rope around his companion’s body in an attempt to pull him from the fissure that would not rest until it closed. The diminutive wolf boy could see his partner’s arms beginning to buckle under the stress, and he knew that he had to keep trying if he was going to get him out without being squished.
“It’s too late!” Lime shouted, knowing his end was near as even his mighty muscles began to give. With a final tug Mint was able to pull the tiger boy from the crack before it crushed him, leaving no more resistance between the two halves of the mountain as it slammed shut with enough force to create yet another earthquake.
“Ryoga!!” Mousse shouted, looking at the crack that heralded the location of where the fissure once was. He really hoped the stupid lug wasn’t smashed to death. How was he going to get back to killing Saotome if he failed to repay him for his generosity?
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Ryoga hated spelunking, and yet oddly enough it was an activity he frequently partook in. He knew he could find the kettle for Ranma, all it really came down to was a matter of time. He had managed to find other things in far more dire situations. An incident came to mind in fact, as he recalled trying to recover a strand of unicorn fur that he had accidentally dropped off a bridge, causing it to land in a truck full of hay. He followed that truck all the way to a farm only to find it parked in a barn literally stacked to the roof with bails of hay and nothing in the truck. The fact that the unicorn hair in question was supposedly an ingredient for a cure and blonde in color made the finding of it all the more important and difficult. He had eventually found it though, Ryoga was really good at that kind of thing. He was a very thorough guy. Of course if memory served correctly, it had taken him 5 weeks to find it. And by then the guy who had the rest of the ingredients he needed had already moved onto another town and Ryoga never saw him again. Back to the subject at hand, anyway, Ryoga was positive that finding an ornamental metallic kettle in a cave made of rocks would be far easier. How could they clash any more? Well, maybe if the kettle was a light source and he was in pitch blackness, but that would just be too easy.
“Huh? What the...” Ryoga said, feeling another rumble as his source of light suddenly vanished. It seems brute strength guy failed to hold the crack open, and now Ryoga was fishing around in the dark for a small metal object.
“Ok, maybe this will be slightly harder than I originally thought...” He muttered to himself, simultaneously realizing that his only source of light had also been his only source of oxygen.
“Oh crap.” He said, the direness of the situation setting in. No time to be thorough! Time for needless destruction! He needed to find that kettle and didn’t have time to go around the rocks.
“Bakusai Tenketsu!” He screamed, thrusting his finger into the rocks beneath him. They burst with little resistance as Ryoga found himself plummeting further down. It took him awhile to land, and unfortunately for him he happened to land directly into a stream of water that was rushing straight up at him, obviously under a lot of pressure. There was one thing he noticed though, the water was hot.
‘The open water kettle must be in this water somewhere!’ He thought, swimming through the near boiling liquid in a vain search for anything resembling the Kettle. Ryoga may have been an incredibly strong person, and a fighter with extreme skill, but one thing he wasn’t was a frequent addition to water. Thus, his ability to hold his breath for extended periods of time was piss pour at best. He had just managed to close his fist around the kettle in question when he reached his breaking point. He blacked out.
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Ryoga’s brain went into a panic, realizing in a frenzied rush that the body lacked oxygen and that higher thinking had shut down due to it. Ryoga’s body would switch over to reflex action soon, which would involve steady breathing of a substance that should not be breathed in. He was a few scant seconds away from death, and the brain knew it. It needed air, which means it needed out of the water. With a few quick thoughts a new reflex was permentantly burnt into Ryoga’s body functions, and shortly it acted upon it.
Can’t breathe, Bakusai Tenketsu everything in range.
And he did. New instincts took over as reflexive signals flowed across his nerves. His body thrashed as his fingers snaked out, striking anything and everything it could touch and causing it to burst seconds later. The mountain was losing stability and the water was losing pressure, now slowly draining out. Unfortunately the Open water kettle was going with it, as Ryoga had to release it in order to begin his random blasting. The water level was just reaching low enough for Ryoga to get a breath of fresh air when he spasmed and took water down the wrong tube, ending all movement as the brain abandoned reflex and instead went to attempting to remove water from the lungs so that air could enter. It was around this time that Ryoga’s life started flashing across his eyes, as the memory trigger realized he was nearing death and figured it was now or never. Every event Ryoga had ever experienced became known to him again, and saying Ryoga’s life is depressing to watch would be an understatement. His body spasmed again, trying to expel the liquid from his lungs as tears flowed freely from his eyes, watching every moment he had tried to forget come back to him. Ryoga had returned to the point of his memory where the old man was telling them about Horaisan. How it was sitting in a large body of magical water that removed evil spirits and trapped them on the mountain, thus it was full of monsters and such and all. It was around this memory that he couldn’t take it any more, all the depression built up in him demanded to be released, he just needed the words. With a few quick coughs all the water was expelled from his lungs and sweet air replaced it, giving him enough breath to get off his shout.
“SHISHI HOKUDAN!” He screamed, firing his depression chi outward from his body. He had not given it direction, merely letting it flow off him at rapid pace, tunneling through the rocks all around him until he was spent. Ryoga began to breathe heavily, looking around for a moment in search of the kettle to see that it was no longer in his hands. He also noticed that there was a hole in the wall in front of him that led out of the mountain, and upon looking out it, he noticed that it was a free fall all the way to the bottom.
“Oh hell, I must have dropped it.” Ryoga said to himself, just as the entire mountain began to rumble and the rocks simply disconnected from one another. Ryoga briefly noticed Ranma plummet past him as the rocks he was standing on gave way, causing the lost boy to fall with them. The entire mountain was crumbling, and from the looks of things it would crumble on top of him. He didn’t have time to consider this though. He had just hit rock bottom, and there were still a lot of rocks above him that needed to travel a bit further down in order to stop. A few of said rocks decided to land on Ryoga’s head, and the boy once again found himself blacking out.
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Ranma stared down her opponent, her hair blowing in an unseen wind as her aura manifested itself around her body.
‘Herb’s hot chi is all over the place. I can see it in the air it’s so thick.’ Ranma thought, looking about at all the energy floating around the area. It was visibly raising the temperature of the area, but Ranma paid no attention. Her own aura was cold enough to cause condensation to collect on her body, and it was only going to get colder.
‘If I pull all this hot energy around with my cold chi, I can create a Hiryuu Shoten ha. If I can just make it spin fast enough, I may pull this off...’ Ranma was forced to think on her feet at this point, standing still was just asking Herb to act. The redhead dashed forward and willed the hot energy around her to stick to her cold aura. She began to pull it in a spiral around Herb, trying to get it moving as quickly as she could.
‘Just stay right there Herb and use that cold chi of yours. I dare you.’ Ranma thought, a smirk appearing on her face as she reached the center of the spiral.
“Hiryuu Shoten Ha!” Ranma shouted out, only to be hurled into her own tornado when Herb’s Aura went from hot to cold with enough speed to cause the rocks beneath him to crack. The dragon prince raised his fist in triumph, taking control of the Hiryuu Shoten ha as Ranma was forced to ride the winds.
‘That’s it. Play right into my trap, herb!’ Ranma thought, riding the winds higher until she neared the top.
“Now! Eat this, Hiryuu Shoten Ha revised! Hiryuu Korin Dan!” Ranma shouted with all her might, drawing her chi into her hand and forcing it to spin within her palm at a rapid pace. The blast was cooled to the point that frost collected on Ranma’s palm, just before she thrust her hand forward and launched the blast into the eye of the tornado. The spiraling blast of cold chi acted like a vacuum as it entered the Hiryuu Shoten ha. The sky began to shine a brilliant white as the hot ki was violently pulled from the air and forced into the blast.
“Herb! I have collected all your excess energy, you can have it back! Feel the power of my Hiryuu Korin Dan!” Herb was unable to move away in time as the orb struck with the violent fury of a meteor strike. The backlash of the explosion was enough to hold Ranma’s body aloft for nearly 20 full seconds, and also carved a large spiral crater into the ground around Herb. By the time the dust had cleared the redhead was on the ground once more, wincing a bit from the rough landing and coughing up dust. She was having a little trouble regaining control of her breathing, but at least she had done it.
“Herb...you were a man to be feared...” Ranma muttered, getting back to her feet with a sigh. She wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead and turned toward mousse, briefly wondering where Ryoga was. ‘Hasn’t he gotten back out yet?’ She thought, hoping the boy hadn’t gotten lost underground.
“I am not yet beaten...” Herb said, causing Ranma to turn around violently as the prince in question got to his feet, albeit slowly.
“Damn you! Why can’t you just stay down?” Ranma shouted. She was incredibly annoyed by this point. She had gone through all that trouble of developing a new technique and herb didn’t have the courtesy to be defeated by it? That bastard!
“Just like my chi being weaker while I was female, your attack was lacking in power. It was indeed impressive, but it was not enough!” Herb mocked, looking at the glare Ranma was sending his way. He was enjoying his victory over the annoying woman. He was happy she had failed to return to her male form. He surely would have been felled by that last attack had she been able to.
‘Now she truly is out of tricks.’ Herb thought to himself, smirking evilly. He saw Ranma charging cold Chi and decided the battle had gone on long enough. To be frank, he was sick of seeing her face. With a quick dash he was in front of her, and it was obvious she was too winded to do much about it.
“It’s over for you!” Herb announced, kneeing Ranma rather violently in the abdomen. The red head was completely bent in half from the blow, barely able to keep air in her lungs or keep her lunch from exiting her stomach. The small redhead flew backwards and landed roughly on the edge of a cliff, a mere few feet from falling off the mountain and into the ravine below.
“Prepare to die Ranma!” Herb said with a smirk, a blade of chi forming around his arm as he held it to the downed girl’s neck. Mousse was preparing a barrage of chains just as the blade began to fall, but before either had a chance to complete their movements the entire mountain shuddered.
“What the...” Mousse muttered, seeing greenish blue chi erupt from cracks all over the place. It looked a lot like Ryoga’s Shishi Hokudan. ‘No. He didn’t...’ Mousse thought, but he was only met with another violent shudder as the entire mountain simply fell apart. It literally turned to rubble and collapsed in on itself. Mousse lost his glasses in the quake and his footing shortly afterward, plummeting through the crumbling mountain as he lucked out enough to get hit with a water pocket that had been in the rocks. Now a duck, he wasted no time flying away from what would have been his doom. He briefly wondered if he’d be able to fly all the way back to Nerima, but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t see a thing. He wasn’t even sure where Herb or his lackeys went. He was pretty sure he saw Ranma plummeting into the ravine once the mountain began to crumble, but he wasn’t sure.
‘Damn it. Ryoga was crushed by Horaisan; Ranma fell into the ravine while incapacitated. I’m the only survivor. They will not take this information very well back in Nerima.” Mousse thought as he continued to fly into the blurry sky. Nothing made sense to him. He must have been a few hundred feet above the ground with the ability to see nothing further than 3 feet beyond his eyes. He was literally flying into murky nothingness. To be honest, he didn’t care.
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To Be Continued
(Author’s Notes)
Well, there’s the new beginning to Lost Manhood, Lost Memory. Counting in at 2,000 more words than the original prologue. More to come from this, so expect it...eventually.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.“Prepare to die Ranma!” Herb announced, summoning his massive amount of chi into his fist and forming it into a thick blade. Ranma could feel the heat flowing off the tangible manifestation of pure power as Herb positioned himself near her neck, ready to deal the final blow. It was the only thing Ranma could do to shut her eyes and prepare for death, squeezing a single tear loose as she did so. She only hoped Herb would make her death a quick one, as any chance of dying nobly had already passed and now she just wished for a quick end to her embarrassment. But before she could greet the cold black hand of death she felt the entire mountain shake, seeming to come apart at the edges. The redhead opened her eyes to see the depression chi flowing out of the mountain in hundreds of different places, destroying whatever structural support it had left as the entire thing simply crumbled to pieces.
‘Damn you Ryoga, why’d you have to go and save me?’ Ranma thought, feeling the weightlessness of freefall as she followed the boulders down into the ravine. She could see the odd water far below her increasing in proximity. Ranma knew it didn’t matter that Herb didn’t kill her, since hitting the strange pool of water from this height would kill her anyway. There’s no way she could lessen the impact with her body being as unresponsive as it was. Thus, she merely closed her eyes again and let her tears flow as she fell to her doom, waiting for the fall to stop and the darkness to come in. She didn’t have to wait long. The redhead hit the waters at the bottom of Horaisan with so much force she might as well have landed on concrete. She almost instantly lost consciousness, sinking into the thick liquids as rocks fell all around her. Had Ranma been awake, she would have noticed the water starting to steam and change color. She probably would have noticed the odd glow that surrounded its surface as well. She didn’t though, and in the end that’s all that really matters.
Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 1
Ryoga’s Odyssey
“I think I need a bath.” Ryoga muttered to himself as he continued to trudge on, not sure where he was going but figuring it was better than where he was. He had grown taller over the years, now being slightly above average for a Japanese man. His face had grown rugged, masculine, and covered in hair. Ryoga had been a bit late reaching the age of ‘maturity,’ and he had the unfortunate luck of getting the ‘excessive hairiness’ gene from some unknown location. He was now what some would call the pinnacle of manhood, and what others would call a good impersonation of big foot. Ryoga was part of the latter. Sure it was warmer during the winter, but hair had an unfortunate tendency to absorb sweat. Thus more often than not he smelt like a foot, especially during the summer. Currently it was summer, and Ryoga was running up an impressive funk. Thus he continued to walk through the dense forest, waiting for a stream or river to soak himself in. After another hour of walking, Ryoga got his wish as he wandered upon an open waterfall pouring over a Cliffside above. It fell all the way down and into a small lake, which traveled off as a long river that went on past Ryoga’s line of sight. He didn’t care though; he just wanted to take a dip.
“Finally, some water. I thought I was going to pass out from my own body odor.” With a quick running start Ryoga dropped his pack at the side of the bank and leapt into the waters, sending up a splash that caused nearby birds to vacate their perches in the trees and fly off in terror. The waters calmed and soon a shape broke the surface, revealing itself to be a rather large pig draped in the clothing Ryoga had previously been wearing. Over the three years that passed, P-Chan had also matured. He was no longer the cute little piglet he once was, but rather a fully grown and rather intimidating looking wild boar. Ryoga climbed out of the water and pulled his wet clothes off his animal body with practiced ease. It was something he was accustomed to doing now that he was too large to simply crawl out of his garments. Once he was unclothed, Ryoga immediately leapt back into the water, intent on washing the dirt and sweat off of his entire body, fur be damned. After about half an hour of rolling around in the river, Ryoga figured he was clean enough. It was time for step two. The large boar stalked slowly out of the river, water falling from his soaked fur freely as he moved. Ryoga made his way over to his pack at a leisurely pace. He wasn’t exactly in a hurry, and when it came down to it he only had two speeds anyway: Slow and Full-Blown Battle Charge. It took a little effort and snout manipulation to get the flaps open on the bag. After that a little chewing at the ties and gripping of the zippers opened the worn traveling pack to the world. Ryoga knocked the pack on its side and started digging around inside it. Soon he had his teeth on what he was looking for and a few shakes of his head pried it loose. It was a small, rectangular shape that was covered in a black carrying bag, and from the looks of its condition, it had been through a lot. It was covered in scratches, some burn marks, but most importantly teeth marks. However, considering Ryoga currently held the thing in his jaws as he walked over to the side of the river, the origins of the teeth marks were a given. The large boar spit the case out and let it hit the ground, walking around it to get a better look at its latch. It was an incredibly simple thing, and all it took was a quick pry at the latch with his tusk and the thing popped open. That was the very reason Ryoga had purchased this particular case, it was very easy to open in pig form. A little shoving with his snout and Ryoga freed one of the objects within. It was a small metallic ladle that completely lacked a dipper. Of course Ryoga had no use for one, as he bit onto the handle and carried it into the water. The ladle quickly filled up and Ryoga brought it back over to the case, setting the ladle down on the metal plate inside it. Ryoga had managed to rig a portable hot plate into the case, and with a simple tap of his hoof the device was on and heating the contents of the ladle. God bless the miracles of technology, without which Ryoga would not know what to do with himself. It was a bitch building a fire with hooves. Finally, Ryoga had hot water at his disposal and immediately used it, ramming the bottom of the ladle with his snout to get it to pour over his head. Where once a boar stood a naked man now sat, completing the change.
“That took longer than I expected.” Ryoga muttered to himself, putting the ladle and stove back in the case and stashing them in the pack. Shortly afterward Ryoga pulled out a new pair of boxers and some brown slacks and put both of them on, hiding his nudity. Ryoga walked towards the water again and looked down at his reflection, running his hand across his chin and through the hair there as he did so.
“I need a shave.” Ryoga went back to his pack and pulled out the closest thing he had to a razor, that being a large hunting knife. He felt like an idiot every time he shaved like this, not only because it wasn’t very effective, but also because he had gotten the impression from American movies that men with inferiority complexes tended to shave with a knife the size of their forearm. Ryoga had managed to get his near beard down to a light stubble, unwilling to attempt anything better. It would either result in a horrific case of razor burn or involve carving the flesh off his face. He wasn’t really keen on either of those options.
“Once I get to a town I’m buying a real razor.” Ryoga grumbled to himself. He wished he didn’t have to deal with shaving so much. He was too vain for his own good, it seemed. He should just ignore his beard. Let it grow until it hinders movement! Only then should he really devote any time to grooming it. Even as he thought this he knew it wasn’t true though. Ryoga cared too much about what others thought about him to let it grow out.
“I bet Ranma doesn’t have to shave this much.” The second the words left Ryoga’s mouth he fell silent. It was a stupid thing to say, but some old habits die hard. Of course Ranma doesn’t have to shave. He was either dead or a girl. Even after three years, Ryoga refused to believe Ranma was actually dead. The simple fact that he never managed to find a body at Horaisan spoke volumes for Ranma’s continued existence. It was also entirely possible that Ranma had regained manhood, though Ryoga had a harder time believing that one. Sure, Ryoga never found the kettle either. But if Ranma had regained his manhood, then why didn’t he go back to Nerima? The Hibiki man had been through Nerima about a month ago and there was no hide or hair of Ranma. In fact, everyone thought that they were both dead. The fact that people thought he was dead didn’t seem reasonable. However, he was more concerned with the fact that no one recognized him. Sure he was a few inches taller and was sporting a mustache at the time, but that was not a good excuse. He got lost again before he managed to find the dojo though, so there wasn’t much he could do about their beliefs. This was what Ryoga told himself, at least. He wouldn’t admit it, but he had in fact been looking for Ranma for the past 3 years. He felt that returning to Nerima without the Saotome boy would be like admitting defeat. He had been beaten by Ranma too many times in the past, and he wouldn’t let it happen again. Ryoga was going to find the bastard even if it killed him. Of course, there were a few snags in his search. For one thing it took Ryoga almost a month to realize he had to stop asking around for a black haired boy with a pigtail. And even after he remembered Ranma was stuck as a girl he still accidentally slipped into the male description anyway. Not only that, but Ryoga didn’t even know where he was half the time. How was he supposed to find someone else? It was on this thought that Ryoga silenced his own mind. He didn’t really want to waste anymore time than he already had. He was in desperate need of supplies, and if he didn’t find a town soon he would be having some serious problems. He was low on food and water, some important tools were either lost or in need of repair, he no longer had a tent, and he was running low on batteries to power his portable hot plate. If he didn’t get to a town by the end of the week, he imagined he would have to spend an uncomfortable amount of time as a boar.
“I really need a break.” Ryoga mumbled to himself, setting off into the forest again in hopes he would soon come across civilization.
‘Damn it, I think it’s about time I ‘shed my winter coat,’ so to speak. I’m gonna need to buy razors in bulk I guess. Either that or body wax.’ Ryoga thought, spotting what appeared to be a general store and walked into it. He shivered at the thought of body wax though. He’d tried that once. It wasn’t exactly pleasant. And by ‘not exactly pleasant’ I mean ‘it tore a large chunk of his skin off.’ Needless to say, Ryoga was a little reluctant to resort to such measures again.
“Greetings sir, how can I help you?” The store keeper greeted with a practiced smile as Ryoga walked up to the counter. The man’s nostrils briefly flared and a grimace crossed his face for an instance, followed by a light chuckle from him.
“We’ve got a special on Soap, shampoo and Deodorant. Buy 2, get 2 free. Buy ‘em in bulk and its half off.” Ryoga was willing to bet good money that the special was just made up when he walked into the store, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“I’ll take you up on that offer. Gimme enough to last me a month, preferably of the strongest stuff you got.” Ryoga said, much to the store owner’s relief as he pointed behind the Hibiki boy.
“Isle 4, next to the toothpaste.” Ryoga grabbed a small basket from next to the register and looked where the owner was pointing. There was a small shelf with a board reading ‘Isle 4’ sitting next to it, thus Ryoga locked his gaze on it and ensured it never left his sight as he approached. Looking through the shelves Ryoga spotted a large stack of soap bars and pushed them off the shelf into his basket, taking about 20 or 30 of them as he grabbed a few bottles of shampoo and the strongest deodorants he saw. While he was at it, he grabbed a few toothbrushes and some toothpaste and 3 boxes of disposable razors.
“Where do you keep the batteries?” Ryoga shouted to the clerk.
“Isle 1.” He responded, as Ryoga continued to shop.
“AAAH! There’s a Wild Boar on the loose!” Ah. That’s why he got the feeling he’d been here before. Ryoga turned around and watched as a boar twice his size came barreling down the road in his general direction. Yup, it was definitely the same boar. Its fur had grayed over the years and it was a bit bigger now, but Ryoga would recognize that boar anywhere. He had encountered it many times before, and as unusual as it seemed, he had formed a sort of rivalry with it. He always won, of course. There was probably some irony in that, but Ryoga never bothered to think about it.
“Look out!” The voice was distinctly feminine, and Ryoga was certain he had heard it before. However, the vaguely green and brown blur that rushed in from his immediate left sure didn’t look familiar. It was a woman, probably in her early twenties if not in the vicinity of 19. She was young, that was for sure. She was wearing a pair of brown pants that were tucked into her rather dirty pair of hiking boots. Her blouse was a deep hunter green in color and looked fairly Chinese in design, though Ryoga couldn’t be certain. He has never been the best person to ask when it comes to the origins of certain fashions and the like. Not only because he didn’t pay much mind to such things, but also because he had been traveling for so long that pretty much every place just kinda blended together for him. He had difficulty telling one country from another at this point. Her hair caught Ryoga’s attention. If not for the style, than for the color. It was a deep red shade that probably approached garnet or copper. If looked at in passing you could probably mistake it for brown, but Ryoga could tell it was in fact red because of the way the sun was reflecting off her head as she soared through the air. The style also caught Ryoga’s attention, mainly because it just happened to be tied back into a long, braided pigtail.
“Ranma?” Ryoga muttered to himself, almost too surprised to breathe that he had actually found her after all this time. Then the situation came back to him in an instant, and he remembered that a large boar was barreling down on the two of them. For some reason, Ranma had jumped in between Ryoga and his boar. This was a problem on two levels. Firstly, Ryoga had a hell of a lot more physical strength than Ranma did, especially while the pigtailed Saotome was a girl. Secondly, Ryoga was not about to let Ranma show him up by stopping his boar for him. Sure, Ranma was probably strong enough to stop the boar, but Ryoga’s pride was at stake here.
“Out of the way, Ranma!” Ryoga shouted, grabbing Ranma around the waist shortly after she landed in-between him and the boar. In an instant the two of them were airborne, and judging from the way Ranma went ridged in Ryoga’s grip, the redhead was fairly surprised by this development. The boar tore threw the spot they had been milliseconds prior with reckless abandon, plunging face first into a brick wall and knocking it down as if it wasn’t even there. Ryoga touched down on the ground again and released the girl in his arms, seeing that his boar was turning around and coming back again. Good, that meant he recognized his old sparring buddy. A brief smirk found its way onto Ryoga’s face as he dropped his pack and stood at the ready. The fact that the pack put a crack in the ground when he dropped it did not go unnoticed by anyone, especially Ranma.
“Come get me, Yamakujira...” Ryoga said, smirk still in place. Yamakujira did not disappoint, in fact he did exactly what Ryoga wanted him to do. With a patented Full Blown Battle Charge the massive boar headed head first for Ryoga. In an instance Boar and Man met, heralded by the sickening sound of meat and bone colliding at high speeds. Ryoga had to admit that he was impressed with the boar. For once, it wasn’t felled in one blow.
“Have you been training, Yamakujira?” Ryoga asked with a smile. His only response was a grunt from the massive beast as its hooves dug into the ground beneath it and pushed forward with all its might. Ryoga’s shoes started to dig small trenches in the ground as he was pushed back, his hands firmly clasped on the Boar’s tusks now. The Hibiki man knew he had given up enough ground and figured it was time to end this struggle. Thus, with a grunt of effort, he pushed his feet into the earth for leverage and pulled on the boar’s foot long tusks. With an impressive grunt of effort, Ryoga yanked the boar off its feet and swung it around in a full circle before releasing it, hurling it into and through a cement wall.
“Wow, you’re pretty strong.” The voice was definitely Ranma’s, but there was definitely something wrong with it. For one thing, it held a certain feminine tone to it that Ryoga was certain Ranma was utterly incapable of, even when he was trying to be female. Secondly, the words she said seemed to signify she had no idea who Ryoga was or what he was capable of. This, more than the tone, confused and distracted Ryoga. In fact, it confused and distracted him just long enough for his ribs to have an intimate encounter with a boar skull larger than his torso. Another sickening crunch echoed off the nearby buildings as Ryoga was sent reeling from the blow, stumbling away as Yamakujira shook the headache away. Ryoga fell to his knees and groaned a little, surprised by how painful that blow was. The boar was definitely stronger than he remembered it if it could cause this kind of reaction from him.
“No more holding back. Bakusai Tenketsu!” The boar had once again gone into full blown battle charge, only this time it had the unfortunate luck to have the ground beneath it explode rather violently and have a couple hundred pounds of rock and dirt relocate itself at great speeds directly into the boars abdomen. The large beast was thrown from its war path and was sent flying into the air, where Ryoga met it with a hammer fist to the skull that would have put a hole in a car engine. Yamakujira went down with a meaty thump, and he wasn’t going to get back up anytime soon. Ryoga dusted off his hands and walked back to where he dropped his pack. He figured he might as well pick the thing up before the hole it was sitting in deepened.
“That was impressive. I’ve never seen anyone take on that boar. Who are you?” Ryoga was starting to doubt this was Ranma. How could he forget him again?
“You know who I am, Ranma.” Ryoga said simply, addressing the redhead with an annoyed glare. She blinked a few times in response before a brief smile crossed her lips. Then, for no apparent reason that Ryoga could identify, she hugged him.
(Author’s notes)
Yay, I continued this. Now to finish the other stories on my priority list.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s notes:
Materia-Blade: jeez how many times are you going to rewrite this?
Once? I’ve only rewritten it once. I’m not sure where you got the idea that I rewrote it again.
petalsofpain: I assume the death of this fic shall be taken care of. Any kind of support needed is offered. That is about it.
It isn’t dead, damn it. I’m a slow writer. I update once every couple of months, if I’m lucky. I do have a social life you know. The only discontinued stories I have are listed in my profile. All the others are technically still alive, even if I haven’t updated them in over a year. I’ll get to them eventually. Trust me, if I discontinue anything else it will be listed there.
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Ryoga froze, standing still with his arms held out from his body at right angles, a look of confusion on his face. He currently had a red haired woman firmly clasped to his torso, and she was smiling and giggling, for some reason. Ryoga just didn’t know how to react to this situation. He was completely caught off guard by this development. Thus, he just stood there like an idiot and let Ranma hug him.
‘What the fuck was going on?’ He wondered, looking down to see the dark red hair below his neck. The top of her head didn’t even reach the collar of his shirt. Was Ranma always this much shorter than him as a girl? His memory of the redheaded version of Saotome was foggy at best. Ranma was actually taller than him as a boy, he remembered that much.
“Um…” Ryoga muttered, causing the girl to suddenly detach herself from his chest in a sudden rush.
“Heh, sorry about that. I was just so happy...” She said, almost nervously. If Ryoga didn’t know better he would have sworn she was blushing.
“Happy about what?” Ryoga brushed at his T-shirt for a few moments and shouldered his pack again, still confused about the new behavior Ranma was showing. She wasn’t acting like Ranma at all. Was it really Ranma?
“I’m happy cause you know who I am!” She announced, turning his way again and looking into his eyes with a gaze that was a bit unsettling. Everything about this girl was foreign, even the look in her eyes. Yet in his gut, he knew this was Ranma. He didn’t know why, frankly he was beginning to think his gut was a lying bastard.
“Eh?”
“Nobody knows who I am, but you do. What’d you say my name was again?” Ryoga looked at her like she grew a second head.
“Ranma. Saotome Ranma.” He responded simply. The girl gazed skyward for a second, almost as if she was lost in thought.
“Saotome…Ranma…” She whispered, delicately pronouncing each syllable, almost as if she wanted to savor the name. She suddenly reached into her pocket and pulled out a black, rectangular object, opening it and looking within.
“Yes. That’s who I am. I’m Saotome Ranma.” Ryoga’s eyebrow rose in curiosity at this. She didn’t know her own name? What was going on? Subtly, Ryoga gazed over the shoulder of the shorter girl and caught a glance at what she was looking at. It was a wallet. A badly burned, torn and generally damaged wallet. The thing her gaze was caught on though was what looked like the burnt remains of an ID card. The name was virtually illegible, as was most of the data contained on it. The only thing still intact was the date of birth. Upon closer inspection, Ryoga noticed he could barely make out ‘らん’in the badly burnt remains of the name. Ran. The picture was also fairly intact. Of course, it was so horribly damaged he couldn’t tell if it had originally been of Ranma’s boy form or girl form, but it was definitely Ranma. That settled it. He now knew for certain that this woman was in fact Ranma. The very same Ranma he had been searching for. But why did she not know who he was? She didn’t even know her own name.
“Did you lose your memories or something?” Ryoga asked, seeing the girl turn around to look at him. She was smiling again, though he could have sworn he saw her on the brink of tears. Tears of joy? When had Ranma ever been so happy he cried? Hell, Ryoga couldn’t remember anytime he had ever seen Ranma cry. Ranma just didn’t cry. Period.
“Yeah, that’s what the doctor said anyway. I can’t remember anything about myself. I don’t remember my friends, family, childhood, nothing. The doctor called it Fugue Amnesia or something like that. I remember a lot of stuff, but I forgot everything related to myself.” The villagers were beginning to come out of hiding now, seeing that the pig was down and not getting back up. They didn’t seem very happy. While this was to be expected since multiple buildings were leveled and pretty much the entire village had sustained damage, they were directing their anger at Ranma.
“Damn you, Akage! Your pig destroyed my shop!”
“You stupid Pig keeper! Look what you’ve done now!” Ryoga blinked. The entire inhabitance of the village was heading towards them now, and they all seemed pretty angry. Why were they pissed off at Ranma?
“Shit. Yamakujira! Get up you lazy pork roll, you weren’t hit that hard!” Ranma shouted out and suddenly bolted towards the outskirts of the village. Ryoga was still horribly confused, and his confusion was only increased when the giant boar got up and followed the redhead out of the village. He had hit the thing pretty freaking hard, so it should have been down for the count.
“Get back here, woman!”
“We aren’t going to let you get away this time!” Ryoga merely sweat dropped, suddenly realizing that an angry mob was coming towards him and that the boy he had been looking for for the last 3 years was making a hasty get away.
“Oi, Ranma! Wait up!” Ryoga shouted out, running after the pig and the woman with the villagers hot on his tail.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 2
Keeper of the Pig
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Ryoga had long since lost sight of the villagers, not that he was stupid enough to turned around and look for them. His eyes stayed locked on the woman in front of him and didn’t waver for an instant, lest he lose himself in the forest. He barely allowed himself to blink, for the split second in which his eyes closed was enough to throw him off course at the speed he was running.
‘Where the hell is he running off to, anyway!’ Ryoga thought, weaving to the left to avoid colliding with a tree. Ranma and Yamakujira were still a little ways ahead of him, but he was matching them for speed. He was vaguely aware that he had been running up an incline for the past mile or so. He didn’t recall seeing any mountains when he had found the town, so how they were going up one now was a bit confusing. Suddenly Ryoga could see something in the distance, a building of some kind. Ranma was starting to slow down, and the massive boar was doing the same. It seemed like the building was their destination.
“What was that all about, Ranma?” Ryoga asked, falling in step with the woman as they got closer to the building. Now that they were closer, Ryoga could see that it was either a small house or a large shack. It was fairly shoddy and in obvious disrepair, being so small that it likely had no more than 3 or 4 rooms. Running through his check list, that likely meant it had a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and entrance.
“Sorry about that. The villagers get pretty angry at me whenever Yama decides to run through. He always goes on a rampage once in awhile.” Ranma responded, watching as the boar in question came to a stop near the building and laid down. From Ryoga’s new angle, he could see that the building was slightly larger than he had thought. There was another room coming out of the back of it, but it was mostly burnt down.
‘Wonder what happened.’ He thought, still walking with the pigtailed woman. “Why would they blame you for what some wild boar does?” They were at the door now, which seemed to be in such horrid condition that it would be a miracle if it opened. In a bizarre series of pushes, pulls and smacks that seemed almost ritualistic Ranma got the door open and stepped in, Ryoga following.
“They think I’m responsible for him. At some point or another they got it in their heads that he’s my pet or something.” Ranma said, removing her shoes at the door and setting them aside before stepping into the main room with sock clad feet. Ryoga did the same, removing his own shoes and setting them beside Ranma’s before following her in.
“You know, He is currently sleeping in your front yard.” Ryoga said while pointing at the boar through the window. “Think that might be why they assume he’s yours?” Ranma chuckled a bit and sat down at a nearby table, it being one of the few things in the room. Aside from it, there was a dresser propped up against one wall and a small end table against the wall near the door, an old lamp sitting on it.
“Well it’s not like I asked him to show up. That stupid pig has been following me around for the last two years.” Ranma reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet again and seemed to be fighting with one of the pockets in it. With a sigh Ryoga turned away and looked out the window again, briefly noting that he could see some telephone polls running a path up the mountain nearby. Some of the lines were even connected to this house.
“Do you have a phone?”
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The telephone was ringing. However, due to the current level of activity in the home it went almost completely unnoticed. There seemed to be some kind of a celebration going on, as the entire family had gathered in that old home for the first time in over a year. It had been quite a while ago that the teenagers that lived there had finished high school. And with the last step of learning coming to a close, they both moved on to better things. One of them went out of the country to pursue her academic needs while the other stayed closer to home, attending a college in Tokyo. Now the whole family was gathered to celebrate a joyous event. They had even invited some family friends over to enjoy the occasion. Thus, the telephone went unheard by the adults that lived there. The only person that could hear it was a small boy sitting on the counter in the kitchen, feeling left out of grown-up matters. The small boy was barely tall enough to reach the phone from on top of the end table. Thus, he picked up the receiver and got off his tip toes, holding the receiver to his ear.
“Hello?” He asked, feeling nervous butterflies in his belly. This was the first time he ever answered a phone. He hoped he didn’t mess up.
(“Eh? Hello? Who’s this?”) The gruff voice from the other end of the line caused the small child to jump a bit. The boy wasn’t used to talking to people with such deep voices.
“Who are you?” The small boy asked, seemingly ignoring the question posed to him from the other end of the line.
(“Is this the Tendo Dojo?”) The voice asked, sounding a bit confused.
“Uh huh.” The boy answered, nodding his head. He apparently forgot that the person he was talking to wouldn’t be able to see it over the phone.
(“How old are you?”) The voice asked.
“Two and a half.” The small boy responded, proud that he remembered the number.
(“Are there any adults there I can talk to?”) The small boy didn’t know what to do at this point. He didn’t want to bother the grown-ups, but the man on the phone wanted to talk to someone older.
“Akira, what have I told you about playing with the phone?” The familiar feminine voice caused Akira to breathe a sigh of relief as he turned around and held the receiver towards his mother.
“I’m not playing, mama. There’s a man on the phone.” The woman raised an eyebrow in curiosity, having not heard the phone ring earlier. She took the receiver from her son’s hand and held it to her ear, wondering who would it might be.
“Hello, Tendo Residence.” She said, hearing some movement on the other side of the line.
(“Kasumi-san? Is Akane-san around?”) The voice was gruff and didn’t ring any bells for the woman. Now Kasumi’s interest was peeked. No one had called there for Akane in years. She didn’t even live there anymore. Who would know that Akane was visiting from college?
“Yes, Akane is visiting us right now. May I ask whose calling?” Kasumi wanted a name before she handed the phone over to her little sister.
(“Hibiki Ryoga.”) The sound of a body hitting the floor was the only response the caller received, as well as the panicked wailing of a two-year-old.
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“Eh? Hello? Hello! Kasumi-san, are you there?” Ryoga was confused. Did Kasumi just faint on him? He knew they thought he was dead but he wasn’t expecting them to faint! Ryoga could vaguely hear movement in the background and people talking, but they were too far from the phone for him to make any of it out. Plus the little boy he had been talking to earlier was crying about his mom.
(“Who is this? What did you say to my sister?”) Finally someone got the phone and was talking to him again. The voice was a little different, but Ryoga was fairly certain he recognized it.
“Nabiki-san? What’s going on?” Ryoga asked, hearing the woman on the other side of the phone getting angry.
(“I asked you your name!”) She shouted out, causing Ryoga to hold the receiver away from his ear for a second.
“Hibiki Ryoga.” Before he even completely finished pronouncing his name, another thump was clearly audible through the phone, as well as more panic.
“You fainted too? Ah come on! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Ryoga screamed into the phone, hearing a chuckle behind him as he turned and saw Ranma standing in the doorway, looking at him with a smirk. She appeared to be finding this phone conversation of his incredibly entertaining.
(“What did you say to my sisters!”) Another voice was demanding he explain himself, this one Ryoga could recognize as Akane’s.
“Akane-san, promise me you won’t faint.” Ryoga said, hearing a chuckle from Ranma behind him.
(“What?”)
“I said promise me you won’t faint.”
(“I won’t faint, okay?”) She promised. Ryoga took a deep breath for this next part, not sure what he should expect.
“This is Hibiki Ryoga, I’ve...” Akane promptly broke her promise. Ryoga didn’t even have time to finish his sentence. “God damn it! You promised you wouldn’t faint!” Ranma was laughing out loud now.
(“You’d better explain your...”) It was Mr. Tendo this time, but Ryoga was getting tired of this game of phone swapping. He cut the man off mid sentence and loudly proclaimed his name, waiting for the man to faint.
(“Hibiki...Ryoga? You’re Hibiki Ryoga?”) Finally! Victory was his!
(“WAAAHH! I’m receiving a phone call from a ghost!”) Or not.
“I’m not dead, damn it!” Ranma was still laughing behind him, obviously finding him funny.
(“You’re not? Then where have you been for the past 3 years! We thought you got killed on Horaisan!”) Soun’s voice was obviously angry. Ryoga figured that was understandable.
“I was looking for Ranma.” Ranma’s laughter stopped suddenly. Ryoga could practically feel her attention being entirely directed to the phone conversation.
(“What? Did you say Ranma?”) The second the syllables left Soun’s mouth Ryoga could hear a scuffle on the other side of the phone. It sounded like multiple people were fighting for control of the receiver.
(“RYOGA! WHERE IS RANMA! IS RANMA ALIVE!”) Ryoga was forced to hold the receiver away from his face at Genma’s shout, and he was certain that the voice was clearly audible to Ranma, despite the girl being halfway across the room. The shout stopped suddenly and Ryoga put the receiver back to his ear, hearing the struggle begin anew. Finally, he heard an odd click and a barrage of noises. He could only assume he had been put on speaker phone.
(“Ryoga, is Ranma alive? Is he there with you?”) The voice was Genma’s, he assumed.
“Yeah, Ranma’s alive. Technically.” Ryoga heard a few sighs of relief at the first half of his sentence, but they immediately stopped when he added ‘technically.’ Ryoga turned and looked at the girl in question as he said it, seeing her raise an eyebrow.
“Technically?” She asked. Ryoga shushed her.
(“What do you mean ‘technically’? Has my son been injured? Does he still have all his limbs?”) Who was this? Ranma’s mother? Ryoga didn’t know he had a mother.
“What? Of course Ranma still has all her limbs.” ‘well,’ Ryoga thought, ‘it depends on what she qualifies as a limb. Ranma’s certainly missing some pieces of his anatomy.’ Ranma laughed a bit at this, not entirely sure when her limbs had been brought up.
(“‘Her?’ Ranma’s a boy. Why did you call him ‘her’?”) It was the same woman’s voice, and she sounded confused.
(“Pay no attention to that, dear. The boy’s always been bad with pronouns.”) That sounded like Genma. Did Ranma’s mother not know about the curse?
(“Genma…”) Was that the sound of a sword being unsheathed? She certainly sounded angry.
“What’s going on? Was that Ranma’s mother just now?” Ryoga asked, seeing Ranma’s head snap to attention.
(“Yeah, that was Mrs. Saotome. Why did you call Ranma a girl anyway? His curse isn’t still locked, is it?”) That sounded like Akane. She sounded a bit disappointed as well.
“That’s one of the reasons I said ‘technically’.” Ryoga responded, seeing that Ranma was gesturing to him as if she wanted the phone. He waved her off. “Ranma also has Amnesia. She doesn’t have a clue who she is.” This remark was met with silence. Ranma was standing closer to him now and was still gesturing like she wanted the phone. Ryoga still ignored her.
(“Amnesia…So he doesn’t even remember that he’s a man?”) This sounded like Soun, but Ryoga couldn’t really tell since Ranma was now reaching for the phone. He was busy avoiding her.
“Exactly. She doesn’t seem to remember anything about herself.” Ryoga stated, jumping back a little as Ranma snatched at the phone. It was a good thing it was cordless.
“Gimme the phone, Ryoga!” Ryoga could tell that they heard Ranma’s voice since all the background noise stopped. Even the sound of Ranma’s mother chasing Genma around screaming bloody murder stopped.
(“Who was that? Was that Ranma? Is he there with you?”) It was Ranma’s mother again, and judging from the sound of running before her voice Ryoga could only assume she had been in the other room and had rushed over to the phone.
“Yes, Ranma’s here with me. URK!” Ryoga dropped the phone as a fist nailed him in the face at high speed. The redheaded woman caught the phone and held it up to her ear, glaring at the man now lying on the floor.
“Hello? Who’s there? Is this my family?” Ranma asked. She didn’t hear anything for a few seconds and instead turned her attention to Ryoga, who was glaring at her in annoyance.
(“Ranma?”) It was a woman’s voice. An elderly woman at least in her forties from the sound of it. She sounded surprised.
“Yes, I’m Ranma. Are you my mother?” Ranma sounded almost enthusiastic. If Ryoga didn’t know better he would have sworn she was on the verge of tears again.
(“Are you…are you a girl?”) Ranma almost fell over at that.
“What? Of course I’m a girl!” There was a gasp of shock on the other side of the phone from several sources. It also sounded like someone had tried to run away, but they tripped over something and hit the ground.
(“I see.”) The woman said, icily. Ranma could practically hear her glaring at someone. (“How silly of me, Ranma-Chan. I should have recognized your voice. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. Are you well?”) Her voice suddenly warmed up. She suddenly sounded a lot nicer.
“Yes, I’m fine…mom. I’ve been living on my own for the past three years, but I’ve gotten by.” Ranma couldn’t believe she was having a conversation with her mother. She didn’t even know she had a family a few hours ago. Tears of joy were threatening to fall as she thought about how lucky she was today.
(“That’s good to know, dear. I hope I can see you again soon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to have a few words with your father.”) Someone was trying to run again, this was followed by the sound of a sword being drawn and an angry woman screaming incoherently at somebody. Ryoga saw the phone coming at him and quickly caught it, watching Ranma walk out of the room.
‘What was that about?’ he thought, putting the phone up to his ear.
----------------------
Nabiki sighed as she heard Nodoka chasing her husband all throughout the house. You’d think that after three years of assuming their son was dead Genma would have told her about Jusenkyo. How the woman didn’t know that Genma turned into a Panda was beyond her.
“Where are you guys right now?” Nabiki asked in the general direction of the phone.
(“I don’t know. Some house up on a mountain somewhere. There’s a village nearby that just got attacked by a boar, but I don’t know what it was called.”) It was Ryoga’s voice, meaning that any location he could give would be practically useless. (“I’ll probably head off to Nerima with Ranma tomorrow. We should be able to get there in a few days.”) Akane seemed to shrug as if it seemed like a perfectly good idea. She was about to respond as such to Ryoga when Nabiki suddenly grabbed her and pulled her aside.
“Hang on a second, sis. Should we really trust Ryoga to bring Ranma back?” Nabiki was whispering so that they wouldn’t be heard over the speaker phone. In the meantime, Kasumi seemed to be engaging in small talk with Ryoga, informing him on everything that happened over the past 3 years. Her son was in her arms, so Nabiki imagined she would start there.
“What do you mean, Nabiki?” Akane asked, also whispering.
“Don’t you remember what happened three years ago? Before the whole mess with Herb. Ryoga found that rod and Ranma fell in love with him.” Recognition came to Akane’s face, as well as confusion and a bit of disgust.
“Ug, don’t remind me.” Akane muttered in response.
“Think about it Akane. Ryoga looked for Ranma for 3 years. He obviously has a thing for Ranma to be that dedicated. Now the two of them are alone together in the middle of nowhere, and Ranma thinks he’s a girl.” Realization started to dawn on Akane’s face.
“And with his sense of direction, who knows how long it would take for them to get back here. A month? Two, three? He may even intentionally avoid Nerima just to spend more time with Ranma.” Akane’s face was becoming paler and paler as Nabiki went on. Ryoga wouldn’t...would he?
“You heard how Ryoga was calling Ranma ‘she’ over the phone. All alone with an amnesiac. Think of the possibilities.” Nabiki was on a roll.
“Oh Ryoga-kun, I don’t remember anything about my past. Tell me what my life was like.” Nabiki had raised her voice a bit in an impersonation of Ranma, clasping her hands in front of her chest and gazing upward admiringly.
“Well Ranma-Chan, you and I used to be lovers.” Nabiki was now smirking and holding her chin in her hand. She had also lowered her voice to imitate Ryoga.
“Really?” Nabiki said again in her Ranma-voice, an expression of wonder on her face.
“Yes. We were inseparable. In fact, before the accident we were thinking of consummating our…”
“I get it, ok! You don’t have to paint me a picture.” Akane suddenly interrupted, obviously disturbed by the situation Nabiki was describing.
“I’m glad you see the problem here. We can’t leave Ryoga alone with him for very long.” Akane nodded her head in agreement and the two sisters returned to the phone, seeing that Kasumi was still explaining some things to Ryoga.
“…And just recently father proposed to his new girlfriend, so we were all here to celebrate his engagement. She’s a really nice woman.” Kasumi said, still holding her son and talking to the phone.
“You know Ryoga, I think it would be best if you and Ranma just stayed put for a little while.” Nabiki said cheerfully.
“Yeah, you really shouldn’t go off on your own. You might get lost, Ryoga.” Akane added in.
(“So you want me to stay here? I thought you’d want to see us.”) Ryoga sounded a little confused, but it didn’t sound like he was disagreeing.
“We do! We’ll just come get you. So stay put, we’ll be seeing you in a couple of days. Bye now!” Nabiki said, and then promptly hung up the phone.
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Ryoga looked at the phone in confusion for a few seconds before hanging it up and leaving the kitchen. They wanted him to stay here? They didn’t even know where this place was. For some reason he was getting a bad feeling about them coming here. It was almost as if they didn’t trust him to bring Ranma back.
‘Why would they think that though?’ He wondered. It’s not like he’d ever proven himself untrustworthy. Hell, the only time he could remember breaking a promise was…
Ryoga stopped cold at that. His train of thought didn’t just come to a screeching halt; it exploded violently and flung from the tracks in a fantastic display of fire and death. The lost boy turned his gaze towards the redheaded woman that was once again fiddling with a pocket in her wallet. He looked at her and saw the man she was supposed to be. That was right. The last promise Ryoga broke was the promise he made to bring back the kettle. He broke a promise to both himself and to Ranma that day because of his failure. Because of him, Ranma may very well have to stay a girl for the rest of her life. For a few brief moments he tried to imagine being stuck as a pig and his brain failed him. He couldn’t even grasp the concept. It was just so beyond his ability to comprehend that he was incapable of even imagining it. Ryoga wasn’t sure if he would have been able to stay a pig for a week straight, let alone 3 years. Let alone the rest of his life.
‘At least Ranma is lucky in a way. He’s stuck as a girl, but he doesn’t remember being a guy. Ignorance is bliss, after all.’ Ryoga walked towards the table and sat down across from the redhead, watching her continue to try and open a pocket in the wallet that was fused shut from damage. He had realized much earlier that he shouldn’t bring up Ranma’s curse. Let him keep his bliss for now. That was why he had been referring to him as ‘she’ throughout that phone conversation. He imagined the shock would be too much for the girl, especially since Ranma was clearly in a fucked up mental state at the moment. For now, he’d humor her. He just hoped she didn’t ask any questions that would require him bringing up her real gender.
“Stupid wallet.” Ranma muttered, still yanking on the pocket. Apparently she didn’t want to damage the wallet, since she could have just torn the damn thing open by now. Hell, Ryoga was tempted to do just that. This was getting annoying to watch.
“Gimme that.” Ryoga snatched the wallet and grabbed the offending pocket between two fingers. With a tug the metal button that held it shut snapped like brittle glass, allowing the pocket open and the contents to be viewed.
“You bastard! I was trying not to break it!” Ranma snatched the wallet back and looked at the broken latch. She sighed a bit, figuring her complaints were foolish and instead reached into the folds of burnt leather. Her fingers caressed a smooth, rectangular object. Thin, like a piece of paper, yet glossy. She gripped it between her middle and index fingers and pulled, freeing the parchment from the pocket. It was a folded up photograph, burnt to a brown tint on one side. The red head slowly unfolded it, as if she were afraid it would fall apart. It was a picture of three people standing together. The person on the far left was a Chinese boy she didn’t recognize, then in the middle was a younger version of herself, and then on the far right was what looked like the a younger version of the man sitting across from her. She noted he had a lot less facial hair in the photo.
‘I remember that photo.’ Ryoga thought, looking at the burnt picture from his spot across the table. They had taken it just before heading up to Horaisan. In fact, Ryoga was pretty sure he saw Horaisan in the background. Mousse had pulled a Polaroid camera out of his sleeve and set it up on a tripod. He could still remember the way they had sort of silently agreed to taunt Ranma in the photo. Mousse had his arm resting on top of her head with a smirk on his face. And Ryoga had leaned all his weight on the cursed boy, draping his arm around her shoulder and gave a piece sign to the camera. He also had a big grin on his face. Ranma, understandably, looked incredibly annoyed. They had given the photo to Ranma as a joke. To be honest, Ryoga thought he would have torn the photo up or thrown it away. He was rather surprised that he saved it.
“We were real close back then, huh?” Ranma asked suddenly. Ryoga wasn’t entirely sure, but it seemed Ranma had gotten a completely different meaning from the photo. When Ryoga looked at it, he saw two teenagers taunting the shortest person in the group. When she looked at it, she apparently saw really good friends.
“I...guess so.” Ryoga muttered. He wasn’t really sure what she meant by ‘close.’ Ryoga assumed the two of them were friends. After the Shishi Hokodan fight Ryoga had pretty much given up his grudge against Ranma. The score was settled between them, he said so on Horaisan. Now that he thought about it, they didn’t really do many things together that your standard friends did. They were more like comrades in arms. When it was necessary, they fought together towards a common goal. There was the occasion when he and Ranma did something together that didn’t involve fighting some enemy or searching for a cure, but those times were few and far between. It was kind of depressing when he thought about it.
“Who’s this other guy in the picture?” Ranma suddenly asked, bringing Ryoga out of his memories. She was pointing to Mousse and was apparently curious about him.
“That’s Mousse. He’s one of the Chinese amazons.” Ryoga said. Actually, he wasn’t entirely sure if Mousse was an Amazon. He was from China, sure. And he had a thing for Shampoo. But was he an Amazon? Now that he thought about it, the concept didn’t make much sense. Wasn’t Cologne supposed to be the leader of the amazons? Mousse was always incredibly disrespectful to her. You’d think he’d treat his leader better. Ryoga figured he’d have to ask the blind boy the next time he saw him.
“Mousse? Was he a friend of ours?” Ours? Ranma had placed an odd tone on the word. Ryoga didn’t really know what she meant by it.
“Well, not really. He was friendly when it counted, but he was mostly just…” Ryoga stopped, wondering if ‘trying to kill you’ was the best thing to say here. “…an acquaintance.” He finished, deciding not to bring up the multiple people that wanted to kill or maim her for one reason or another. Slow steps. He could bring up the vendettas when she became familiar with the other weird stuff that happened in her life.
“Tell me a little about you, Ryoga.” Eh? That was an unexpected question. She was leaning back against the wall behind her, looking at him with a bit of a smirk on her face. It almost looked like she was enjoying his confusion.
“What? What do you mean?” He asked. She just seemed to smirk more at that.
“Tell me about you. How we met, what you do in your spare time. That kind of stuff.” Ryoga looked at her for a few moments, trying to think up the best way to word this. He obviously couldn’t include simple factors like being at an all boy’s school. He’d have to say this just right.
“Well we met in Junior high. It was lunch, actually. Lunch was always pretty hectic. I never had any lunch money, so I just waited around for the lunch ladies to throw some food out into the crowd of boys to get them away from the lines. Normally I was always able to get it, but then one day you showed up.” Ryoga saw the interest in Ranma’s eyes. He wasn’t used to people paying this much attention to what he was saying. She was practically hanging on every word. “You jumped on my head and used me as a step stool to get to the food in mid air.” The redhead laughed at this. In her mind she could see the picture clearly. A young boy standing on the ground reaching for a piece of food, a girl standing on his face and leaping off him to grab it first. It was almost as if she could remember it.
“You got the food and I was pretty annoyed. But I walked away. It wasn’t until you stole the food from me day after day after day that I did anything about it.” Ranma was still smirking at his story. Damn him, mocking his pain.
“So what did you do?” Ranma asked.
“I challenged you to a fight.” Ryoga said with a shrug. He couldn’t help but smirk at the confused expression that suddenly came to Ranma’s face.
“A fight? You were going to beat up on a girl over some bread?” Ranma suddenly asked, appearing rather indignant.
“W…what? No!” Shit. How was he supposed to explain this one? “We were both martial artists. I challenged you to a match, not some school brawl.” Nice save, Ryoga! Though judging from the frown that the redhead still wore, it didn’t seem to have made much of a difference.
“It doesn’t really matter, we never actually fought.” Ryoga got out, seeing that the anger was replaced by curiosity and confusion.
“So we had a duel, but didn’t fight? What happened then?” Ranma appeared interested again.
“I got lost. By the time I got to where we were supposed to fight, you had already left.” Ryoga answered, scratching the back of his head a bit.
“Well why didn’t you ask for a rematch?” Ranma looked confused again. Looked like Ryoga had to get a little more specific.
“You left. Gone. Went away. Your father and you went to China for martial arts training. I was so angry about the duel that I followed you.” Ryoga wasn’t able to continue past that, since Ranma had leaned forward and slapped her hands on the table rather forcefully.
“You followed me to China! Over a duel?” She looked absolutely shocked. As if the concept was completely ludicrous. Then suddenly, a knowing look seemed to cross her face. She began to sit back down and a smirk formed on her face. She was looking at him as if she had suddenly discovered his darkest secret.
“I see now.” She said, nodding her head. See what? What was there to see?
“You weren’t looking for a fight in that ‘duel,’ where you Ryoga?” She had a slightly accusatory tone in her voice. This only confused him more. Not looking for a fight? What the hell was he talking about? Of course he wanted a fight! Why else would he challenge him to a duel?
“I see now. An interesting ploy, too. A beautiful school girl suddenly appears in your life and starts harassing you during lunchtime. Sounds like a pretty childish thing to do. I probably thought you were cute, but since I was young the only way I knew how to get your attention was to annoy you.” Ranma suddenly started ranting. Ryoga didn’t have the opportunity to interrupt, nor could he think of anything to say other than to ask the redhead what she’s been smoking.
“…but since you were too embarrassed to just ask me out, you challenged me to a duel instead. But when you found out I wasn’t there, you were so heartbroken you followed me all the way to china.” Ranma finished. Ryoga was just staring at her like a dead fish.
‘How in the hell did he come to that conclusion?’ Ryoga thought, still staring at Ranma in general disbelief.
“Sounds like something out of a bad Shoujo manga.” Ranma suddenly said with an eyebrow raised. With a bit of a sigh, she got to her feet, walking past Ryoga in the direction of the bedroom.
“Do you think I’m gullible, Ryoga-kun? Nice try though. You almost had me going for a second there.” Ranma chuckled to herself before entering her room and closing the door. Ryoga could only sit where he was in a state of shock, still not entirely registering the last exchange.
“What…just happened?” He asked. The room gave no response.
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TBC
(Author’s Notes)
Yes, yet another chapter finished. Expect more chapters of this soon, as this fic will come to a finish fairly quickly. What will happen next? Well, wait a little while to find out.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s Notes:
Shiner: How can Ryoga go from betraying Ranma to helping her after he got her stuck like that?
Um, how does he betray Ranma? I’ve got no clue what you mean.
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The redhead looked about herself suddenly, feeling the ground tremble as the mountain above her was crumbling to pieces. She was knee deep in the strange waters that surrounded the mountain and was busy dodging the rocks that were raining down towards her from pretty much every direction. Horaisan was collapsing at an alarming rate, and the mountain was so tall it would likely completely fill this chasm with its remains. She needed to get out of there, and fast. Just as she began to wade through the waters towards the chasm wall a pair of boulders collided in midair, turning into a pile of rocks that fell directly on the red headed girl. With a grunt she was forced under the water, the pile of rocks having struck her left leg in mid step. The girl stood on her uninjured right leg and tried to pull her left from the pile of rocks, but it refused to budge. She could feel an icy chill running up her foot as well as an intense stab of pain from the back of her knee to her ankle. Her leg felt broken.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” She screamed, grabbing her left leg and pulling on it in an attempt to remove it from the rocks. Every pull sent a ripple of agony throughout her body, preventing her from freeing it. Rocks were still crashing into the water all around her as the mountain continued to collapse. So far she was lucky enough not to get hit. That luck wasn’t going to last forever. Suddenly she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and turned towards it. Her eyes fell onto the form of a teenaged boy. He was just standing there, looking at her with a smirk on his face and seemingly ignoring the rocks around him.
“Who are you?” She asked, looking at him. He had long black hair tied back into a pigtail and was wearing the same Red and black clothes that she was. The longer she looked at him, the more she felt she should have known who he was.
“I’m Saotome Ranma. Who are you supposed to be?” He suddenly asked, staring at her with a cold glare while remaining motionless. He raised his fist and destroyed a boulder that was falling towards him, but beyond that he did nothing.
“I’m…” She began, but suddenly stopped when she didn’t know how to continue. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t conjure up her name. She didn’t know her own name. The pigtailed boy just chuckled to himself and leapt away, climbing the side of the chasm.
“No! Wait! Come back here! I’m stuck!” She shouted to him but he made no response, he showed neither hesitation nor sign of slowing. He just kept jumping up the side of the cliff, leaving her to her fate.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 3
Danger on the Horizon
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Ranma awoke with a start, her eyes wide and a cold sweat dripping down her back. She had become used to this as of late, waking with her heart beating violently in her chest as she escaped a nightmare. The redheaded woman fell backwards onto her bed once more, staring through the darkness at nothing in particular. She couldn’t really remember the last good night sleep she had. She was always tossing and turning, and almost certainly awoke from some horrid dream. Usually she couldn’t remember what they were about. It was when she could remember that she had difficulty sleeping the next night. With a sigh the woman rolled to the side of her bed and sat up, her legs draping over the edge. She was barely clothed at all at the moment, wearing nothing but a pair of panties and a tank top. She decided against putting any more clothes on and instead left her room. She was almost immediately hit by the scent of food the second she opened the door.
“Is someone cooking?” She asked herself, walking out of her room and towards the kitchen. It wasn’t until she peaked into the room in question that she remembered her ‘guest’ from the day before. Ryoga was standing in front of the stove, cooking something in a skillet. He was wearing the same black pants and black T-shirt that he had been wearing the day before, though surprisingly his bandana was not on his head. Rather it was in his hand, as he had been using it to hold the solid metal skillet without burning himself. His face was freshly shaven, giving him a much more youthful appearance. He almost looked like the same 17-year-old kid in the picture she found.
“You’re cooking breakfast, huh?” Ryoga jumped a bit and turned around, spotting the redheaded woman standing behind him in the doorway. The curious glance she sent his way was completely unnoticed as Ryoga’s eyes immediately fell on the rather well built woman’s current state of undress.
‘Jeez, what the hell is he wearing?’ Ryoga thought, turning away quickly and setting his attention back on to the task at hand. He had almost forgotten Ranma was there. He couldn’t even begin to remember every time he had woken up in a shack in the middle of nowhere, usually deserted shacks. He probably should have realized someone lived there when he had taken a shower. Deserted shacks in the mountains usually didn’t have running water.
‘Oh well. At least I cooked plenty of eggs.’ Ryoga thought, looking down at the 6 eggs in the pan. That was another thing that probably should have clued him in. The refrigerator was functional and the food within it was fresh, two things that weren’t true of abandoned places. He really needed to be more observant.
“What are you, the strong silent type?” Ranma’s sarcastic comment pulled Ryoga from his thoughts long enough to realize that the girl had asked him a question and that he had yet to answer.
“Yes.” He stated, answering the first question. Ranma raised an eyebrow at that. She idly wondered which question Ryoga had answered. With a shrug the redhead left the kitchen and sat down at the table, waiting only a brief moment before Ryoga walked out of the kitchen with two plates in hand. The redhead looked up at the bandana clad boy as he entered the room, once again noticing that his face was no longer hairy like it had been. She assumed this meant he had left that beard he had been sporting the day before in her bathroom sink, a mental picture she didn’t much care for. He also didn’t smell like shit anymore. Logically, this meant he had showered. She could only hope he had the courtesy not to use her soap. In one graceful movement Ryoga was sitting across the table from her, setting a plate in front of her and then another in front of himself. He also off handedly threw a fork at her, which she caught between two fingers.
“Hey, how come you have more?” Ranma asked, noticing she only had two eggs while Ryoga had four. The lost boy just looked at her for a second before sticking one of the fried eggs with his fork and putting it in his mouth.
“I cooked it.” He stated simply.
“They’re my eggs.” She shot back.
“I’m bigger then you, I need more food.” Ryoga said, eating another egg.
“I have a high metabolism. If I don’t eat enough I lose weight.” Ranma replied while eating one of hers.
“I haven’t eaten in 2 days, I’m hungry.” Ryoga set down his fork as he said this, looking straight into Ranma’s eyes.
“They’re still my eggs.” The redhead said again, staring back.
“It’ll go straight to your thighs.” Ryoga said it while shaking his head, looking down at his plate and missing the glare the girl sent him.
“Are you saying I have fat thighs!” Ranma almost shouted it. Ryoga stared straight at the redhead, stabbing one of the two remaining eggs he had with his fork as he did so.
“You’ll get this last egg when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.” Ryoga said it with all seriousness before eating the egg he had stabbed. This left both with only one egg on their plate. Ryoga had eaten 3 while Ranma had only eaten one. The Hibiki man’s arm was placed on the table between the redhead and his plate almost protectively while he stared at the girl with a hard look in his eyes, almost as if he was daring her to challenge him.
“That can be arranged!” Of course, Ryoga had forgotten that Ranma never declined a challenge. Before he was entirely sure what had happened, she leapt across the table and tackled him to the floor.
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The previous day…
The Tendo dojo had become absolutely silent, a stark contrast to the celebration that had held it a few hours prior. Currently the residents of the house were sitting at the table, over looking the koi pond where young Akira was playing in the dirt. The only person paying any attention to the child, however, was Kasumi. Everyone else had their eyes firmly locked on the woman who sat on the other side of the table with a katana across her lap. Her husband sat nearby, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Would anyone care to explain to me what has happened with my son?” Nodoka asked, her eyes shut and her tone even. Silence met her words. And if it wasn’t for Kasumi averting her eyes every few moments to check on her son than no movement would have occurred either.
“Well? Can none of you remember exactly what happened to my son?” Nodoka asked, her eyes open now. She slowly panned her gaze across the four Tendos, not very happy at all that they averted their eyes when she looked at them.
“So not a one of you can tell me why my son is a woman!” The anger was clear in her voice and the Tendos collectively flinched. Genma raised his hand to his mouth as if he intended to speak, but before he even managed to clear his throat he had a cold steel blade pressed to his jugular.
“I will speak with you later, husband. I am asking this of the Tendos.” Genma obediently stayed silent. A few agonizing minutes passed with the only sound being Akira giggling to himself in the backyard. Finally, Akane gathered the confidence to speak.
“Ranma received a curse in China. Whenever he got splashed with cold water, he would turn into a girl. Hot water changed him back.” Akane stated simply, flinching a little as she became the sole recipient of Nodoka’s attention.
“Do you have any proof to back up that ridiculous story?” Akane flinched again at Nodoka’s tone. The woman turned her attention away from the Tendo girl when her husband stood up, though.
“Genma, where are you going? I haven’t given you permission to leave.” Nodoka’s tone was firm, but Genma simply sighed and readjusted his glasses.
“Quiet, kimi. I’m giving you your proof.” Nodoka’s face turned a bit red from anger as she glared at her husband’s back. For his part, Genma just approached the koi pond, and then promptly fell into it. Nodoka stood from the table in surprise, but she wasn’t prepared to see what was climbing out of the pond. Her husband was a man no longer, replaced with a lumbering behemoth of a panda. Nodoka fell over backward, shock clear on her face as she covered her mouth with her hand. Her sword clattered to the ground unnoticed as her eyes locked on the panda before her, unable to look elsewhere. The beast walked past her and towards the kitchen, shortly returning with a kettle in its hand. Nodoka looked up at the creature and caught her breath as she looked into its eyes. Its eyes held so much wisdom. They were the aged eyes of her beloved, without a doubt. It was quite unsettling looking at a creature with such human looking eyes. With a quick movement the panda dumped the water from the kettle over its head, which was followed by a mind boggling transformation. Nodoka’s brain didn’t want to believe what had just happened. In an instant the beast was gone, replaced by her husband once more. But it didn’t just vanish. It… transformed. There was a clear and obvious transition from animal to man that had taken place. It shouldn’t have been possible. It defied the very laws of nature, yet she had seen it happen with her own eyes. An involuntary shudder shook her body as Genma seated himself again, readjusting his glasses once more.
“As you can see, Nodoka, I am cursed. Both I and our son are cursed, as is that Hibiki boy he is currently with. Kasumi’s husband as well.” Kasumi glanced away at those words, checking on Akira again. The boy was still gazing at Genma in awe, clearly impressed by the transformation.
‘What? Ryoga-kun has a curse?’ Akane thought, not really believing it. Surely she would have known about it if he was cursed too…
“Ranma and I ventured into an ancient and dangerous training ground many years ago. While training there, we each fell into a cursed spring. I fell into the spring of drowned panda; our son fell into spring of drowned girl.” Nodoka was still having difficulty getting over the fact her husband had turned into a giant panda. Her heart was beginning to slow down to a normal beat again, but her brain was still having difficulty grasping the concept of magic transformational curses.
“So…When Ranma is doused with water…he becomes…a girl?” Nodoka asked. The Tendos all nodded in response.
“Yes. Hot water would return him to normal. Unfortunately, that no longer works.” Genma kept going, glancing to the Tendos for a moment. He was a bit curious why they were so unwilling to speak.
“What do you mean that no longer works?” Nodoka questioned. She seemed calmer now, as if she had come to terms with the situation. She was a little curious how Genma had managed to keep that second form of his a secret from her for the past 3 years, though.
“3 years ago, our son got involved in a fight with a Chinese prince. During that fight, he was splashed with water from an artifact that locked his curse. Since then, Ranma has been stuck in female form.” Genma said. He adjusted his glasses again and gazed out on the backyard, watching the koi leap from the water and splash back in again.
“Shortly after that fight Ranma left with the Hibiki boy and Kasumi’s husband in search of the artifact that would allow our son to become a man again.” Genma turned to look towards his wife. “They obviously failed, and we never saw Ranma or Ryoga again. Mousse returned and said the two had died on the mountain they had journeyed to. Apparently that wasn’t the case.” Silence settled on the room again, no one really knowing what to say.
“So…Our son is not a man, then.” It wasn’t a question. With a sigh, Nodoka got to her feet, her Katana in hand.
“Mrs. Saotome…you don’t intend to make Ranma fulfill the seppuku pledge, do you?” Akane asked, earning a harsh glance from the woman in question.
“My husband told you of that, did he?” Nodoka asked, glancing at her husband. “Akane-chan, for the past 3 years I have been under the belief that my son was dead. I can not even begin to describe how much that pained me. I don’t care how manly he is. I just want to see my son again.”
“But Mrs. Saotome, you don’t understand the situation fully. Ranma doesn’t remember being a boy; he thinks he’s a girl! And we have reason to believe that Ryoga is attracted to his cursed form.” Nabiki said suddenly. Nodoka glanced at the middle girl with a look of brief curiosity, almost as if she was considering something.
“This Hibiki Ryoga person that was on the phone; you say he has feelings for Ranma?” Nodoka asked. Nabiki nodded in response.
“So my son thinks he is a woman, and is all alone with that boy. This does change things.” Nodoka sat down once again and began to chew on one of her thumbs. She was clearly in deep thought, and she seemed to be having a hard time coming to a decision.
“Hibiki Ryoga…” The way she said the name was a bit off. She said it almost as if it was a bitter taste in her mouth, yet she seemed to have a slight smile on her face as well.
“…Is this boy, manly?” Nabiki practically face faulted at those words. She couldn’t possibly be considering…
“Well he’s always been really strong. Ryoga used to break boulders with his fingers and split trees in two with his hands.” Akane suddenly said, causing Nabiki to send an accusing glare at her. In an instant Nabiki slapped her hands over Akane’s mouth and dragged her from the room.
“Excuse us for a moment, Mrs. Saotome.” Nabiki said quickly, dragging her little sister away.
“What the hell are you doing!” Nabiki whispered angrily, glaring at her sister.
“I just answered her question, jeez! What’s gotten into you, Nabiki!” Akane asked. Nabiki felt like slapping her.
“Are you dense? Why do you think she asked that question!” It was another angry whisper.
“How should I know? I can’t read her mind.” The middle Tendo could not believe the stupidity of her little sister. Was she in denial or something? It was blatantly obvious!
“Come on, Akane! Nodoka’s son thinks he’s a girl and is currently all alone in the middle of nowhere with a boy and she wants to know if he’s manly! What other possible reason could there be?” Akane looked at her elder sister, searching for humor in her features. She found none. Nabiki was staring at her in complete seriousness and Akane was looking back like she had grown a second head.
“That’s completely absurd, Nabiki! This is Ranma’s mother we’re talking about. She wanted him to kill himself if he wasn’t manly enough; she isn’t going to hook him up with Ryoga!” It was Akane’s turn to angrily whisper. She personally felt fairly insulted on Nodoka’s behalf.
“She thought he was dead, Akane! She’s just happy he’s alive! He could be a flamboyant homosexual for all she cared at this point!”
“Nabiki, Akane.” The two girls jumped at the sound of Nodoka’s voice directly behind them. They slowly turned towards the door, seeing Genma and Nodoka standing near the foyer.
“Are you coming?” The two girls glanced at each other and then back at the Saotomes.
“Are you going somewhere?” Nabiki asked.
“We’re going to find Ranma. Do you two wish to come as well?” Nodoka’s words were a bit unexpected.
“But we don’t even know where they are! And I have to catch a plane in a few days…”
“Then you can stay here. What about you, Akane?” Nodoka cut Nabiki off before she had a chance to finish her sentence. As for Akane, she merely nodded her head and followed Nodoka and Genma out the door.
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After the initial tackle Ryoga had the good judgment to roll with the blow and plant his feet into Ranma’s abdomen. Before Ranma even knew what hit her she had been thrown out the window by Ryoga’s counter attack. The redhead landed on her feet and quickly regained her balance as her opponent leapt through the broken window with a fist cocked back and ready to fire. The first punch was cleanly dodged, as were the second and third. Ryoga struck nothing but air in his attempt to hit his nimble rival, who was currently dancing around his attacks almost casually. With an infuriated growl Ryoga leapt forward with his fist at the ready, striking out his punch and hitting a nearby tree when Ranma leapt over his head. Much to Ranma’s surprise, the tree fell over. She didn’t let this phase her though as her feet touched ground and she immediately launched an offensive against Ryoga’s unprotected back. He grunted from the impacts and quickly spun around into a back fist, aiming for the girl’s head but hitting nothing as she leapt backwards onto her hands. He was nailed in the chin by her rising foot for his troubles, though.
“Ready to give up, Ryoga-kun?” Ranma asked, standing at the ready as Ryoga rubbed his chin.
“That kick…” Ryoga muttered under his breath, a smirk forming on his lips. “…Was like a baby’s tap!” Ranma gasped and leapt backwards as Ryoga leapt forward and struck the ground with his index finger. Much to her surprise the rock and earth erupted violently, kicking up a significant amount of dust and causing it to rain dirt for a few moments.
“What the…” Ranma began. She was cut off though as a figure leapt out of the dust with a jumping side kick aimed for her face. Ranma ducked the kick and leapt backwards from the follow up just as Ryoga landed on the ground. Seeing an opening she rushed forward, throwing a feint for his face. As she expected, Ryoga intentionally left himself open and was moving as if to grapple her arm. He didn’t notice it was a feint until her other fist struck him hard in the ribs. Ryoga stumbled back a little and grinned. She wasn’t hitting him repeatedly like Ranma would in the past. Her punches were barely fazing him.
“You have to do better than that!” He shouted, leaping at her again. The two of them continued to fight, trading blows back and forth at a high frenzy for almost 2 straight hours. Ryoga couldn’t help but smile as the fight began to run down. Any doubts in his mind that this wasn’t Ranma were gone now. He was absolutely certain. Only Ranma fought like this. Only Ranma could get him this worked up. There was no other alternative now, this was definitely Ranma. It had been a long time ago that the redhead figured out that she had to strike the same spot repeatedly in order to hurt him, thus Ryoga was beginning to feel beat from the literally hundreds of punches and kicks she’s landed since the fight began. For his part, Ryoga probably only hit her 30 or 40 times. Despite the overwhelmingly unbalanced number of hits, it was obvious that Ranma was just as hurt as he was. With another dodged kick Ranma got behind him again and nailed him in the kidney with 17 punches in under a second. He was really getting annoyed by all the kidney punches she was going for. As he spun around he saw Ranma jump back, her back foot landing on a wet spot and slipping a little.
“I have you!” Ryoga shouted, seeing his opening and taking it when he saw Ranma was off balance. He leapt at her with his fist pulled back and ready to punch. He struck with all his might, aiming for the girl he knew wouldn’t be able to dodge while off balance. To his surprise, she caught his fist, though from the wince on her face even that defensive measure had hurt. Ranma was still off balance though, and with all of Ryoga’s forward momentum transferred into her and with his fist firmly grasped in her hand, the two tumbled to the ground. For a moment, all was silent. Ryoga didn’t dare breathe. In that very instant the simple fact that Ranma was currently a woman came back to him with full force. He also was made suddenly aware of how little the woman in question was wearing.
‘Don’t make any stupid moves, Hibiki.’ Ryoga thought, looking down at the redhead pinned beneath him. She was lying on her back and looking up at him with an expression he couldn’t quite identify; something akin to surprise. Ryoga was lying on top of her, his legs crossed over hers and her hips pressing into his abdomen. His right hand was still in her hand, while his other arm was the only thing keeping him separated from her. They were so close that their noses were practically touching. Every breath she took sent vibrations through his body. Her chest was rising and falling with her breathing, her breast touching his chest every time she inhaled. He could smell her sweat and her scent in the air, something he found pleasant, though he wouldn’t admit it. For a long time, Ryoga was frozen, unable to move from that position. Ranma just kept looking into his eyes, looking almost like she was waiting for something.
“S…sorry.” Ryoga suddenly got out, pushing himself to his feet as Ranma got up as well. The woman sent a look at him that was clearly annoyance, though he could have sworn that she looked just a little disappointed for some reason. Without a word, Ryoga turned his gaze away from the woman, hearing her light steps on the grass as she returned to the house. For a few moments Ryoga stayed where he was, contemplating recent events.
It was around that time that Ryoga remembered how the fight started.
He also noted that Ranma was currently in the house.
“Damn it, Ranma! That’s my egg!” Ryoga rushed into the house only to see the still hardly dressed redhead finishing off the last of the two eggs. She looked at him with a grin and licked her fingers as if to taunt him as she did so.
“We were fighting for hours. Weren’t they cold and disgusting?” Calm Ryoga. There will be other battles. Next time the eggs will be yours.
“Disgusting? Maybe. But all I taste is victory.” She said mockingly, looking up at her fork as if it were a great relic.
“Victory? Last I checked, you were the one on the ground at the end of that fight.” Ryoga said then immediately regretted it. Ranma sent an odd look his way before gathering the plates from the table and taking them into the kitchen.
“Yeah, and then before you made a move you chickened out.” She had said it softly, almost under her breath. Ryoga could still hear it fine though. He winced a bit at the double entendre, unsure if it was intentional. With a sigh Ryoga headed towards the door, needing to clear his head.
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Kasumi smiled a bit as she swept the porch of the Tendo home, humming a little song to herself as she did so. Her smile grew a little as she turned to see her husband on his knees in front of their son, showing him his hidden weapon trick again. Akira idolized his father. He looked so much like him too. And while she loved her husband very much, she was beginning to get a little worried about her two-year-old’s tendency to take her kitchen knives and hide them in his sleeves. He was going to hurt himself one of these days, she just knew it.
“No Akira, you’re doing it wrong. Watch me.” Mousse found great joy in teaching his son. He couldn’t help but find it funny how often he miserably failed though. He’d get it some day. It had taken Mousse until he was 10 to master the dark magic of the hidden weapons. He was determined to make his son a master as well. And with his son’s perfect vision, something he obviously inherited from his mother, the boy would probably be a lot more potent with the technique than Mousse ever was. For his part, Akira just looked at his father in fascination as he pulled a chain from his sleeve and grabbed a rock out of the garden with it. In a flash the chain and rock were both gone, disappearing into his father’s shirt.
“Mousse, don’t teach our son anything dangerous, now. He’s only 2.” Kasumi announced, seeing her husband stand and look at her with a smirk on his face. Of course, he wasn’t wearing his glasses and was actually looking in the general direction of the tree, but this was something Kasumi had become accustomed to. Mousse had horrible luck when it came to vision. Not only was he nearsighted, but he had begun to develop severe cataracts in both eyes and he had an advanced retinal disease Kasumi couldn’t remember the name of. (1) All she knew was that Mousse’s vision was progressively getting worse as he got older. One of these days, he’d go blind. Kasumi was brought from her thoughts by the sound of the phone ringing and quickly went to it.
“Hello, this is the Tendo Residence.” She began, listening for a response. “Mousse! It’s for you.” Mousse perked up as he heard his wife’s voice and quickly walked into the house. He put his glasses on to ensure he didn’t run into any walls and found his way to the phone. Kasumi was mouthing something to him, probably the name of whoever was on the phone. Even with his glasses, he could barely see her lips moving. It pained him to think that one day he’d never see her face again.
“Hello?”
(“Well Mousse, you’ve certainly made an interesting life from yourself.”) It was Cologne’s voice, a voice he had desperately hoped he’d never have to hear again. He took some solace in the fact he’d likely never see her shriveled face again.
“Old Monkey? You’re still alive, are you?” The disdain in his voice was obvious. He had no desire talking to the old Amazon for any reason.
(“I can’t say the same for you, Mousse. Shampoo is hardly pleased with you.”) There was a name he thought he had put behind him. Even now after three years of peace with Kasumi Shampoo’s name felt like an arrow through his heart.
“What do you mean?” He asked. Shampoo hating him was nothing new. He distinctly remembered her blaming Ranma’s death on him and vowing to kill him and feed his internal organs to her pigs. Luckily she was experiencing far too much grief to kill anyone at the time, and the old crone had taken her back to China before she had recovered. He hadn’t seen or heard from either since. ‘But why is she calling me now? Could she somehow be aware that Ranma’s not dead?’ Mousse thought to himself. Kasumi had told him when he came home the day before. He had been so surprised at the time that he feinted in the doorway.
(“We have reason to believe Son-in-Law is still alive, Mousse. You lied to us. Do you have any idea how much pain Shampoo has experienced since you told her he died? To this day she still cries herself to sleep.”)
“How did you know Ranma was alive? Did Ryoga call you too?” Mousse asked. He was surprised to hear nothing but silence.
(“What are you talking about?”) She asked, her voice suddenly harsh.
“Ryoga called the dojo just yesterday. He said he found Ranma. Ranma’s parents and Akane already left to meet them.” Mousse stated simply.
(“You fool!”) Mousse was forced to hold the receiver away from his ear as Cologne screamed at him. (“Listen to me, Mousse, and listen well; if you value their lives you will bring them back home this instant. It’s too late for Hibiki at this point, but those others are in grave danger.”) Cologne was speaking with absolute seriousness and Mousse new better than to think she’d joke about something like this.
“What are you talking about?”
(“Ranma is dangerous! Listen Mousse. One of our scouts was imprisoned two years ago for spying on the musk. She recently escaped and has given us a report on Herb.”) Cologne began. Mousse swallowed a lump in his throat.
(“The things done to him and his two cohorts were…I’d best not speak of them on the phone. Let’s just say that you don’t want to be anywhere near the man that did this to them.”) Mousse wasn’t sure how to react to that. Herb and those two inhuman monsters were defeated? Defeated in such a way that Cologne wouldn’t dare speak of it?
“H…How do you know Ranma did this to them?” Mousse asked. Was Cologne just assuming?
(“How many people do you know of that could do such a thing, Mousse?”) Yup, she was assuming. Something clicked in Mousse’s brain though. A sudden memory of Horaisan.
“It could have been Ryoga.” Cologne seemed surprised by this.
(“Ryoga? There’s no way he could ha…”) Mousse cut her off.
“You didn’t see what he did on Horaisan. He took out the tiger man in one attack. And that mountain crumbled because Ryoga knocked it down.” Mouse stated it simply, suddenly feeling a bit of dread for Ranma, Akane and the Saotomes.
(“If what you say is true, than you should act quickly. Find Ranma and Ryoga. I don’t know what caused him to do what he did, but you don’t want him to do it again.”) With that, Cologne hung up the phone, leaving Mousse to his thoughts. He returned the receiver to its cradle and felt for the wall as he exited the room. If Ryoga was dangerous he needed to protect his family. But what could a man who was half blind do?
‘I should probably tell Kasumi of this.’
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(1) The name is Retinitis Pigmentosa. It causes rod and cone cells in the eye to die and vision to fade in the process.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
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It had been a year ago that Horaisan had collapsed and now the area that once held the mountain had become little more than a shallow but wide hill in the land; the rocks of the mountain having filled the chasm and left only a pile of rubble in its place. Over the year vegetation had begun to grow between the cracks of rock and wind and rain eroded it down more, detracting slightly from its appearance as a simple pile of sharp rocks.
Herb looked around with a bit of annoyance of his current task. He had returned to China only to be informed by his advisers that the Open Water Kettle was an absolute necessity just in case any more accidents with the Ladle occurred. Thus the dragon prince once again found himself at the foot of what was once Horaisan, with both Lime and Mint, in search of the kettle.
“Hand me the ladle.” Herb commanded, holding out his hand as the young wolf boy placed the artifact in his hand. Herb placed it on the ground and took the dipper, balancing it on top of the handle. After a few minutes it began to spin and then pointed downward at an angle, sending a beam of light towards the ground.
“Good. It’s still here. Start digging, you two!”
“Yes, Herb-sama!” Lime and Mint said together as the two of them walked to the pile with pick axes and set to work. Herb simply sat back and waited, feeling that such menial tasks were beneath him. Hours passed and the sun began to fall in the sky. Herb found himself growing more and more bored as the hole his two subordinates were digging got progressively deeper. The sound of the picks striking stone suddenly stopped, causing Herb to rise from his seat and walk over to the hole.
“Herb-sama, can we take a brake?” It was Mint who had asked. The boy looked absolutely exhausted, obviously not having the endurance of his stronger counterpart. Lime looked none the worse for wear, having only a light sweat on his body thus far.
“Go collect food, Mint. Lime, keep working.” The two nodded and set off to do what they were told. Lime kept taking chunks out of the rock and Mint walked off into the nearby forest in search of something edible. Minutes passed and mint was still no where to be seen. The sun was almost setting and Herb had about reached the limit of his patience.
“Mint! What is taking so long?” Herb shouted towards the nearby woods, seeing a few birds take flight from the volume of his voice. After a few more moments he still heard nothing. Something was wrong. Mint had speeds beyond which even Herb himself could even keep up with, and the boy had incredibly sensitive hearing as well. If he was anywhere within a few miles from here he should have returned by now.
“I’m afraid your wolf boy is a little indisposed at the moment.” Herb turned his attention to the newcomer, spotting a familiar black haired boy approaching from the direction Mint had gone. The sound of Lime’s pick axe stopped in the hole behind him as the Tiger man also turned his attention to the boy, neither of the two Musk much caring for his appearance.
“You! What are you doing here? Where is Mint?” Herb’s tone was angry and his expression hard. He wasn’t about to stand any impudence from this foolish mortal.
“I want the Open Water Kettle. Give it to me.” The boy’s tone was equally harsh as he glared at the dragon, squeezing his hands into fists so tight his knuckles cracked. He knew better than to assume they’d just give him the kettle. He was counting on a fight.
“You will not lay a finger on the Kettle for as long as there is breath in my body. Now I will ask you once again: What did you do to Mint?” Herb’s glare intensified as an aura of power began to build up around him. The black haired boy’s head fell forward slightly, his bangs falling over the bandana he wore.
“So I have to make you stop breathing to get it, do I?” There was a smirk on his face and a chuckle in his throat. This man had no fear in the face of the Musk prince. In fact, he was laughing at him.
“Fine then! Prepare to die!” In an instant he rushed forward, fist cocked back and at the ready. Herb stood where he was without moving, watching the boy rush towards him and throw a punch with all his might. The blow never struck its target. Before he had even reached his target Lime had gotten out of the hole and in front of the prince. Without the slightest difficulty he caught the punch in one meaty hand, not even recoiling from the impact.
“That didn’t even tickle.” Lime stated, no humor in his voice as he held the boy in place and cocked back his own fist. The tiger man did not take any attempts on his Prince’s life lightly. With all his inhuman strength he let loose a punch straight into the black haired boy’s chest. With a grunt of agony he was hurled back a good 20 feet, skidding to a stop on his back and holding his chest in pain. He didn’t have time to contemplate the blow as Lime was rushing towards him with the intention of hitting him again. He just continued to lay there in pain though, unmoving. Finally the tiger man lunged with his arm ready to deliver a punch that held enough power to stop a freight train. In that instant, Lime noticed his opponent was smirking.
“Shishi Hokodan!” The other yelled as a black blast of chi erupted from the downed boy’s palms and struck Lime full in the chest. He was quickly knocked out of the air and cracked the ground when he hit it. As he got back to his feet another black blast flew across the rocky terrain, nailing him full in the chest and hurling him back again. Vapor seemed to hang in the air after its passing and the ground slightly darkened as it went. Lime was struck once again, the icy blast hitting with full force and causing him to stumble backwards and fall onto his back. Just as he was getting to his feet he saw the black haired boy rushing at him, looking ready to punch again. Lime just smirked and got up, not noticing that his opponent had kicked mint’s pick axe into the air. He leapt forward and sent his hand flying, catching the handle of the axe as it fell and swung the tool with all his might.
“LIME!” Herb called out, enraged as he saw the large man fall. The sharp tip of the axe had pierced the man’s chest and was now embedded in his torso. With a grunt of pain and a gurgle Lime spit up some blood and fell onto his back, gripping the pick axe with one hand.
“Stay down, kitty.” The black haired boy said, barely sparing the tiger a glance as he instead turned his attention to the Musk prince and began to approach him.
“You bastard! I will make sure your death is slow and painful for this.” Herb was burning like an inferno by this point, his eyes appearing to be two glowing orbs of power in his head as a blade of chi formed around his arm. The black haired boy just crackled his knuckles and stared down the enraged dragon, his own icy black aura enveloping him in a corona of power.
“You…bastard…” Lime managed to say, his mouth still full of blood. He struggled to a sitting position and yanked the pick axe out of his chest, holding the bloody instrument in one hand. Both Herb and the black haired boy turned to glance at Lime, neither one liking his attempt to stand for two separate reasons.
“Stay down or die, cat-boy.” The black haired boy growled out, his foot next to Lime’s own discarded pick axe as he stepped on it to flip it into a position where it would be easier to grab. Lime just glared at him with anger in his eyes, his blood still dripping from his lips as he got into a kneeling position.
“Lime…” Herb said firmly, trying to dissuade his subordinate from injuring himself any further. The tiger man seemed to ignore him though. For the first time in Lime’s life he was going to defy Herb. He had every intention of ripping this smug bastard in two. With a grunt the tiger got to his feet and hurled the pick axe at the black haired boy before rushing towards him, claws at the ready. The black haired boy caught the axe with little effort and kicked the second tool into his other hand, now armed with both instruments’ bladed edges at the ready.
“You’re too slow!” Before Lime was entire sure what had happened he was on the ground again. He spit out another mouthful of blood and looked around himself with blurred vision. His blood stained the ground all around him, tattered pieces of his shirt and his flesh strewn across the area. He was vaguely aware from a weight on his back that both axes were currently imbedded in his body. He could also hear the bandana wearing boy had started to fight Herb. However, he quickly lost consciousness after that, and his world went black.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 4
Akage’s Fire
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Ryoga sighed as he stared up at the ceiling, once again finding himself waking up on a couch in a shack he didn’t recognize. The lost boy turned over and tried to get back into a comfortable position. He failed though. The couch was remarkably uncomfortable, though this probably had something to do with the fact that Ryoga was too tall to lay flat across it. Also one of the cushions was badly scorched, giving it an abrasive texture that annoyed the hell out of him. The fact that Ranma was crazy enough to put her couch in the bathroom, where it was perpetually damp, didn’t help matters. It was a miracle he had slept at all. With a groan Ryoga rolled over and shut his eyes, trying to fall back asleep. The sound of the door opening caused Ryoga to jump and the light cutting on stabbed at his eyes. He could hear movement behind him. He could only assume that Ranma was going to force him to wake up. Thus, he just closed his eyes again, hoping to ignore the redhead.
That is, until he heard her taking her clothes off.
‘There’s no way…’ Ryoga thought, turning his head slightly in an attempt to look over his shoulder. Currently he was facing the couch with his back to the bathroom. He couldn’t see Ranma at the moment but it sure as hell sounded like she was disrobing. Ryoga was too afraid to turn around and find out. The sound of running water confused him for a moment, but since it was followed by a stool being dragged across the floor it seemed like Ranma was preparing to bathe.
‘What the hell is she thinking? Doesn’t she know I’m here?’ Ryoga thought, frozen in place. He didn’t dare move a muscle or make a sound lest he attract the attention of the naked woman behind him. The sound of a splash suddenly reached his ears, followed by a shiver from Ranma.
“Wow, that’s cold.” She said, her voice echoing a bit in the bathroom. Ryoga was almost too afraid to breathe as he continued staring at the back of the couch, his ears picking up the sound of Ranma soaping herself up and shampooing her hair.
‘What should I do? She doesn’t see me. I can’t just stay here. I need to sneak out somehow.’ Ryoga thought, slowly but surely rising from the couch.
“My nipples have gotten hard. It really is cold.” He immediately fell back to the couch and tried to lay as flat as possible and wished fervently that he had chameleon-like abilities. Another splash and another shiver sounded behind him as Ryoga plugged his nose, trying to quell the uprising of mental images he was getting. He was trying his best to not imagine the redhead standing naked in the bathroom with her skin glistening from the moisture. Of course, he was failing miserably, much to his horror and self-disgust. He heard a stool skid across the ground again which was followed by the wet slaps of Ranma walking across the tile floor. Ryoga was happy that they didn’t sound like they were coming towards him.
“The bath is empty? I thought that idiot Ryoga would have filled it by now.” She said, and Ryoga almost had a heart attack when he heard her speak his name. However, he resisted the urge to make any noise and thus managed to avoid detection. He heard the redhead sigh and walk a few more steps before opening the shower door. When he heard it click close behind her he immediately rolled over and sat up, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to escape. The shower suddenly cut on and Ryoga slowly stood up, silently heading for the door.
“Mmm…That feels good.” Ryoga almost slipped and smashed his face into the wall. He saved himself though and slid the door open as slowly as he could, wiping the blood away from his nose as he closed it behind him. There was no stopping the mental images now. At that moment, Ryoga walked straight for the door and left the shack, looking for a nice sturdy tree to beat his head against.
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Once again Ryoga found himself sitting across the table from the redheaded 19-year-old. She was wearing a lot more clothing now than she had been earlier, but what she was wearing was still messing with Ryoga’s head. She was wearing a red blouse and a pleated skirt with thigh high stockings on her legs. He’d seen Ranma dress like a girl before, but those times he had always been trying to play a trick on him. Seeing Ranma dress like this casually as if it was normal was just confusing him. It didn’t help matters that she talked like a girl either. Informally, yes. But it was female speech all the same. (1)
‘How could Ranma become so girly in three years? It doesn’t make sense.’ Ryoga thought, still staring at the girl while eating the rice and miso she had made for breakfast. That was another thing that was making his brain hurt. She was a good cook. Ryoga had never eaten anything Ranma had made that he could remember, but the fact Ranma was skilled at a task he considered womanly just further messed with his head.
‘Has Ranma always been this womanly? Now that I think about it, even if he was just playing tricks on me it’s a little weird that he’d be so willing to put on girl’s clothes to mess with my head.’ Ryoga thought, suddenly remembering a few such instances; the times when Ranma pretended to be his fiancée, sister and secret admirer coming to mind instantly. (2)
“You okay Ryoga-kun?” Ranma asked, bringing Ryoga out of his thoughts as his eyes refocused on the girl.
“Huh?”
“Your face is all red. You’re not getting sick, are you?” Ranma asked. As she did so, she leaned across the table and pushed his bandana up to feel his forehead. In Ranma’s new position, Ryoga had a clear view right down her shirt. His eyes were immediately drawn to the cleavage looking him straight in the face. For her part, Ranma noticed that Ryoga’s face was getting a bit redder. He didn’t feel like he had a fever, but now his nose was bleeding.
“Your nose is bleeding.” She suddenly stood and left the room, returning shortly with some tissues and handed them to Ryoga. Embarrassed, he plugged his bleeding nose and quickly stood up, averting his eyes away from the girl to hopefully silence the thoughts in his head.
“So, who were those people you called the other day?” The sudden question brought Ryoga out of his perverted thoughts.
“What do you mean?” Ryoga asked, sitting back down and starting to eat once more. Ranma was already done and simply stared at Ryoga with an annoyed look on her face. It looked distinctly feminine; the kind of look he’d seen girls direct at their boyfriends when they said something stupid. Ryoga shuddered at that thought.
“I still have amnesia you know. You haven’t told me anything since the day you got here, and that sob story about our junior high doesn’t count. Come on! Give me something to work with.” Ranma was still giving him that look. Ryoga tried to ignore it. Instead, he turned his thoughts towards everything he knew about Ranma.
“Uh, let’s see. Well I’ve never met your mother, and I don’t know very much about your father. You don’t have any siblings that I know of. I have no idea where your parents live either. You went to school at Furinkan high, but that was three years ago so I imagine you’ve been expelled by now. You lived at the Tendo Dojo. Not much I can say about it. Tendo-san owned it, but I don’t know much about him. He has three daughters: Kasumi-san, Nabiki-san and Akane-san. You lived with them. Kasumi-san was a good cook, but I don’t know much about her. I can’t say I know much about Nabiki-san either.” Ryoga stopped at that point, not sure how he should go about explaining Akane without mentioning the engagement. “And I can’t say very much about Akane-san.” It was technically true. He couldn’t say much without telling Ranma she was a man.
“So long story short, you know pretty much nothing about my life?” Ranma asked, rubbing her head in frustration. Ryoga’s eye brow twitched a little at her annoyance.
“Hey, don’t blame me for not being an expert on your life story… besides, I spent most of my time trying to find you. If you want to know every little detail about your life you should wait until your parents get here. I’m sure they’d be able to tell you.” Ryoga sounded a little annoyed as he said it. Ranma just looked at him through half lidded eyes like he was some kind of idiot.
“So you know nothing about me. Some friend you turned out to be.” Ranma dead-panned.
“Hey, I know plenty about you!” Ryoga was clearly angry now, smacking the table and cracking it as he did so.
“Oh yeah? Like what?” Ranma asked, slapping the table as well. She had the good sense not to break it though.
“You are very aggressive, going straight for me. You always goad me on and try to force me to exert myself, but I don’t really fall for it anymore and make sure to keep a steady pace. If you get too excited you sometimes over extend your legs, and that makes it much easier to grapple you and bring you to your knees. You don’t use your hands enough until we really get going, then you move them as fast as you can to overwhelm me. It’s around that time I lose it and pass out.” Ryoga stated, as if going over a mental checklist. He was, of course, talking about the way Ranma fought when they dueled. Judging from the heavy blush on her face, she thought differently.
Ranma sat back down and averted her gaze from the Bandana clad boy, trying not to think of the rather…intimate things he accidentally described.
“I…I see.” Ranma muttered meekly, still blushing rather heavily. She knew the boy had a thing for her, but she hadn’t thought their relationship was that serious… Ryoga merely blinked. He was incredibly confused about how the girl was acting now. He’d just told her a bunch of minor details about how she fought. Why was she turning red and fiddling with her skirt?
“Oi, Ranma. You okay? You’re turning all red.” Ryoga said, leaning over to try and look at the girl’s face. Ryoga was only wearing a black tank top at the moment, though the way his muscular build filled it out it might as well have been a muscle shirt. Ranma just glanced at his hardened, muscular chest, causing her blush to deepen a little.
“Is your nose bleeding?” Ranma stood up quickly and turned around, wiping at her nose with her sleeve.
“Of course not! Why would I have a nosebleed?” She said quickly, still not facing him. Ryoga just shrugged and stood up, grabbing his sweater off of his pack and putting it on.
“You g…going somewhere?” Ranma asked, suddenly nervous. Ryoga glanced back at her for only a moment before opening the door.
“Just going for a walk.” He said. He went through the door and pulled it close, causing Ranma to breathe a sigh and fall to her knees.
“W…wow. So he and I have…I thought he just had a crush on me.” Ranma muttered to herself. She was still blushing. With another sigh she got to her feet, deciding that a little training would do her some good.
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Ryoga walked through the village at a leisurely pace, lost in thought. He couldn’t get the redhead out of his mind. He was finding it harder and harder to picture the smug bastard he wanted so badly to punch in the face. His face was blurred in his mind, his voice no longer distinct. All he could remember was that damned redhead and her pretty face.
‘Gah, I’m even thinking she’s pretty now.’ Ryoga thought, shaking his head. Ranma was… just Ranma. He’d always had been. Who cares if his cursed form was beautiful? Ryoga knew that the first time he saw it. That didn’t change anything. Ranma was still the annoying bastard he’s always been. Hell, even as girly as he was now the redhead acted just as arrogant as ever.
‘Ah who am I kidding? She’s all nice and polite. Ranma didn’t have a polite bone in his body. How did his personality change so much? Ranma’s usually trying to trick me into fighting him, or trying to trick me with his weird disguises. Or he’s trying to trick me into fighting him with his weird disguises.’ Ryoga stopped walking, standing in the middle of the street for a few moments in thought. Why did he use so many disguises anyway? More importantly, why did he always disguise himself as a girl?
‘It’s like he enjoyed being a girl or something.’ Ryoga thought, continuing his walk. He shook his head again, trying to clear his thoughts of Ranma and concentrate on something else. The redhead was too central to his thoughts lately.
‘Akane-san, I wonder where you are right now? Are you on your way here, or are you staying in Tokyo, or are you somewhere else entirely?’ He thought, gazing skyward. The sun was high in the sky now, sending a glare into Ryoga’s eyes. He squinted a bit and turned his head, idly noticing something from the direction of the mountain. He was pretty sure he could see Ranma’s shack from where he was. If he didn’t know any better, he could have sworn he saw some fire in the forest.
‘I must be seeing things.’ Ryoga thought, turning away and walking down the street again. Of course, his luck these past few days had come to an end at that very instant. He had managed to go without getting splashed for three days. It seemed karma had finally decided he was due for a transformation.
“You shouldn’t dump your mop bucket out the window like that. You could hit somebody.” A voice from inside said. Ryoga grunted and glared in the direction of the window in question. He shook out his fur and struggled out of his clothes. He really hated how difficult it was to remove clothing when you were a big pig; it had been much easier when his cursed form was a piglet. But now that he was larger than a normal person’s torso his clothing stayed on and hindered his movement. He needed to figure out that trick Ranma’s father could do, where his clothing disappeared and came back when he changed. He’d always wondered how the man did that.
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A few days earlier…
Akane sighed as she looked around at the landscape around her. She and the Saotomes had set out a few hours ago in search of the town Ranma and Ryoga were in. The best idea seemed to be to start off at Horaisan, where the whole mess started.
“I thought you said Horaisan was a mountain.” Nodoka said, looking at the plain in question. It was virtually flat. It barely qualified as a hill, much less a mountain.
“It was a mountain. It collapsed during Ranma’s fight.” Akane stated, walking towards the slight hill that was all that remained of Horaisan. As she approached she noticed something a little odd. There was a rather large hole dug into the remains of the mountain. The hole caught her eye and she figured it was worth investigating, thus she approached it. Akane looked down into the hole, seeing it didn’t go very deep. She could easily see the bottom. However there was something down there she couldn’t quite spot from where she was. It would be awhile before the son was in the right position to cast its light straight down the hole, thus most of it was covered in shadow.
“I think I found something!” Akane called out before jumping down the hole. Nodoka and Genma made it to the edge of the hole and looked down into it, seeing Akane holding something.
“What is it Akane-chan?” Nodoka asked, unable to really see the object with the hole mostly covered in shadows.
“It’s a pick axe.” Akane said as she looked at the axe. She could only assume someone had come here to dig for something. Maybe a well? It wasn’t until Akane held it up to see it in the light that she really noticed the peculiar thing about this particular pick axe. Once she could see it clearly she could see that both ends were rusted…no, they were stained red with blood. She immediately dropped it. Akane’s eyes glanced towards the floor as well, having just noticed something out of the corner of her eye she hadn’t seen before. It was a bleached white, yet dull in appearance. It was also mostly covered by dirt. Slowly Akane leaned over and started brushing the dirt away before grabbing the white object and pulling on it. What Akane unearthed made her blood run cold. She was holding an arm; the skeletal remains of someone’s arm.
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!” Akane screamed, dropping the bones like they were on fire and ran up the wall of the hole to escape. Nodoka caught the screaming girl and fell on her back from the impact, trying her best to calm her down. Genma just leapt down the hole to see what all the fuss was about, jumping back out with the pick axe and the bones a few moments later.
“It’s a right arm.” Genma said simply, examining the bones. “It was cleanly severed right here. This arm was cut off just below the elbow. A pick axe couldn’t do this. A sword was used on this arm.” Genma tossed the bones back into the hole before picking up the pick axe.
“There’s definitely blood on this pick axe though. It’s probably someone else’s blood. It doesn’t make much sense to hack at a person with a pick axe if you have a sword on hand.” Finishing his examination, Genma tossed the pick axe into the hole as well.
“Maybe some grave robbers came here. It doesn’t matter. We’re looking for Ranma, not trying to solve a murder mystery.” Akane had calmed down a bit by that point and regained her footing, deciding it was better if she didn’t think about the hole or its contents. Nodoka stood and dusted off her clothes for a moment before pulling a water bottle out of her pocket.
“Now then, time to find Ranma.” Nodoka said, splashing her husband with the water and reverting him to Panda form. “Come, husband. Find our son’s scent.”
(I’m not a dog, you know!) Genma wrote on his sign before showing it to Nodoka. She just took the sign and hit him with it.
“Dog, Panda, same thing to me. You have a nose… make yourself useful.” Nodoka crossed her arms as she said it, glaring at her husband. Genma-panda just fell to all fours and started walking around, sniffing the ground.
(Smells like...) Genma signed, sniffing a particular part of the ground. He flipped the sign over. (…Dirt.)
Nodoka hit him again.
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Ryoga grunted as he made his way back up the mountain, his clothes in his mouth and his fur still wet. He had a feeling that if he wasn’t careful he would spend a lot more time as a pig. This thought was reinforced by a loud rumble he heard above him. It sounded like it was going to rain soon. With a patented Full Blown Battle Charge Ryoga was careening up the mountain as fast as his legs could carry him, hoping to reach Ranma’s cabin before he got any wetter. As he got there Ryoga noticed something a little odd. There was a large chunk of grass that was blacked as if burnt, as well as two or three trees that were badly scorched. Maybe he hadn’t been seeing things? There really was a fire. Ranma was practicing nearby, so Ryoga could just ask her what happened. Of course, he’d have to change back first. A few moments later Ryoga was outside again, human once more and wearing nothing but his pants and his sweater.
“Oi, Ranma. What happened over here?” Ryoga asked. He saw the redhead jump at his voice and quickly turn around. She was wearing a simple white gi now, though even it hugged her in ways that Ryoga was trying not to think about. She was sweating profusely, so he could only assume she had been working out rather intensely.
“What do you mean?” She asked, wiping the sweat from her brow. Ryoga just pointed at the burnt grass and trees, as if that was proof enough.
“Oh. That. I just got worked up, that’s all.” Ranma said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Ryoga couldn’t help but look at her like she had grown a second head.
“You got worked up? You set things on fire when you get worked up?” Ryoga couldn’t believe it! But, now that he thought about it, Ranma did have a lot of burnt stuff. Her wallet, the room behind the house, the couch. He would be surprised if that list didn’t go on.
“Are you a pyromaniac or something?” Ryoga asked.
“What? No! Stuff just bursts into flames around me sometimes. I don’t intentionally set them on fire!” She shouted. Ryoga just looked at her dumbly. He thought about it, really trying to wrap his head around the concept of things bursting into flames for no good reason.
“I don’t follow.” Ryoga stated simply. Ranma groaned in frustration.
“Alright, I’ll show you!” With that Ranma fell into a horse stance. Almost immediately Ryoga was struck with a sense of wrongness. Something wasn’t right here. He watched as Ranma’s battle aura came to bear and burned brightly around her body in a corona of energy. It wasn’t the normal orange gold color he remembered Ranma’s aura being. Rather it looked like someone turned the tint up too high, causing it to look like a faded orange that was bordering on white. Not only that, but the aura was hot. Very hot. Ryoga was familiar with a hot battle aura, but he had never seen an aura that was actually raising the temperature of the air around it. The air around Ranma was actually becoming wavy, as if he was looking through a flame to see her. Sweat began to pour down Ryoga’s face as well. It was getting seriously hot. Too hot. The grass Ranma stood on was beginning to wither and die. Suddenly a spark seemed to shoot across her aura. Then she burst into flames.
“Ranma!” Ryoga shouted, horrified as he watched the redhead suddenly become engulfed in fire. He quickly leapt forward and tackled her to the ground, feeling the intense heat lick at his body as his clothing scorched and quickly caught fire. He needed to put them both out. Still in motion after tackling her to the ground Ryoga buried his finger into the dirt by her neck, sending as much chi into the move as he could manage. The ground erupted into a fine powder, causing the both of them to fall into a sudden crater in the ground before sand rained on them from above.
“Are you ok?” Ryoga asked, pulling himself out of the earth with Ranma in hand. They had been completely buried, smothering the fire. Ranma’s clothes were practically gone. She had nothing on but the tattered remains of a burnt gi, and it did nothing to conceal her nudity. Ryoga turned away quickly and pulled off his burnt sweater, throwing it to the girl while he wasn’t looking. The lost boy winced a little, his torso was badly burnt. His shirt had done surprisingly little to protect him from the flames. Hell, the fire had burnt off his chest hair. He also had multiple burns across his arms and chest. He would definitely be hurting tomorrow.
“Sorry about that. It got a little out of control.” Ranma muttered meekly, staring at the burns across Ryoga’s back. Skin was peeling away and he had a general reddened tint to him. She flinched a little at the sight of them, knowing she was the reason he had been harmed.
“Are you ok, Ranma?” Ryoga asked again. There was obvious worry in his voice. Then again, he did just watch her burst into flames.
“Y…yeah. When my aura burns, it never burns me. Just everything else. Sorry.” Ranma said. Ryoga just sighed, still not looking at the girl. God he wished he’d known that before he leapt headfirst into a bonfire. That was some info he really would have liked to have.
“How’d you do that anyway?” He asked, looking over his shoulder. He saw that she was now wearing his burnt sweater and turned around, idly finding it humorous how oversized the garment looked on the short girl.
“I don’t know. I’ve just always been able to, as far as I can remember.” Ranma answered.
‘Ranma never had the ability to turn his chi into fire before. I’d sure as hell know if he did. How did she just do that though? It was almost like that was the natural state of her aura.’ Ryoga would have pondered it further, but it seemed he was coming off of his adrenaline rush and the burns covering his body hurt a hell of a lot more than he had realized. At that very moment, he passed out.
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(1) You have to realize that all the characters are technically speaking Japanese in this story, despite the fact it’s written in English. Ryoga is referring to the differences between how men and women speak Japanese. For example, teen boys like Ranma tend to refer to themselves with the word ‘Ore’ while girls use the more feminine ‘Atashi.’ Throughout this entire story Ranma has been speaking like a girl, hence Ryoga’s comment.
(2) Ryoga is referring to three separate story lines. First occurred when Ukyo showed up, second was when Ryoga’s dog had puppies and the third was during the Shishi Hokodan story.
Ryo-Wolf
1Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s Notes:
Dumbledork: Interesting new twist. Ryoga being stronger than Ranma is an interesting new concept
…What? ‘Interesting new concept?’ Ryoga has always been stronger than Ranma. Always has been, always will be. He and Ranma are your stereotypical rivals that are polar opposites. Ranma is all about speed, Ryoga is all about strength. They balance each other out that way. Ryoga’s physical strength has always been far higher than Ranma’s. Anyone that says otherwise is either lying, misinformed or has taken artistic liberties with the Canon.
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Akane couldn’t sleep. It didn’t help matters that they had been unable to find any kind of shelter and instead decided to have a little camp out. However, her main concerns were on Ranma. It had been so long since she had seen him. Akane couldn’t help but feel a bit excited at the idea of seeing Ranma again. She didn’t know how she’d react when they met face to face. 3 years! So much could have changed in three years. Would Ranma still love her? Or has he become comfortable in his girl body now? Did he even like girls anymore? These thoughts and more kept her up that night. It was unlikely she was going to get any sleep
-
Nodoka couldn’t sleep. After 13 years she was finally going to see her son again. She didn’t care if he was a girl now. He could be a flamboyant homosexual for all she cared at the moment. She just so desperately wanted to see her child again. To hold him in her arms and comfort him like she did when he was young. Well, he was a little too old for that now. But Nodoka could hope, couldn’t she?
‘Maybe I should drop the cold shoulder around Genma. He has been trying much harder these days.’ She wouldn’t mind having another child. She was still young. Yes, another child sounded like a fine idea. One she could actually raise this time. After they found Ranma, Nodoka would soften up to her husband a little. If one thing led to another, she’d have to make sure Genma didn’t get his claws into the next one.
‘I do hope Ranma can give me grandchildren. Oh dear, Ranma’s a woman now. So would he have to be the mother or father? This is very confusing. Maybe I should ask Genma tomorrow. I still don’t understand this curse business.’ Nodoka thought, trying to get some sleep.
-
Genma couldn’t sleep. His mind was too cluttered with thoughts of his son; memories of the boy growing up, becoming a man. When Genma had heard his son had died he was absolutely crushed. It was a day he could remember like it had happened yesterday. Hell, he could remember it better than what happened just a few hours ago. It was the only time in Genma’s life that he cried. Honestly, truthfully cried. He had lost his purpose in life. He had spent weeks on end just lying around in deep thought, contemplating his life. Was his existence truly meaningless? Devoting his life to training a son that was killed in battle. The thought that he had failed as a teacher was frozen in his mind. If he had only taught him better, Ranma would have survived. Those thoughts almost led him to seppuku time and time again. Nodoka had stopped him though. One day he had decided to take his life for failing his son, but she stopped him. Weeping, she begged him not to do it. She pleaded on her knees for him to stay with her. She had already lost her son; she didn’t want to lose her husband.
‘But Ranma’s not dead. He’s alive. My son is alive.’ Genma thought, a smile coming to his panda face as he did so. A lone tear fell from his eye, lost in his fur before it got far. His son was still alive. How could he sleep when Ranma was out there somewhere? Genma had been with that boy all his life. After believing him gone for 3 years, he truly realized how much he loved the boy. He was his flesh, his blood. Nothing could ever change that. Nothing.
-
Kasumi couldn’t sleep. She was at home, in her bed with her husband, but she couldn’t sleep. Worry racked her body. She was worried about her sister, worried about the Saotomes, worried about Ranma and Ryoga, just generally worried. Mousse had told her what Cologne had said on the phone, about what happened to those people that attacked Ranma 3 years ago. She couldn’t believe that Ranma could be capable of anything so horrible. She knew Ranma. He could never do such a thing. But then again, she knew Ryoga as well. He had always been such a nice boy. He was always very polite. He would even stand guard over Akane’s room at night. She couldn’t really picture either one of them seriously injuring somebody. But still, she was no less worried than she was before. With a sigh she rolled over and snuggled up closer to Mousse, trying to find some comfort in his warmth.
-
Mousse couldn’t sleep. This was primarily because Kasumi couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t help but be aware of her stress. She was fidgeting, her breathing was a little off, and her aura had become polluted with doubt and worry. Mousse had become a lot more sensitive to the auras of others after his sight became worthless. He had no other option at that point, really. He had to rely on his ability to sense the auras of others to find his way around. That and his sense of hearing were the only reasons he hadn’t already bought himself a cane to feel around with. If it was quiet enough he could hear slight echoes in a room to locate obstacles. And with his ability to sense auras he could avoid bumping into people. Of course, these days he was picking up on a lot more than just their chi. Emotions were tightly wound up in the chi. and he was so familiar with his wife’s chi that he could always tell when something was wrong. After a few moments Kasumi rolled over and partially draped herself over him. In one simple movement he put his arm around her for comfort, hoping she could find rest. He still laid there, eyes open and staring at nothing. He couldn’t see anything anyway. He had no reason to close them until sleep overcame him.
-
Ranma couldn’t sleep. For one, she wasn’t in her bed, and she wasn’t used to sleeping on the floor. For another, Ryoga was lying in her bed wrapped in bandages and covered in burn salve. She hoped he was alright. It was her fault he was hurt now, after all. He thought she was in danger and reacted instantly. He had been willing to risk his own well being for hers. It was a reassuring thought, yet frightening in its own ways. It was odd, though. Ryoga wasn’t burnt all that badly. For a person that had leapt into a fire he looked only a little sunburned. Despite that fact he still passed out from the pain. It just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. She still wore the shirt he had given her. She didn’t know why, but she had been reluctant to take it off. It was a little scorched, but didn’t smell burnt. The shirt was hardly scathed. It was almost as if it was somehow shielded from the flames. She felt safe wearing it for reasons she couldn’t understand. It was as if Ryoga’s very essence was in the shirt. She could certainly smell his scent in the garment, but it went beyond that. She could actually feel his presence in it. If she had been aware of Ryoga’s tendency to soak his clothing with chi then she probably would have known why. For now though, she just closed her eyes and tried to sleep, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric and the remnants of Ryoga’s aura still within it.
-
Ryoga slept like a rock. He was tired as hell.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 5
Isamu
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Ryoga was pulled from his slumber by the smell of some form of food entering his nostrils. As consciousness rapidly replaced sleep the dull feeling of discomfort turned into pain across his entire torso. He just remembered that he had gotten severely burnt. His eyes opened, the world greeting him with a series of color blurs. It took longer than it should have for his eye to focus. Once they did, his eyes caught sight of two things. One was a beautiful redheaded woman wearing nothing but his shirt walking through the room, the other was the food she was carrying.
“You’re awake.” She said it with a smile, causing Ryoga’s heart to beat a little faster and a blush to find its way on his face. Who was this girl? For some reason, he felt like he should know who she was. He didn’t know why though. Slowly, Ryoga sat up, happy that his wounds were no longer being aggravated now that he was no longer laying on them. The redheaded woman walked over and placing a tray in front of him with some breakfast on it. He thanked her with a bow of his head, feeling too nervous to speak.
“Sorry about getting you burned yesterday. I really should have warned you.” She said, brushing some lose dark red hair behind her ear. It took a few seconds to register, but once it did Ryoga almost felt like smacking himself. It was Ranma. He hadn’t recognized her because her hair wasn’t in a pigtail.
‘No wonder he tricked me with those disguises all the time.’ Ryoga thought, picking up his bowl and the chop sticks and taking a few bites of food. He idly glanced back at the girl, noticing just how different she looked with her hair down. And he thought she looked pretty before. There was no ignoring it now.
“You look different with your hair down.” Ryoga said simply, taking a few more bites. “I didn’t recognize you at first.” She just glanced at him briefly before fiddling with her hair a little. With a sigh she got to her feet and headed towards the door, opening it slowly.
“Ryoga, try not to spend all day in bed. Okay?” She turned towards him once she finished and was clearly waiting for an answer. Ryoga considered her words for a minute. She had dropped the honorific on his name. He didn’t know how to interpret that. Ryoga just nodded in response, watching the redhead smile at him before leaving the room. What was going on? Ranma was acting oddly with him. He knew what it was, but he dared not think it. She was getting the wrong idea about him. He needed to put a stop to this before it got out of hand.
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Ranma stood in the kitchen and began to wash the dishes she had used to make breakfast. She idly noticed that she could hear the door to her room open and close, pretending to ignore it. The redhead just kept washing, briefly tugging at the hem of Ryoga’s shirt to ensure it was long enough to cover her panties. It reached about mid thigh, so she could assume she was safe.
“Oi, Ranma.” Ryoga’s voice had a monotonous feel to it, being a lot more melancholy than she was used to Ryoga sounding. Ranma stopped what she was doing but didn’t turn to face him. He sounded like he had something important to say. She turned and looked him in the face, seeing his expression. From the looks of him she wasn’t going to like it.
“Yeah Ryoga?” Ranma grabbed a washcloth and dried her hands while walking past the Hibiki boy. He turned as she passed and looked at her again. He needed to say something, but he was having difficulty getting the words out.
“What do you think our relationship is?” The redhead froze as he said it, glancing over a shoulder at him. She had been afraid of this kind of a question. This was going to be awkward.
‘Just my luck,’ Ranma thought, ‘He wants me to act more intimate with him.’ She sighed and turned to face him, trying to think of how she could let him down gently.
“Look, Ryoga-kun,” She used the honorific again. While Ryoga didn’t particularly like the thought of Ranma using honorifics with him, he saw this as a step in the right direction. “I don’t know how serious our relationship was, but I’m not comfortable rushing into something with you.” She said it with a straight face and Ryoga looked at her like she grew a second head.
“What the hell are you babbling about?” Ryoga said it without thinking, being the first thing that came to mind. Judging from the way her eyebrow was twitching he had a feeling he’d said the wrong thing.
“Hey, I barely know you! I’m not just going to jump your bones after 4 days, regardless of how intimate we were before!” She said angrily. She had obviously taken his last sentence wrong, and judging from what she said she had misinterpreted a lot of things.
“WHAT? Intimate? Are you insane?” Ryoga practically shouted, outraged at her accusations. “I don’t know where you got the idea that we ever dated!”
“Are you kidding me! Just yesterday you were going on about how I act in bed!” Ranma was shouting now too, anger clear in her voice. Ryoga gawked at her. What the hell was she talking about?
“When did I ever say that? I wouldn’t dream of sleeping with you! That’s disgusting!” Ryoga shouted. Ranma was red in the face. She looked about ready to slap him.
“DISGUSTING? What the hell is that supposed to mean!” They were both screaming at each other. Anyone watching would probably swear they were seconds away from hitting one another. “Are you gay or something!” At that point, Ryoga did hit her. Ranma wasn’t expecting the blow and took it full in the chin, flying back and cracking her wall. Ryoga didn’t bother to respond with words. He felt violence more than spoke his opinion on that question.
“You bastard, hitting a girl.” Ranma growled out. She had a little blood dripping from her lip and anger clear in her eyes. Ryoga never saw her move, he just felt the blow strike him like lightning as he was brought to his knees and skid across the floor a little.
“What’s your problem then? Huh? You’re hanging all over me in that picture, gave me that bullshit about junior high, you tell me all that stuff about sex and now you claim you wouldn’t dream of sleeping with me? Then what’s the deal Ryoga! Why are you disgusted with me?” Ranma demanded, standing inches away and screaming in his face. Finally, Ryoga snapped.
“BECAUSE YOU’RE A MAN!” Ryoga had forgotten to think throughout that entire argument, and now he was paying for it. His anger faded away almost instantly as he saw the look on her face.
‘What did I just do?’ Ryoga thought. He was too surprised by his own words to speak. Ranma was looking at him wide-eyed. Horror was clearly written across her features. She just started to slowly back away from Ryoga, still staring through him with those surprised eyes. Ryoga’s mouth began to move but no words came out. She was halfway across the room now, still staring at him. With a sigh Ryoga stood up straight and turned his gaze away from her, not wanting to see her look at him like that.
“I’m sor…”
“SHUT UP!” She screamed it so loudly that her voice came out as a high pitched squeal. Ryoga glanced at her again, seeing her horror was replaced by anger. “Just…Shut up.” She turned her eyes away from him and looked towards the ground. If Ryoga didn’t know any better, he would have sworn she was crying.
“Ranma I…” Ryoga was cut off again, this time by having a lamp hurled at him. He ducked it, letting it crash against the opposite wall and explode into a million pieces. He stood up again and saw her slam the door of her bedroom shut. She closed the door so hard the entire house shook and the doorframe cracked and splintered, but neither Ryoga nor Ranma said anything. Silence hung over the house. For a few brief moments it stayed that way. It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop and vibrate against the floor. He had no trouble hearing the soft sobs from the next room. Ryoga merely walked towards the door and forced it open before walking out into the morning air.
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Before long, Ryoga found himself in the village again. He wasn’t sure when he got there though. Ryoga had been lost in thought and didn’t pay attention to where he was going. He was lucky he didn’t get lost. He had been, of course, thinking of Ranma. Why had she reacted the way she did? If anything, she should have laughed in his face. She had no memory of being male; she should have thought he was crazy or something.
“Welcome!” Ryoga looked up from his thoughts to see he had wandered into a building at some point. Upon closer inspection, it was the general store he had come into the first day he arrived in this town. The middle-aged man behind the corner still looked at him with that practiced smile.
“Hi.” Ryoga said, walking a little closer. He looked the man over a little. He was probably somewhere in his later 40s, judging from the way his hair was starting to grey and the lines of wrinkles altered his face. Ryoga hadn’t been paying enough attention the first time he came in.
“Ah, it’s you again. I’m glad to see you don’t smell as badly as you did the first time you came in.” The man said, a bit of a chuckle escaping his mouth. He looked Ryoga up and down, seeing the boy had nothing but bandages on from the waist up, not counting the bandana around his head. He didn’t seem to care much though. Instead he just kept smiling at him.
“You’re the boy that’s been staying with Akage, aren’t you?” He suddenly asked, causing Ryoga to blink a few times. It took him a few seconds to realize the man was talking about Ranma.
“Akage?” Ryoga asked. He had a feeling he knew why everyone called her that, what with her hair color and all. (1)
“Ah, sorry. That was my son’s nickname for her. She could never tell us her real name, so everyone in town called her that.” The old man said. He seemed to become slightly saddened at the mention of his son, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Ryoga. Out of the corner of his eye Ryoga spotted a small shrine against the wall behind the register. On it sat the photograph of a teen with blue hair wearing a baseball hat. He looked to be about 18.
“What’s her real name, by the way?” The old man asked.
“Ranma. Saotome Ranma.” Ryoga responded, still looking at the shrine.
“It’s a pretty name. It suits her.” The old man responded. He caught what Ryoga was looking at and his expression saddened further, looking at the shrine.
“Is that your son?” Ryoga finally asked, pointing to the shrine. The old man nodded.
“Yes, that’s my son. His name was Isamu. He was always a good boy.” The man responded. He took his gaze away from the shrine suddenly, looking at the brink of tears. It was obvious the thought of his son was a painful memory.
“What happened to him?” Ryoga was too curious though.
“He died two years ago.” The old man started, glancing at the picture again before looking back to Ryoga. “He was murdered while traveling abroad.” Ryoga resisted the urge to gasp at that. He hadn’t meant to bring up such painful memories for the man.
“I’m sorry.” Ryoga said, bowing to the shopkeeper.
“Don’t be. It’s alright.” He said. There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Ryoga simply stood there, unsure of what to say.
“Isamu used to live up in that radio station on the mountain. He always wanted to go into broadcasting. He would get on the radio up there and just broadcast whatever came to mind. I think I was his only listener.” The man said, chuckling a bit and patting an old radio he had next to the register.
“Radio station? Do you mean that old cabin Ranma’s staying in?” Ryoga asked suddenly. The room behind the cabin had burnt to the ground. Maybe it had been where all the radio equipment was stored?
“Yes, that’s right. She and Isamu lived up in that station together.” The man said, not noticing the odd look on Ryoga’s face. “Some would even say they were a couple. I can still remember the day Isamu found that girl.” The old man turned his gaze towards the shrine again, looking prepared to tell a story.
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Isamu sighed as he glanced around the small town. He was a long way from home, having decided to go on an extended hiking trip just to get away from his father for a little while. However, the small run down village he was in now was no better than his home. The only thing that really set it apart was Horaisan. That mountain was much taller than the one near his village. A lot steeper, too. It was practically a stone pillar. Hell, it even had some cool legends about it and everything. Something about a priest sanctifying the waters at the bottom to be used in exorcisms or something. The old man he had talked to about it was fairly senile and hard to understand, so Isamu wasn’t really able to understand half of what he said.
“Man, it’s just as boring out here as it was back at home. Wish something interesting would happen.” As if answered by the heavens above, something interesting happened. At that very instance the mountain in the distance began to glow an odd shade of greenish blue before it suddenly fell apart and started to collapse. Isamu sat up with a start, looking into the distance to see if his eyes were playing tricks on him or not. Nope. Horaisan was actually collapsing.
“I have to be careful what I say.” He muttered to himself, still watching the mountain falling apart in the distance. After about an hour had past it seemed like it had collapsed as far as it was going to collapse. Suddenly seeing some potential entertainment ahead of him, Isamu decided to check out the remains of Horaisan. At least it would kill the time.
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The old man sighed, pausing his tale for a moment and glancing at Ryoga. The Hibiki boy was staring at him, as if expecting him to continue.
“I can assume you know what he found at Horaisan.” The old man said simply. Ryoga nodded in response. “Imagine my surprise when my son called me in the middle of the night to tell me he found a girl half dead in the remains of a fallen mountain. I thought he was drunk.” The old man chuckled at his own words.
“Well, lo and behold he came home a few days later with a redheaded girl. He had taken her to a hospital for her injuries, so she came in with a cast around her leg and various bandages across her body. Turns out she didn’t know who she was either. The doctor’s said she had Amnesia, some special type I can’t remember the name of.” The man paused at that point, turning his gaze towards Ryoga.
“That’s the funny part though. The special type of amnesia she had was a psychological problem. It couldn’t be caused by a head injury.” Ryoga raised an eyebrow at that. Psychological? So it wasn’t a blow to the head? Why didn’t she remember anything then?
“Just between you and me, I think that girl remembers more than she lets on.” The old man said, leaning in to whisper it. Ryoga’s blood ran cold at the thought.
“What makes you say that?” Ryoga asked.
“Well, it’s mainly because of what happened shortly before Isamu died. The two of them had been living together for a little over a year, and they had grown very close. Then, one day, Isamu popped the question.”
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Isamu sat at the table in the small living room of the cabin, eating his dinner and occasionally glancing at the redhead across from him. It had been a little more than a year since he had found her at Horaisan, and the blue haired boy had been developing feelings for the girl. She was just so perfect in Isamu’s eyes. Smart, beautiful, graceful. She understood him, listened to him, and laughed with him. She was the only one in town that didn’t call him a fool for wanting to be on the radio. She’s just say, ‘I’m sure you’ll get your dream one day, Isamu.’ And smile at him. She’d even taught him some martial arts, something she seemed surprisingly good at. For all the stuff she didn’t remember, she sure remembered a lot of martial arts.
‘I wonder what she’s thinking.’ Isamu thought, glancing at the girl across from him. She was just eating her food silently, a slight smile on her face.
“Akage…” Isamu said, causing the girl to stop eating and glance at him curiously. The blue haired boy swallowed a lump in his throat, trying to get over his sudden nervousness.
“Akage I…” He paused, “I have something I want to ask you.”
“What is it Isamu?” She asked, looking at him with a look of curiosity that he couldn’t help but find cute. This was it; there was no turning back now. With another gulp Isamu steadied his resolve, preparing to take the plunge.
“Akage I…I love you.” She gasped a little, turning slightly red as he said it.
“Isamu…” She muttered, at a loss for words.
“I think I’ve been in love with you since the first time I saw you, when you were at Horaisan. I’m so happy for the time I’ve spent with you, and…and I’ve decided I don’t ever want to be apart from you.” Isamu was having trouble stopping himself from stuttering. He needed to get this out. He was so close to saying it.
“I know I can’t offer you much, but…Will you marry me?” That was it, He said it. It was all up to her now. Isamu looked into the eyes of the redheaded woman across from him, seeing uncertainty and confusion in her eyes. His heart sank, fearing the rejection he could feel coming.
“Isamu…I don’t know what to say…” She said, turning away from him a little.
‘Just say yes.’ He thought it, lacking the power to put it into words. He could only stare at her with his mouth hanging open.
“You don’t know anything about me…” She muttered.
“Yes I do!” He said, suddenly finding the will power to speak.
“No you don’t!” She snapped back, “You know nothing about me. You don’t know anything about my past or who I was. You don’t even know my name.” Isamu was frozen for a few moments, unsure how to respond.
“I don’t care about who you were! I just know who you are. You are my Akage. That’s all I need to know.” He said, looking at her with an almost pleading look. She didn’t dare look at him.
“Are you sure about that? What if you found out something horrible about my past? Would you still love me?” She asked, still not looking at him.
“Of course I would! There’s nothing that could have happened in your past that could change my feelings about you!” Isamu loudly proclaimed. She was afraid he wouldn’t love her anymore if he knew about her past? That was ridiculous! He just hoped he could get her to understand that.
“What if I used to be something different?” She muttered, almost too quietly to hear. “What if I used to be a man? Would you still love me?” Silence. Isamu had no idea how to respond to that. What kind of question was that?
“What are you talking about?” He said with a bit of a laugh. “That’s ridiculous.” Isamu said. The look she gave him stopped him from saying anything further. It was like she was staring through him.
“I asked you a question, Isamu. I want an answer. If I were really a man, would you still love me?” She asked again, looking intensely at the boy across the table. Isamu just stared at her in shock. For the longest he just sat there in silence, unable to say anything. After 10 minutes of silence, Akage silently left the room.
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“Isamu told me all about it the next day. It was the weirdest thing. How could she be a man? I happen to know that she’s 100 percent woman. She bought feminine products in this very store.” The old man said, shaking his head to himself. “I can only assume she was testing him. She thought of the worst possible scenario to ensure he was loyal. It’s too bad my son was too much of a coward to answer her. Real shame. He left on his trip three days later. She never saw him again. I didn’t have the heart to tell her he was killed.” The old man said, turning his gaze to Ryoga.
“Are you alright?” He asked, waving his hand in front of Ryoga’s face. Ryoga just stood absolutely still, staring into space with a look of shock and horror on his face. His blood felt like it froze in his veins when the man had told him that story.
‘She knows.’ He thought, still staring at nothing. ‘Somehow, she knows. She knows she used to be a boy.’ He thought.
“BECAUSE YOU’RE A MAN!” Ryoga shuddered as he remembered his own words to her. The look on her face when he said it was etched into his mind. That look of horror and betrayal. The way she ran to her room to cry. It all made sense.
‘She knows she used to be a boy.’ He thought, dropping his head in shame. ‘She knew that but thought that I didn’t care, since I knew too.’ Ryoga turned and quickly left the shop, rushing into the forest.
‘Some friend you turned out to be.’ Ranma’s words said in his mind, taunting him. How could he do that to her? He didn’t know why, but Ranma considered himself a woman now. He felt like such a fool! Why didn’t he see it before? Of course she knew! Ranma wanted to be a woman now. She wanted to leave the boy she was behind. She thought he accepted her and he smashed her hopes like the idiot he was! She had wanted a friend and he made himself an enemy. He was tired of being Saotome Ranma’s enemy. Something screamed at him in the back of his head and Ryoga skid to a stop. He suddenly knew why. He didn’t know where he was.
“No.” He said, turning around quickly, looking for something he recognized. “No!” He shouted it this time, still turning. Trees, trees, nothing but trees! Where the hell was the mountain? Where the hell was the village? He was lost. The one time he needed to go somewhere and he got lost!
“Damn it!” He screamed, his fist lancing out and tearing a tree in half in his anger. Of all the times to get lost, why now! It wasn’t fair!
“Where on earth am I now?” He screamed, glancing around himself again, he needed to find something, anything he recognized. But there was nothing. Everything was vague and unfamiliar to him. Ryoga felt helpless, trapped, powerless. He was doomed to wander for the rest of his days and there was nothing he could do to stop it. When ever he needed it most, his sense of direction failed him. Ryoga hated feeling powerless. He was strong! If he had the power to bring a monster to its knees, he could find his way out of a damn forest!
‘I need to calm down. I always get lost when I can’t think clearly.’ Ryoga thought, trying to calm himself. He could retrace his steps. He could find his way back. He just needed to concentrate. He closed his eyes and concentrated, feeling around the area for the path. Suddenly, he sensed a presence, one that felt familiar.
“Ranma…” Ryoga said suddenly, turning around to face the presence. He couldn’t find the will to speak though. He was frozen, too shocked to say or do anything. Both he and Ranma looked at each other in shock, both for different reasons.
‘This can’t be.’ Ryoga thought, looking at Ranma. There was no doubt though. His brain wasn’t playing tricks on him. Standing before him was Saotome Ranma. Dressed in black pants, a red shirt and a red bandana was Saotome Ranma; A very male Saotome Ranma.
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To Be Continued….
(Author’s notes)
(1) Akage means redhead.
Those of you who read the previous version of LMLM may recognize Isamu. Yes, he is the same Isamu from the previous version. It didn't seem right to cut him out as a character, so he's been included in a new form. Personally, I think he is a much more valid character in this form, even though he's dead.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s Notes:
RubberNeck: Um what is going on? Don't tell me that somehow Ranma had managed to unlock the curse and found out she was both genders but still couldn't remember anything?
Nope! I intentionally made it look that way since I’m evil, but that isn’t the case at all. I suggest you brace yourself for the mother of all plot twists. I doubt anyone will be expecting what’s going to happen in this chapter.
Pariah2: Very good so far. I'm eager to know if it was really Ryouga or...Another Ranma who was in China.
…I stand corrected! Someone did expect it. Well, hope you enjoy the chapter. And I thank you for your post towards gato. I’m sure you will like my more thorough response.
gatodepatasblancas:
I’m not going to write what you wrote, since you put a lot, however you are totally wrong. The umbrella means nothing. Ryoga wields the umbrella one handed, as does Ranma. I can lift a 20 pound weight without trouble and curl it, so can a body builder. Does that mean I’m as strong as a body builder? Fuck no. Ranma may have been able to lift and wield the umbrella, but Ryoga tore it in half with his belt. (No, he didn’t cut it. The belt clearly wrapped around the umbrella and then Ryoga tore it into two pieces.) Ranma is stronger than the average man, yes. He has amazing strength and can do many things normal people can’t, yes. But Ryoga can do so much more. Ranma has lifted three ton boulders and hurled them at people. Ryoga has uprooted telephone poles and used them as spears. Ryoga can also poke holes in solid concrete with his fingers (prior to Bakusai Tenketsu,) put massive craters into solid rock and earth with his fists, split trees in half by punching them, so on and so forth. The biggest example though, or at least the easiest to quote, was during Ryoga’s first fight with Ranma. He leapt 10 feet in the air while Ranma was sitting on him with his arm. One arm. Saying that Ranma wouldn’t be able to beat Ryoga while being weaker than him is ridiculous. There is a lot more to winning a fight than physical strength. Ranma is a hell of a lot faster than Ryoga, and he uses that to overwhelm the boy. If you notice, Ranma doesn’t actually get hit all that often when they fight, but Ryoga gets pummeled, especially after the Bakusai Tenketsu. Ranma uses speed and skill to beat Ryoga. Besides, who’s to say Ranma can beat Ryoga anyway? Their first fight ended with a draw since Akane’s hair got cut. The fight after that Ranma won because he hit Ryoga somewhere in the range of a thousand times with the Amaguriken. Ranma actually lost quite a few fights against Ryoga after the Shishi Hokodan, and in the end Ranma had to use Ryoga’s own Perfect attack against him to win, and then he collapsed immediately after. Ranma and Ryoga are about equals, I’d say. As I said before, they are polar opposites, thus they balance each other out.
Anyhow, I’m done ranting. On with the fic.
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Ranma’s expression changed slowly, from the look of surprise to a sudden arrogant smirk that Ryoga was all too familiar with.
“I heard you’re little catch-phrase and figured I could sneak up on ya, P-chan. Looks like I wasn’t quiet enough.” Ranma said, laughing a bit as he flicked his nose. “How’d you know it was me?” Ranma glanced at Ryoga with a hard look that defied his tone and his words. It was like he was studying him, watching him. Ryoga was still too surprised to speak.
“H…How? The curse…” He managed to get out, pointing at the boy standing across from him. He looked almost identical to the way he did three years ago. He hair was longer and he looked like he acquired a little more muscle, but this was definitely Ranma. There was something off about him though; a sense of wrongness seemed to radiate from the boy. Not only that, but there was a hard look to his eyes that just didn’t feel right.
“Interesting, isn’t it? Herb knocked me off Horaisan and the next thing I know I’m a guy again. Funny, eh? Even when I lost I still won.” Ranma said it arrogantly, a familiar cockiness to him. This was the Ranma Ryoga remembered, but he couldn’t help but feel that this wasn’t Ranma. Someone was wrong here, very wrong.
“So how’d you know it was me sneaking up on you, Ryoga?” Ranma suddenly asked, glancing at him with that odd hard look to his eyes.
“You didn’t, did you?” He said, not giving him enough time to replay.
“You weren’t expecting to see me, were you?” The accusing tone to his voice was sending Ryoga for a loop. What the hell was going on!
“You thought I was a different Ranma, didn’t you?” His voice became deadly serious as he finished his sentence. Ryoga barely blinked before the pigtailed boy had his hand around his throat and was holding Ryoga against a tree, applying enough pressure to his windpipe to break a brick.
“Where is she?” He said it with a cold tone, his features hardening. Ryoga’s danger sense was screaming at him, that sense of wrongness overcoming him. A sickly black aura began to rise from Ranma’s body as his fingers tightened around Ryoga’s throat. It was an icy cold aura, chi so cold that Ryoga could feel the humidity in the air collect as condensation on his skin. He could practically see his breath. The intensely cold glare of unadulterated rage that Ranma was sending him sent a shiver across Ryoga’s spine as his hand gripped Ranma’s wrist. He was having trouble breathing.
“Where. Is. She.” Ranma demanded, tightening his grip again as he tried to crush Ryoga’s throat. Ryoga wouldn’t allow that.
“You egotistical bastard.” Ryoga growled out, his feet on the ground again and Ranma’s hand off his throat. Ryoga was gripping the pigtailed boy’s wrist in one hand, squeezing it so hard that he was cutting off circulation to his fingers. “Since when were you ever strong enough to strangle me!” Ryoga shouted, punching the pigtailed boy in the stomach and releasing his wrist in the process, sending him flying back a few feet.
“I’m glad to see you’ve still got some fight in you, Ryoga.” Ranma said, chuckling as he got to his feet. He arrogantly wiped his shirt off with the back of the hand, acting as if the punch hadn’t hurt. “I’d hate for this to be boring. I’m only going to ask you one more time: Where is she?”
“Why should I tell you?” Ryoga growled, leaping at the arrogant pigtailed boy. He just smirked, not even looking at the boy lunging at him with his fist cocked back and ready to punch.
“Because if you don’t tell me…” Ranma said, vanishing from sight just as Ryoga punched, his fist hitting only air. “…I’ll kill you!”
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 6
The Evil Dead
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Ranma sighed a bit as she sat on the roof of her cabin, a few tears still in her eyes. She couldn’t believe Ryoga had said that to her. She had been hoping that he wouldn’t be like Isamu. She wanted to believe that he wouldn’t just up and leave her like the blue haired boy did. She hugged herself as she gazed out over the horizon, the sun still hanging overhead and shining its light on the world.
“Damn you Ryoga.” She muttered, bringing her knees up to her face to hide her tears in her pants.
‘Why did it have to be this way?’ She thought. Ever since Isamu had found her at Horaisan she had doubts about her gender. A little voice in the back of her mind just wouldn’t stop bugging her. ‘What are you doing? You’re not a girl. Don’t act like one.’ It would keep telling her. No matter how much she didn’t want to believe it, that little voice just never went away. It kept telling her she wasn’t a girl; that she shouldn’t get comfortable like this, that she shouldn’t get close to boys. It was infuriating.
‘Then Ryoga showed up.’ She thought, her mind returning to the memories of Ryoga’s arrival. He had known her before Horaisan. If anyone knew who she was, he did. He had been so kind to her; he seemed to like her so much. She had hoped that maybe the little voice had been wrong all along; that she really was a girl. Or at the very least, that Ryoga didn’t care. That he would love her regardless of what she used to be.
‘BECAUSE YOU’RE A MAN!’ Those words echoed in her mind, causing her to flinch. She had been a fool to think he could love her. And now she knew the little voice was right all along. She wanted to be comforted, she couldn’t handle this herself. Her thoughts went to Yamakujira, the boar that had been following her around for the last two years. He had always been there when she needed him before. Where was he?
‘I haven’t seen him since Ryoga showed up.’ Ranma thought, getting a bit sadder. Even the boar had left her. The only comfort she had was Ryoga’s shirt that she still wore, but that only brought her pain. Still, she didn’t want to take it off. Isamu, Yamakujira, Ryoga. Was she doomed to be lonely forever?
‘It’s not fair.’ She thought, another tear falling from her eye. She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by a bright light shining in the distance. With a gasp Ranma looked up and watched in awe as a pillar of greenish blue energy erupted out of the forest and rose into the sky. It collected there briefly before falling back to earth as a giant orb, hitting with a mighty crash and sending up dirt and dust.
“What the hell was that!” She shouted out loud. She didn’t bother to stick around and contemplate it though. Instead, she jumped off the roof and ran towards it to see it for herself.
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“Dodged that, did you?” Ryoga asked, standing in the shallow crater of his attack and glancing at the pigtailed boy standing on the side of a tree. “That’s so depressing. I guess I’ll have to do it again.” Ryoga muttered in a monotonous voice, his heavy green blue chi coming to life around his body.
“You think I’m going to let you do that again!” Ranma shouted out, leaping off the tree and heading straight for the Hibiki boy. Ryoga didn’t care much. There wasn’t anything Ranma could do to stop him from performing another Shishi Hokodan.
“Ryu-zan!” Ryoga’s eyes widened in surprise as a blade of black ki erupted from Ranma’s forearm in mid jump. He was forced to stop his follow up blast and leap away or risk getting impaled. Ranma was faster than him though, much faster. Ryoga wasn’t able to escape the attack as Ranma merely twisted in midair and slashed at the Hibiki boy. The bandages Ryoga had been wearing fell to the ground and a thin cut ran from his shoulder to his hip, a line of blood seeping out slowly. The wound was cold, very cold. It felt like he had been cut with an icicle.
“What the hell was that?” Ryoga asked, standing up slowly as Ranma turned toward him. The blade dissipated and the pigtailed boy just smirked at him, a hard look still in his eyes.
“Surprised? It’s just a little trick I picked up from Herb.” Ranma confidently strode from the crater of the Shishi Hokodan and stood across from Ryoga, thus far unmoving but obviously ready for a fight.
“Herb? Why the hell would Herb teach you anything?” Ryoga asked. He was still glaring at the other boy, a little confused about him. It was obvious that he and the female Ranma were two different people, and yet they were both Ranma. What was going on?
“That bitch? Of course not. But she used it so many times it was easy to figure it out.” Ranma said arrogantly, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. “She was especially surprised when I made an amputee out of the wolf boy with it. He didn’t look like he needed that arm anyway.” Ranma was glaring at him again, a cold look in his eyes. “Didn’t look like he needed his eye either, so I took that out too.” Ranma chuckled, watching the anger steadily rising in the Hibiki boy.
“Are you angry that I crippled an enemy, Ryoga?” Ranma asked, clearly amused. “If you think that’s bad, you should have seen what I did to the Tiger man. It wasn’t pleasant.” He said, chuckling again.
“Damn you Ranma!” Ryoga shouted, his aura shining around his body as he leapt at the boy and punched at his face. Ranma dodged to the side, a smirk on his face and his hands in his pockets. He just looked at Ryoga with that arrogant little smirk of his and continually dodged his attacks, much to Ryoga’s extreme annoyance.
“Gee Ryoga, I never would have expected this reaction from you.” Ranma said, still smirking as he dodged a particularly powerful back fist. “Showing sympathy for the musk? How funny. I should tell you what I did to Herb. I’m sure that’d get you really angry.” Ranma casually leapt over a round house kick and twisted in mid air to dodge a punch. He landed on one hand and bounded back to his feet, dodging a sweeping kick in the process.
“Stand still and fight like a man!” Ryoga bellowed, aiming a punch at Ranma’s face that was sidestepped. This was getting him nowhere. Ranma was just dancing around in circles. He couldn’t touch him.
“Do you want to hear it, Ryoga?” Ranma asked, dodging a few more blows. “Do you want to know what I did to Herb?” He was still smirking, still arrogant, still looking through hardened eyes as he just dodged and evaded.
“Shut up and die!” Ryoga punched, missed, extended a fingertip and blew a hole in the ground. The resulting explosion sent up a cloud of dust, one Ryoga hoped would blind Ranma long enough to get a good hit in. Ryoga thrust forward for a punch and nailed the pigtailed boy across the cheek, sending him flying into a tree and cracking the bark.
“You bastard, you broke my spiral.” Ranma growled out, rubbing hit cheek. Spiral?
‘Damn it! He was going to use the Hiryuu Shoten ha. I almost fell right into it.’ Ryoga thought, calming down as his aura decreased a bit.
‘Oh no you don’t, I need your hot aura, pig-boy.’ Ranma thought, glaring coldly at Ryoga. “Ryu Sei Hisho!” Ryoga could only gasp in surprise as Ranma leapt into the air and glided through it in a complete disregard for the laws of gravity. He wasn’t prepared for the orbs of chi that he was dropping across his flight path, each one bouncing off the ground and striking Ryoga from a different angle.
“Herb did that one constantly!” Ranma shouted, landing and rushing at Ryoga with a jump kick. The Hibiki boy was still reeling from the chi blasts and couldn’t do anything as the kick struck him in the face and sent him skidding across the ground on his bare back. It hurt. If only he weren’t burnt he wouldn’t have even felt it.
“Bastard…” Ryoga grunted, getting back to his feet.
“I didn’t let him do it many times as a man though. It really hurt when Herb was male.” Ranma muttered, glancing at Ryoga. “It’s a good thing they brought the ladle with them. I took care of that problem real fast.” Ranma smirked. The realization on Ryoga’s face just made this all the more entertaining.
“You bastard…You locked his curse!” Ryoga growled out, glaring at the pigtailed boy.
“You’re damn straight I did! That was vengeance! Herb locked my curse, so I locked his! He beat me into the ground while I was female and helpless, and I did the same! Herb humiliated me on Horaisan, I was returning the favor!” Ranma growled out, his arrogance replaced by anger as he leapt at Ryoga with his black aura glowing.
“Hito Ryu-zan ha!” Ranma shouted out, hurling the chi blades at Ryoga. The Hibiki boy was forced to jump out of the way as the black blades reduced a few trees to kindling behind him. Ranma was expecting him to dodge though, and Ryoga was knocked out of the air by a jumping kick that hurled him into a tree.
“I did more than just return the favor though. I wanted more than just vengeance. I returned the humiliation Herb gave me 100 times over!” Ranma said, his voice suddenly rising as he stopped attacking. It seemed like he was too busy bragging about his victory over the dragon prince to bother with an attack. His arrogance was so infuriating.
“I gave Herb the worse humiliation possible. The absolute worst thing I could think of, I did! The absolute worst thing you could do to a man that had become a woman.” Ranma had a crazed look in his eyes as Ryoga could only look at him in horror.
“Do you know what I’m referring to Ryoga?” Ranma asked, a smile working its way up his face. It was an evil smile with a mischievous quality to it. No. It wasn’t possible. Ranma wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Yet Ryoga could tell just by looking at him what the pigtailed boy was talking about.
“You…son of a bitch…” Ryoga clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, his aura blasting into existence in a sudden inferno of power. Ranma merely smirked and readied himself, placing his hands in his pockets and prepared for the spiral.
“Ryoga?” The words caused both boys to turn their heads violently toward their source. Ryoga’s aura died away in an instant as he looked at the redhead, seeing Ranma smile so widely his teeth were showing. In an instant Ranma pulled his hands from his pockets, his hands already trailing his icy black chi.
“Hito Ryu-zan ha!” He shouted, swinging his hands through the air and hurling a blade of black chi as he did so. Every blade shot out from his body and went straight for the redheaded girl. Ryoga could only watch in horror as the blades flew, being too far away to stop them.
“No!” He shouted, watching as the redhead brought her arms up to protect her face. The blades struck, exploding violently against the girl’s body and sending her flying back, screaming in pain.
“What! That should have cut her into pieces!” Ranma shouted out, confused. Ryoga was already running, heading straight for the girl as Ranma stood there shocked for a few more seconds. Ryoga scooped the girl off the ground while running and held her protectively to his body, running as fast as his legs could carry him.
“R…Ryoga? What’s going on?” The redhead muttered, confused. She had been rather surprised to see Ryoga at the sight of the explosion, also surprised that he had been fighting somebody. But then out of nowhere the other guy tried to kill her!
“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. Please forgive me, I wasn’t thinking.” Ryoga suddenly said, still running. He could hear Ranma chasing him. He knew the boy was gaining. He didn’t have a chance of outrunning him.
“But I don’t have time to talk right now, so…” Ryoga said, skidding to a stop and hurling the girl skyward. “…Run!” Ryoga turned to face the approaching Saotome boy, horrified to see he was a lot closer than he had expected. Ryoga didn’t even have time to put his arms up to block before he was pummeled by multiple kicks and punches.
“Out of the damn way, Ryoga! You’re useless to me!” Ranma growled, tossing the boy aside after he was done hitting him. Ranma immediately leapt after his double, seeing the redheaded girl landing nearby.
“Hey sis, fancy meeting you here!” He said cheerily, betraying his actions as he attempted to take her head off with a punch. The girl dodged easily and leapt to a near by tree branch, unable to stay there long as a barrage of black ki blades forced her to leap away from the spot.
“You’re pretty quick. Not surprised.” Ranma said, leaping at her with intent to break her skull. Much to his annoyance, she dodged the blow. “What I’d really like to know is how you stopped those blades.” A kick aimed for the throat and she dodged yet again, jumping back and landing near the trunk of the tree he had thrown Ryoga into. The Hibiki boy in question was getting to his feet at that moment and was glaring at Ranma, standing protectively in front of the redhead.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Ranma asked, pointing at her male double as he just smirked at her. Ryoga shook his head for a second, feeling confused. There were too many Ranmas around. He needed a way to differentiate between them.
“Who am I? I’m you you stupid bitch!” Ranma said cheerfully, pulling down an eyelid and sticking his tongue out at her.
“What did you call me?” She growled out, leaping from behind Ryoga and at the Saotome boy.
“I called you a stupid bitch! Jeez, you’re really dense! Only a weak little woman like you could forget me.” Ranma taunted, angering his female counterpart as she growled and threw a punch at her double’s head. He dodged to the side, his hands in his pockets. He had to admit he was surprised by the heat of her aura. He had actually felt its heat on his cheek when she punched.
‘Wait, this is bad.’ Ryoga thought, watching the female Ranma attempting to beat the male one into the ground. He could tell from Ranma’s stance and the way he was insulting the girl what was going on. He was leading her into a Hiryuu Shoten Ha. Hell, with the way the male’s aura was constantly icy and the female’s was constantly fiery it was like a Hiryuu Shoten Ha waiting to happen.
“Ranma-chan, look out!” Ryoga shouted, tackling the girl out of the spiral, much to the surprise of both Ranmas.
“Ranma-chan! You disgust me Ryoga! (1) Hiryuu Shoten Ha!” Ryoga wasn’t completely out of the spiral when Ranma decided to complete it. With a rush of wind both he and Ranma-chan were dragged into a torrent of wind and chi, being constantly bombarded by the power that had gone into creating the massive tornado that rose into the sky. Ryoga tried his best to shield the girl with his body. He didn’t really know why. She was better protected from the attack than he was. She was still wearing his shirt, after all. And it was a good thing, too. Those chi blades would have killed her if she hadn’t been.
‘Damn it!’ Ryoga thought, grunting as his body was pummeled incessantly by the winds. After a few moments he was thrown clear, introduced to a sudden silence and a feeling of freefall as he and Ranma-chan plummeted. Grabbing the redhead in his arms and righting himself in midair, Ryoga managed to get himself to hit feet first. This didn’t stop him from digging a trench into the ground though, as both he and the redhead were soon lying on the ground in pain.
“You’re so sad, Ryoga. I figured you’d give me a better fight than this.” Ranma gloated, walking towards the two fallen martial artists.
“Who the hell are you?” Ranma-chan screamed. She got to her feet and prepared herself to fight, watching the pigtailed Saotome heading towards her confidently.
“I already told you, wench. I’m you. You could say I’m your evil twin.” The male Ranma said with a smirk, still walking towards them.
“You’re my brother? Why are you doing this then! Why do you want to hurt us?” Ranma-chan got out, looking on the brink of tears as she stared down her ‘brother.’
“Jeez, I just told you I was evil! How dense can you be?” Ranma responded, looking at the redhead like she was crazy. Ranma-chan glared at him, not sure what to do at this point. Ryoga was still struggling to regain his feet.
“How did this happen? Why did you two split?” Ryoga got out. Maybe if he got an explanation out of the male Ranma he’d have enough time to recover from the Hiryuu Shoten Ha.
“Silly me,” Ranma said, smacking himself in the head, “I completely forgot the protocol. Well, you look like you’re on the brink of death. Time to monologue at you, revealing my origins and master plan in the process.”
“Protocol? Do you have some kind of bad guy handbook or something?” Ryoga asked, annoyed. To his surprise, Ranma pulled a small book from his shirt. The title read ‘The Tricks of the Trade to Modern Day Villainy.’ If Ryoga wasn’t already on the ground, he would have face faulted. Ranma just slipped the book back into his shirt.
“Anyhow, I think I’ll start with a little story. You see, there’s a rather interesting legend about Horaisan.” Ranma began, looking like he was ready for a very long speech. “Hundreds of years ago, there was a powerful priest that had angered a mighty demon. The two battled for many days, neither looking like they would get the upper hand. Their battle took them all across the countryside of Japan, eventually leading them to Horaisan. While there, the demon got a lucky shot and knocked the priest into the chasm surrounding the mountain. The priest hit the water feet first and broke both his legs. The demon followed to finish him off.” Ranma paused for a moment, clearing his throat.
“Knowing his death was near, the priest cast the most powerful spell he could manage. He blessed his own bones. This caused the waters at the bottom of Horaisan to become sacred, purifying. The demon was already knee deep in the water and was trapped in the priest’s dying spell. The purifying waters stripped him of all negative chi. All of his negative energy was forcefully removed from his body and became trapped on the mountain. The demon lost all of his memories and became a saint. He traveled from village to village, helping those in need and doing goodwill toward man. Of course, his chi was horribly out of balance. Thus with time, his negative chi eventually returned, and he became an evil demon again.” Ranma stopped his story, turning towards Ranma-chan and Ryoga now.
“Do you understand what I’m getting at here? This sound familiar at all?” Neither one of them answered. Ranma just sighed in frustration.
“You were purified, girly. When you hit the water at the bottom of Horaisan the sacred waters purified your chi. All your negative, dark chi was forcibly removed from your body, along with your memories.” Ranma-chan gasped at that, suddenly looking at this boy in a new light.
“I am the result of that purification. I am the embodiment of the negative chi stolen from your body at Horaisan. All your evil thoughts, intentions and energy. I even have your memories. And thanks to Jusenkyo, I have a body to misuse and abuse. Apparently the water thought the male form was evil. Can’t say I’m complaining.” Ranma chuckled, staring at his female counterpart.
“So you’re just an evil spirit created at Horaisan.” Ryoga growled out, looking ready to jump back into a fight when a blast of chi struck him in the legs and caused him to crash back into the ground.
“Quiet, I’m not done monologuing!” Ranma growled out, clearing his throat again.
“Anyhow, there’s one little problem with me. When the little redheaded bitch got purified, we were both given only half of the normal balance of chi.” Ranma said. “In other words, she was pure good and I was pure evil. Of course, she has a functional soul. I’m just the byproduct of an exorcism gone wrong. Unlike that demon and her, my chi can’t balance itself. She has almost returned to normal and I’m still giddy at the thought of devouring small children. I have evil chi and evil chi only. Incase you didn’t know, that’s incredibly unhealthy.” Ranma stated. Almost as proof to his words, he coughed a few times in his hand, blood dripping from between his fingers.
“And that brings me to my current mission.” The evil look returned to his eyes. His mouth set in a frown and a cold glare found its way directed at the redhead. “I will die unless I return my chi to balance. I think that old Chinese monk I talked to gave me about another 2 months, tops.” As he said this, he pointed at Ranma-chan. “I had two options. One: Recombine myself with you, returning us to one body and regaining the curse.” Ranma’s mouth turned into a smirk. “And two…”
Ryoga never saw the blow coming. Before he was able to blink Ranma had rushed forward and unleashed an Amaguriken directly into his sternum at top speed. The resulting blow looked like one punch but sent shockwaves throughout his entire body. The Hibiki boy was hurled a good ten feet by the brutal attack, sliding across the ground.
“And option two would be killing you and absorbing all of your positive chi.” He said, catching the girl with a sidekick that launched her into a tree. “Incase you can’t tell, I prefer option two!” He shouted, rushing forward and punching at the tree. Ranma-chan just ducked the blow, watching Ranma’s fist smash into the tree and crack the bark a little.
“Shishi Hokodan!” Ranma was struck in the back with the wave of chi and smashed into the tree he just punched, uprooting it. He hit the ground with blurred vision, annoyed that he let Ryoga get the upper hand on him.
“Come on, we have to get out of here!” Ryoga grabbed Ranma-chan’s hand and started running through the forest. She could hear that male version of her chasing after them. He was so much faster than Ryoga. How could they get away? Suddenly, she felt something odd. A weird sensation of freefall for the briefest of moments, as well as an odd pulsation coming from both Ryoga and the shirt. She couldn’t hear him following them anymore.
“Ryoga stop!” They stopped, the both of them looking around. Ranma was nowhere to be found. He was gone.
“What just happened?” Ranma-chan asked. Meanwhile, Ranma was running around the forest in extreme annoyance. He had lost them. How the hell did he lose them?
“That bastard Ryoga got lost on me right under my nose!” Ranma growled, clenching his fist. He struck a tree beside him with all his strength, putting a sizable crater in its surface.
“Of all the Deus ex Machina bullshit…” he grumbled. Ryoga couldn’t have gotten far. Even with his ridiculous sense of direction. Sure he frequently traveled obscene distances and even crossed oceans while on foot, but that didn’t change anything.
“Ah damn it, he could be anywhere!” Ranma was not about to let Ryoga run off on him with his only chance for survival. He was going to steal that redheaded bitch’s chi if it was the last thing he did.
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To Be Continued…
(Author’s notes)
Now isn’t this an interesting turn of events! Yes, this has been planned from the beginning. If you look the Prologue actually mentions the purifying power of the water at the bottom of Horaisan. There’s only about 3 chapters left of this, so stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion.
(1) The –chan honorific is often used by boys when talking to their girlfriends, hence Ranma’s reaction.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: I don’t own Ranma, though I’d figure that that’s a given.
Author’s Notes:
As hopefully all of you are aware, the administators of this site have decided to include a helpful Review Reply option to us authors. Also, including review responses in chapters is now against the rules. Thus, I will no long post review responses at the beginning of chapters. I will instead utilize this new system, which I am told sends responses to your email address. Sadly to say, it doesn’t work with anonymous reviewers, so for those of you who don’t log in when you leave reviews, I won’t be able to give you responses.
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Ranma growled. It was something he was prone to do when angry. The bestial urge of baring his teeth and letting loose a deep, menacing growl just became overwhelming at times. He felt it served as a mild stress reliever, and when a victim was in range it tended to be fairly intimidating. It always brought a smile to his face when he watched a person’s eyes widen in horror at the sight of him, a quiver of fear racing down their spines as he growled at them and bared his ‘claws.’ He was doing that now. Five thin, jet black blades of pure chi extending from each of his fingers, causing the illusion that his fingers were far longer than they should have been and ended in knife like edges.
“Where are they?” Ranma shouted in frustration, glaring at his surroundings in extreme anger. With an angry grunt he lashed out with his left hand, striking a tree with his claws and severing it in five clean lines. The tree groaned, wood bending and snapping as it plummeted to earth. The mighty trunk struck with a load thump and briefly shook the ground before laying still. Ranma ignored it. His thoughts were elsewhere.
‘Damn that Ryoga. How dare he get lost in the middle of our fight! He even took the bitch with him.’ Ranma thought, running through the trees again in search of any sign of the two. He found nothing, as he had expected. They had just up and vanished. It was absolutely infuriating.
“When I get my hands on that lost bastard I will take great pleasure in disemboweling him.” Ranma growled out, glaring at a nearby tree. For a brief moment he imagined it was Ryoga. With a fierce look of determination Ranma rushed forward and cocked one arm back, the chi claws condensing into one long Ryu-zan chi blade that seemed to replace his arm from the elbow down. With a roar of anger, Ranma lashed out at the tree at max Amaguriken speed, his arm seemingly only striking once as the tree crashed to earth, a sizable chunk of the trunk that had been supporting it having just suddenly turned to kindling. The chi blade faded from his arm and Ranma glanced at his handiwork, panting a little but feeling a little better. He needed to calm down. Striking at the two in anger would only cause him to get sloppy. He needed to formulate a plan to take them out. Ryoga would get to die first. That way he could enjoy killing the redheaded bitch as slowly as he pleased. But in order to kill Ryoga he would have to incapacitate the girl for a little while. She was a wild card and he didn’t want her to interfere with his slaying of the Hibiki boy.
‘How should I bring her down though? She’s just as fast as I am. This will take a little thinking.’ Ranma thought. He really needed to find those two though. Maybe if there weren’t so many trees in the way he could.
“I guess its time for a little deforestation.” Ranma chuckled, an evil grin finding its way on his face. A black ki blade erupted from his arm and he immediately set to work, running through the forest and severing trees as he went.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 7
A Fallen Hero
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Ryoga steadied his breathing, trying to be as silent as possible as he gazed out into the forest. He was currently sitting on a tree branch high up in a particularly tall tree. Ranma-chan was sitting against the trunk on a branch a little below his own. She was absolutely silent. From the look of her, she was brooding. Ryoga tried to ignore her, instead turning his gaze towards the trees in the distance that were falling like dominos. He could only assume that’s where the male Ranma was.
“Ranma-chan, we…”
“Don’t call me that.” Ryoga stopped what he was saying upon hearing her response, not really expecting it. He glanced back down to where she was sitting. She had turned away from him.
“I need to differentiate between you two somehow.” That was apparently not the right thing to say, if the fact she just kicked him in the gut and hurled him out of the tree was any clue at least.
“How the hell could you confuse me with that psychopathic bastard in the first place?” She shouted, glaring down at him. Ryoga got back to his feet and wiped some dirt away from his bare back and chest, sending a glare back up at the redhead.
“Incase you forgot, you two used to be the same damn person!” He shouted back.
“Well incase you can’t tell, we obviously aren’t the same person anymore! And I really don’t appreciate being compared to an asshole like him!” Ranma shouted back, raising her voice higher and adding some more anger to her tone.
“That doesn’t change the fact that you both have the same name! I can’t just call both of you Ranma!” Ryoga yelled back. He wasn’t about to be beaten in a shouting competition. Unbeknownst to them, the trees in the forest began falling in a path leading towards their direction. Both were too busy yelling at each other to pay attention.
“Well then call him something different!” The redhead shouted.
“Like what!” Ryoga yelled back.
“How about ‘Evil Asshole?’ That sounds fine. ‘Sadistic Scumbag’ ain’t bad either!” Ranma was now pacing back and forth on the tree branch while yelling at Ryoga. The lost boy was about to say something else when his danger sense finally went off and he noticed movement in the nearby trees. In an instant several black blades of chi flashed out of the forest, heading straight for the redheaded girl on the tree branch.
“Look out!” Ryoga shouted, tossing some chi soaked bandanas into the path of the blades. The bandanas and the chi blades hit in mid air, each ricocheting off the other and flying in a new direction. Branches were severed and trees were cut down from the sudden barrage of sharp projectiles. Ranma remarkably was unharmed by the blades, though the tree she was standing in was currently falling over. Ryoga barely had time to think after throwing the bandanas, seeing a red and black blur rushing at him from the origin of the chi blades. As quickly as he could the Hibiki boy removed his belt and held it up defensively, barely managing to get it between him and Ranma’s chi sword.
“I get it now,” Ranma muttered, pushing against the rigid fabric with his blade, “You charge your clothes with chi. It increases their durability and rigidity, letting you cut through things. It’s the old trick you used back at Furinkan.” Ranma pushed harder, annoyed that Ryoga wouldn’t budge. It was also highly annoying that his chi blade wouldn’t cut the damn belt.
“It also seems to make the cloth partially immune to chi attacks. That’s why you can block my sword with it.” Ranma pushed some more. “And that’s also how that bitch stopped my chi blades earlier. She’s using the same trick on that shirt she’s wearing.”
“Wrong,” Ryoga said simply, pushing against Ranma and shoving his blade aside, “She’s just wearing my shirt.” Ryoga struck with a hard punch towards Ranma’s torso after opening his guard, nailing the pigtailed boy in the sternum and hurling him back a few feet. He struck the ground on his back but quickly rolled into a kneeling position, regaining his breath. Ryoga wasn’t going to let up though. He rushed straight in for a follow up attack.
“Shishi Hokodan!” Ryoga could only curse for letting himself fall into Ranma’s trap. He had no time to fire a counter blast and he couldn’t move quick enough to stop his forward momentum and escape the blast. With a grunt he took the icy blast head on, having no choice but to let it drag him backward. It felt like he had been hit by a car. A very cold, practically frozen spherical car, but a fast moving object roughly the size of a car none the less. Ryoga didn’t stop until he hit a tree, and even then the chi blast seemed intent on pushing him through it.
“Bastard!” Ranma shouted out, climbing out of the fallen branches she had been briefly buried under. In an instant she was in her double’s face, throwing punches and kicks as quickly as she could. Ranma was a bit annoyed by the speed of them. He actually had to block a lot of them.
‘Damn, she’s too quick.’ He thought, dodging a reverse hook kick only to get nailed in the face by a follow up. He was knocked over from the blow to the head, having the good sense to bounce back to his feet as the girl obviously had no problems hitting him while he was down.
‘Ryoga isn’t going to stay down forever. I need to incapacitate her, fast.’ Ranma leapt back from a side kick, having to jump to the side when she decided to turn it into a leaping kick halfway through. The male Saotome spotted Ryoga getting to his feet out of the corner of his eye. He had no time to play dodge and weave. He needed to bring the redhead down now. If Ryoga joined in the fray he wouldn’t have the chance to do anything while fending both of them off.
‘I just need to lead her a little…’ Ranma thought, leaving his head open for a brief moment. His female counterpart spotted his lack of defense and struck for the hole immediately, forcing Ranma to veer to the side and towards some trees. This time he left his midsection open, happy to see the sidekick she lashed out with towards the hole. Ranma was forced to jump back to avoid getting hit in the gut, now standing next to a particularly thick looking tree.
‘She’s falling right into my trap…’ Ranma thought, this time leaving himself open on the right side. Much to his satisfaction, the redhead attacked with a roundhouse kick aimed straight for his kidney. With a smirk on his face, Ranma leapt over the kick, watching as the redhead’s leg struck the tree he had been standing next to.
‘Now!’ He thought, lashing out with both legs and smashing his feet into the girl’s lower leg. A loud crack easily reached his ears as the tree bark broke and cratered from the force. The redhead couldn’t help but let out a loud scream of pain as she fell onto her back, holding her leg. Her tibia was at the very least fractured, if not broken. She wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
‘Heh, that takes care of her.’ Ranma thought, looking down at the pathetic girl as she laid in the dirt. Tears seemed to be threatening to spill from her eyes as she looked at him in absolute hatred. For a brief moment she tried to stand but then immediately collapsed to the ground again, her leg completely failing to hold her weight.
“Sorry about that, red. I couldn’t have you interfering with my man to man fight.” Ranma said, an arrogant smirk on his face. It was quickly removed when what felt like a battering ram struck him full in the back. He was blown away by Ryoga’s Shishi Hokodan, getting plastered to a tree a few yards away.
“Are you okay?” Ryoga asked, kneeling next to the redhead. She was obviously in pain, and he could see her leg starting to bruise. Ranma-chan did little but shake her head in the negative, attempting to apply pressure to her left leg but stopping immediately after the spike of pain.
“That bastard broke my leg.” She muttered, holding the leg in question. Ryoga growled in response. He had every intention of breaking the male Ranma in half at this point. His greenish blue aura began to rise from his body, surrounding him in a corona of power.
“RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!” He bellowed, rushing into the forest after the pigtailed boy. After a few yards Ryoga was hit hard in the side by a jumping kick from Ranma, hurling him a few feet sideways. Ryoga barely felt the blow, his aura intensifying upon seeing his rival and a ball of energy gathering in his hands.
“Shishi Hokodan!” With an amazing feat of aerial acrobatics Ranma leapt and twisted to avoid the massive blast of energy, causing it to fly off and knock over a few trees.
“Hito Ryu-zan Ha!” Ranma shouted, sending the black chi blades at Ryoga before he even touched the ground. Much to his surprise and great frustration, the blades seemed to explode on contact with Ryoga’s aura.
“What!” He shouted, completely confused. He wasn’t even wearing a shirt! How the hell did he stop those blades? Before Ranma was able to consider the reason behind it his whole body suddenly felt much heavier. He couldn’t even lift his arms. It wasn’t until Ryoga’s fist violently impacted his face that Ranma realized what had happened.
“Damn it!” Ranma shouted, going through a tree and landing on the side of the one behind it. He glared at the Hibiki boy, seeing the large greenish blue aura that was cascading off his body. Ranma wiped some blood away from his lip and spit out a broken tooth, still glaring at Ryoga.
‘He’s putting so much heavy chi into his aura, it felt like I had lead weights tied to my entire body.’ Ranma thought, still glaring at the Hibiki boy. He wasn’t moving from where he stood. He could only assume Ryoga expected him to do all the attacking at this point.
‘He wants to play defensive does he?’ Ranma thought, jumping off the tree and rushing at Ryoga. The Hibiki boy merely crossed his arms in front of his torso, his aura flaring as he did so. Ranma got within two feet of him before veering violently to the side, letting loose with about 10 chi blades and even a Shishi Hokodan or two. Each one barely got past the outer edge of the aura before they lost consistency and exploded against him. Ryoga was hurled back by the force of the blasts, but Ranma was willing to bet he barely felt them.
‘Damn him!’ Ranma thought, rushing forward with a punch. He knew he had made a mistake though the second he entered Ryoga’s aura. His legs almost gave out under him and his punch missed by a mile, not to mention was significantly weakened by the sudden weight he felt pressed against him. Ryoga struck out with a kick that took Ranma in the ribs, launching him skyward and into the canopy of some nearby trees.
“Is that the best you can do, Ranma! You’re pathetic! Shishi Hokodan!” Being followed skyward by a cannonball the size of a Buick did little to alleviate the frustration he was feeling. With a grunt Ranma was hit dead on by the massive projectile, dragged even higher in the sky as he past well above the tree line before he was allowed freefall. The Saotome boy landed gracefully on a branch a few yards away from his target, practically growling as his fingers dug into the wood around him. He was furious.
‘That fucking bastard! No wonder he wants to do this on defense, I can’t get near him because of that damn heavy aura! I’d have to be as strong as that tiger man to actually do damage to him!’ Ranma thought, fuming from this turn of events. Ryoga was letting off a lot of excess chi. He had to be wasting large amounts of energy in order to keep the entire area around him heavy like that. All Ranma would really have to do would be to wait for Ryoga to exhaust himself from using too much chi. He couldn’t keep that shit up forever. But he didn’t exactly have all the time in the world, and he had no idea how long Ryoga could keep that up. The lost boy always had stamina to spare. For all Ranma knew he could manage that aura for a day and a half. And if he just sat there in the tree the whole time, Ryoga would probably just grab the redheaded bitch and run away. He wouldn’t be able to do shit to stop him, either.
‘Damn it. How the hell am I supposed to beat that thing?’ he thought, still looking through the branches at the Hibiki boy. Ryoga just stood there, his aura burning brightly and his eyes locked on the tree line.
“Where are you, Ranma? What’s wrong? Are you too afraid to fight?” Ryoga shouted, daring his opponent to attack. Ranma growled under his breath, but stood his ground. He wouldn’t let Ryoga trick him into attacking when he wasn’t prepared. He needed to find a way to stop that aura.
‘I could probably siphon it off with a Hiryuu Shoten Ha, easy. But I can’t even get close to Ryoga without falling into that aura of his. I’d have to be inside it for at least the last half of the spiral, and there’s no way I could complete it while inside that thing. Ryoga would pound me flat before I even reached the center.’ Ranma thought, glancing around his surroundings.
‘I could probably get Ryoga if I skipped the spiral and just drew from the ambient chi in the air to feed the twister, but there isn’t nearly enough energy floating around for that. I can’t get close enough to him to use the Happo Satsu either.’ Ranma leapt out of the tree and landed on the ground, running towards Ryoga as he did so.
‘I’ve only got one option.’ Ranma thought, approaching Ryoga as he saw the Hibiki boy draw his arms towards his chest and flare his aura again. ‘It’s risky, but it’ll definitely work.’ With that thought, Ranma smirked and skid to a stop a good 3 yards from Ryoga’s position.
“What’s wrong, Ranma? Are you giving up?” Ryoga taunted, glaring through his aura at Ranma. The pigtailed boy just smirked in response, sticking his hands into his pockets and standing in general ease. He looked completely relaxed, as if he didn’t consider Ryoga a threat at all.
“Giving up? Of course not. I’ve just realized you aren’t worth my time, that’s all.” Ranma muttered, smirking as he saw Ryoga growl at him.
“Not worth your time, am I? Watch your mouth, Saotome. I’ve been kicking your ass up until this point.” Ryoga growled out, his aura flaring again. Ranma laughed in response.
“Stupid, I’ve been going easy on you! I could kill you ten times before you hit the ground. I just don’t feel like wasting the energy to do it.” Ranma stated, still smirking. In a wide circle, the pigtailed boy began walking around Ryoga, heading back the way they came at a leisurely pace.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Ranma!” Ryoga growled out, turning around and glaring at the pigtailed boy. Ranma just scoffed at him and kept walking.
“Where do you think I’m going? I have a redheaded bitch to murder. You can stay there and flaunt that aura all you want. I’ve got more important fish to fry.” Ranma said, leaping to the side to avoid a barrage of bandanas.
“Is that the best you can do, Ryoga? I already said you weren’t worth my time.” Ranma smirked and leapt to the side to avoid a Shishi Hokodan. “Jeez, you sure are pathetic. If that’s all you’re going to do to stop me I might as well go kill her.” Ranma said with a smirk. He looked over his shoulder in the direction he had been walking, spotting the redheaded girl crawling in their direction.
“Look, she’s even coming this way to make my job easier. Isn’t that nice of her? I think I’ll play with her a little before I kill her.” Ranma said with a smirk, dodging yet another Shishi Hokodan.
“You bastard! Stay the hell away from her!” Ryoga growled out, taking two slow steps towards Ranma. The aura flickered as he did so, but then immediately came back.
“Like you can stop me! You can barely move without dropping that aura and there isn’t shit you can throw that I can’t dodge! I think I’ll just take my liberties with your precious little bitch here and now. I’ll do to her what I did to Herb! I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching me violate her in front of you!” Ranma shouted out, smirking as he saw Ryoga snap. He turned towards the redheaded girl briefly, smiling gleefully as he saw the look of absolute horror on her face. She would meet her fate soon enough. He just had to wait for Ryoga to go off the deep end.
“SHIN SHISHI HOKODAN!” Ryoga roared, his eyes glowing as a mighty pillar of chi erupted from his body and rocketed skyward. Ranma just smirked as he watched the impressive display of chi being expelled from the lost boy’s body. Ranma had to admit the amount of chi Ryoga actually wielded was damned impressive. Practically awe inspiring, in fact. Ryoga really was a chi prodigy. He had so much potential. It was almost a shame that he had to kill him. Oh well. The blast ended and Ryoga’s head drooped, mentally preparing his body for the apocalyptic force that was descending towards it at that very instance. Ranma was actually shivering as he rushed at Ryoga’s unprotected body. His danger sense was screaming at him to run away as fast as he could. The amount of energy Ryoga had fired into the sky was shining like a second sun as it fell. Everything was given an ethereal greenish blue tint from its light.
“Die, Ryoga!” Ranma shouted out. Ryoga didn’t really register it. That is, until he felt a fist strike him in the gut and hold him in the air. Ryoga looked down, seeing Ranma’s smirking face as the boy held him above his body. Ryoga didn’t have time to consider what was happening. His attack destroyed all the nearby trees and then struck him in the back full force. Ranma was using his body as a shield!
“AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGG!” Ryoga screamed out, unable to hold it in as the massive blast he let off was violently colliding with his back, pushing his body down onto Ranma’s fist with so much force he felt his organs being compacted. The orb suddenly exploded, causing Ryoga to scream louder as the pain tripled and shockwaves fired off and took the tops off trees for miles around. When the dust settled, a visible imprint could be seen in the forest. All the trees had been bent and broken under the force of the impact. The only reason there wasn’t a massive crater was because the orb exploded against Ryoga’s back.
“How did that feel, Ryoga?” Ranma asked, his fist still planted in the other boy’s gut as he held him above his head. Ryoga just hung from Ranma’s fist limply, barely conscious after being hit with his own attack. Ranma wasn’t finished with him though. Not just yet.
“Ryoga…” Ranma-chan muttered, crawling closer to the two. She looked up in shock at the body being held in the air. He looked absolutely terrible. Her double looked down towards her with a smirk, his black aura beginning to build up around his body.
“You might want to avert your eyes, bitch. This next part won’t be pretty. Ryu-zan!” Ryoga’s world suddenly became filled with a new level of agony. He could only open his mouth in shock, wanting to scream but his voice failing him. Ranma was laughing now, a deep, maniacal laughter that echoed around the area. It took Ryoga a few seconds to realize what had happened, but the adrenaline that was rapidly pumping into his blood stream was helping him return to consciousness. His eyes focused and the first thing he saw was Ranma’s arm covered in blood. It seemed to be dripping rather freely from his body. This probably had something to do with the Chi blade that was currently impaling him. Ryoga screamed again.
“RYOGA!” Ranma-chan screamed, her eyes widening in horror as she looked at the black blade of energy sticking out of the Hibiki boy’s back. Ryoga was screaming in pain, gripping Ranma’s arm as hard as he could as he did so. He felt like someone had shoved an icicle through his abdomen. The blade was so cold he could barely stand it. It was bad enough he was impaled, but now the intense cold that burnt was sending stabs of pain across his entire body. He briefly thought that at least the wound would probably freeze shut and he wouldn’t bleed to death, but this gave him little solace through the mind numbing agony.
“You bastard!” Ranma-chan screamed, tears falling freely from her eyes as her aura began to burn violently around her body. Literally. The girl was bathed in flames momentarily, her eyes burning brightly as she glared at her double.
“What do you think you’re doing, bitch?” Ranma asked, glaring at the girl. Did she really think he would just stand there and let her hit him? He’d let her vent the attack, then he’d just dodge it and drain everything she had left with a Happo Satsu. After that the real fun could begin.
“I know…What…you’re…thinking…” Ryoga got out, coughing some blood into Ranma’s face as he said it. The lost boy’s hands reached out and grasped him firmly around the bicep, applying a vice-like grip to his arm.
“You…aren’t…going…anywhere…” Ryoga muttered, a smirk on his face as his greenish blue aura came back to life. Ranma grunted, his legs buckling under him and his arm burning from the effort of holding Ryoga in the air. The air suddenly got much heavier. After a few moments Ranma collapsed to his knees, Ryoga landing in a kneeling position as well and still holding Ranma’s arm in place.
“Damn you! Let go!” Ranma growled, struggling against Ryoga. Even with a hole in his stomach his grip was like iron. And with the heavy chi pushing down on his body, he couldn’t even lift his arm to put the Hibiki boy between him and the redhead. All he could do was stare at the growing orb of energy she was gathering. The burning, white hot orb of chi held between her hands.
“Let me go, Ryoga!” Ranma shouted again, sounding much more desperate. He needed to get away. He couldn’t let this blast hit him. He couldn’t even block in this position.
“I’ll die before I let you go.” Ryoga growled out, coughing up some more blood onto the pigtailed boy. Considering the sword still firmly placed in his belly, Ranma could safely assume the boy wasn’t bluffing. It really would take Ryoga’s death to get him to release his arm.
“You want to die? Fine!” Ranma growled. Even with the weight bearing down on him he still had enough strength to twist his arm. Ryoga screamed in pain, feeling his innards being torn open by the twisting chi blade. With a grunt Ranma managed to pull his arm free of both Ryoga’s grip and his stomach, struggling out of the heavy aura and to his feet. Unfortunately it was too late.
“DIE!” Ranma turned back towards his female double and his eyes widened as he saw the flaming blast of chi coming at him. It was too late to move. He wouldn’t be able to get away.
“Happo SatsAAAAAAHHH!” Ranma started, raising his hands towards the oncoming blast. He was cut short, though. His attack interrupted by the screams of agony as he was engulfed in flames, his body being dragged by the beam of energy the female was still pouring power into. Ranma-chan didn’t stop fueling the attack until her arms were burning from the effort. Finally she cut it off, watching as the flaming blast died out, a scorched trench and a few grass fires left in its wake. Several yards away she could see the flaming body of her double. Smoke and steam rose from his body as he lay were he fell, not moving anymore.
“Ryoga!” Ranma-chan said, turning towards the boy in question. Her leg was broken, but she had enough adrenaline pumping through her veins to not care. She ran over to him, kneeling down next to the fallen boy to look at his wound. He was bleeding everywhere. The wound looked partially frozen but that last twist had torn it open again. Ryoga’s blood was pouring out of his body, staining the dirt all around him.
“Don’t die on me, Ryoga. You’re going to be alright! I’ll get you to a hospital.” Ryoga looked up through his dying eyes to see the redhead leaning over him. He was in too much pain to concentrate. His eyes refused to focus, his hearing was coming and going and his entire body was beginning to grow colder. Whether that was because of the cold chi Ranma had or the death he felt rapidly approaching, Ryoga didn’t know.
“Ranma-chan…” Ryoga got out, coughing up a little blood as he did so. He forced his eyes to focus, looking up at the crying redhead leaning over him. She had her hands over his wound, pressing against his body with them as blood trickled out between her fingers. He idly noticed he couldn’t feel her hands. His torso was completely numb. Her hands started to glow as she poured chi into his body, but beyond a mild warmth he couldn’t notice it. She was saying something, but he couldn’t make out what it was. His hearing completely failed him. His world was plunged into an absolute silence. If only he could read lips. The only thing he could make out was his own name. She seemed to be repeating it a lot. Ryoga tried to speak, but his body failed him. He could feel his heart beating in his chest. As his vision began to fade to a murky blackness, it was the only thing he was truly aware of.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.. thump.. thump… thump… thump…
Was it slowing down? No. He had to fight this. He was Hibiki Ryoga! He wouldn’t let this beat him. He needed to move, he needed to stand. But couldn’t do either. He was barely aware of his body anymore. He could barely feel it.
Thump…Thump…Thump…Thump…
Was he even breathing anymore? He couldn’t tell. The only sensation he still had was his heart beating in his chest. That and an intense burning sensation. It felt like someone had just set part of his body on fire. But even that began to fade away into numbness again. His senses had abandoned him. He was idly aware of a sense of movement. But he wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not.
Thump…Thump…Thump…
What was going on? Was he dead already? No. He had died before. Lime killed him on Horaisan. Where was the field of flowers? Where were his grandparents telling him it wasn’t his time? He didn’t see any of these things.
Thump……Thump……Thump……
He couldn’t die yet. He still had so much he wanted to do in his life. He had so many things to do still, so many things he needed to make up for. He had too many regrets to die now. He can’t die now. Not now.
Thump………Thump………
Ranma. He couldn’t die like this, leaving her alone in the middle of nowhere with nothing but his corpse. He needed to get up. He had to help her. He didn’t spend three years searching for her just to die in her arms!
Thump…………
‘I should have kissed her…’ He thought, his body growing colder.
…………
--------------------------------
To Be Concluded
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ doesn’t belong to me.
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It’s so dark. Am I truly dead? Is this eternal darkness all that I can look forward to? Where was the river Styx? Shouldn’t I have seen my dead relatives by now? Death is so disappointing.
“Ryoga! Hey Ryoga! Get up already!” What is this voice? Go away. Can’t you see I’m busy?
“Get up or we’ll leave you behind!” Was the voice kicking him now? Lousy bastard. No one kicks Hibiki Ryoga and gets away with it.
“Cut it out!” Ryoga shouted, getting to his feet and decking his attacker. The darkness was clearing. Feeling had returned to his body. What was this place? It looked like a forest of some kind. His eyes were still adjusting to the light. It took Ryoga a few seconds to realize it was so dark because it was night.
“Where am I?” Ryoga asked, looking around. There seemed to be a vague familiarity to the place. Had he been here before? No. He just died. How could he have been here?
“Are you two ready or not?” Ryoga spun around at the familiar voice, his heart nearly stopping when he saw her. Ranma-chan was standing before him with an annoyed look on her face. Something was different about her though. She looked…younger. Her hair was a more vibrant red, like it was when she was a teenager. She was also wearing the red and black Chinese clothes he hadn’t seen in years.
“What the hell did you hit me for?” The voice from before grumbled. Ryoga hadn’t recognized it before, but now that he was looking at the man that had it it fell into place.
“Mousse?” He said, confused. There was no way. Why was mousse here? The visually challenged boy got back to his feet and returned his glasses to their usual position on his face, the glare he was sending at Ryoga hidden behind the lenses. Mousse looked like he was sixteen again. Sure, Ryoga hadn’t seen him in 3 years, but surely Mousse had aged a little.
‘Wait a second…’ Ryoga thought, looking down at his own body. He was wearing his off yellow sweater again. He knew for a fact he had given it to Ranma a few days earlier. Remembering the wound, Ryoga pulled his shirt up and looked to where his wound should have been, finding nothing. Not only that, the thin layer of hair that used to be on his abdomen was now gone. Checking his arms led him to the same realization. He was younger, too. He was sixteen again.
“You feelin’ ok, Ryoga?” Ranma asked, causing Ryoga to flinch. The tone, the speech pattern, the look on her face, they all spoke volumes about this girl that looked like Ranma. She wasn’t the same woman. This was Saotome Ranma, Martial artist, fiancé of Tendo Akane. This was not the Ranma he knew. This was the Ranma he used to know. Seeing her now made his heart want to stop beating.
“No…Ranma. I am not okay.” Ryoga said simply, tuning his head away from the redhead.
“Well deal with it. We have to get moving if we want to catch Herb and get that kettle.” Herb? Kettle? They hadn’t even gone to Horaisan yet? How could that be? What had happened? Did he dream the whole thing? No. He refused to believe that. The last three years of his life were not a figment of his imagination. They had happened. They were too vivid, too real to be fake.
“You comin’ Ryoga?” Ranma asked, still using the tone he could only apply to the male Ranma that had just recently shoved a sword through his chest. With a grunt he grabbed his bag and shouldered it, walking after the other two.
“Yeah, I’m coming.” He replied, a bit of anger in his tone.
“Good. Don’t get lost now.” She said, turning away and walking through the trees. Ryoga followed, looking down towards her feet as he did so. He didn’t want to see her face. He didn’t want to be reminded that she wasn’t the 19-year-old he remembered.
“You still with me, Ryoga?” Her tone changed. She sounded different now. Hurried.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Don’t leave me here. You have to stay with me.” She was sounding desperate now. The forest seemed to be getting darker, the trees in the distance seemingly vanishing into the blackness.
“What are you talking about?” Ryoga asked, confused. He could only see the back of her head, but she sounded panicked.
“Stay with me, Ryoga.” She said in familiar speech patterns. She was obviously panicked. What was wrong? He wasn’t going anywhere.
“I am with you!” He shouted out.
“You can’t die on me now.” Was she crying?
“What the hell are you babbling about?” Ryoga growled, speeding up a bit to catch up with her.
“Please don’t die…” Ryoga grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to stop walking.
“Are you even listening to me!” He asked, panic entering his voice as well. He spun the girl around and his heart nearly skipped a beat when he saw the blood on her face. They were both surrounded by an unending blackness, the forest and mousse having long since disappeared into it.
“You have to wake up, Ryoga.” She suddenly said, but her lips didn’t move when she said it.
“I AM AWAKE!” With a jolt Ryoga sat up, looking around in confusion at the odd room he found himself in. It was his room, but it looked different. He didn’t have nearly as much stuff lining the walls as he remembered. When did he get home, anyway?
“Alright, fine. You didn’t have to take my head off.” Ryoga turned when he heard the voice, so familiar yet different. Something he thought he would never see suddenly entered his vision. A redheaded girl, no older than 14, wearing a navy blue sailor seifuku and looking at him in mild amusement. This was Ranma, no doubt about it. A young, female version of Ranma.
“Now hurry up and get ready or we’re going to be late.” She said, leaving the room and shutting the door as she did so. Late? Late for what? Ryoga climbed out of bed and stood up, being surprised at how short he felt. He spotted his reflection in the TV and noticed he was younger. He looked 14 again.
“What’s going on? Am I going back in time or something?” He said aloud, spotting his school uniform nearby and grabbing it. No, that couldn’t be it. Ranma wasn’t cursed when they were 14. And even if he was, they went to an all boys school. The seifuku didn’t make sense. So what was going on?
‘Could I really be dead?’ Ryoga thought as he took off the clothes he slept in. He reached for the uniform but stopped for a moment, considering his thoughts. Maybe he really was dead and this was some kind of bizarre hell he was stuck in. Not wanting to think on the subject any longer, Ryoga quickly dressed in his uniform and headed out of his room.
“Come on, Ryoga! We’ll be late if you don’t hurry up!” In one leap Ryoga was on the ground floor, shaking the house a little with the impact. Ranma didn’t miss a beat, grabbing Ryoga by the hand and rushing out the door.
“So you still want to have that ‘duel,’ Ryoga-kun?” Ranma asked, a bit of humor in her voice when she said the word ‘duel.’ She seemed to find it rather humorous. In fact, she was practically laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Ryoga asked, looking over at the redhead. She drew him in closer, so that they were walking side by side.
“Nothing. Just the fact that you challenged me to a duel over bread.” She was still smiling, mocking him in her own way by doing so. Ryoga growled a bit to himself, earning a laugh from the redhead.
“Come on, Ryoga-kun. Don’t be so serious all the time.” She said, drawing his arm over her shoulder as they increased their pace a bit. Ryoga blushed as she did it. Was this really hell or some bizarre heaven? Had he somehow been transported to a world where Ranma was always a girl? He didn’t know what to think.
“We’re almost there, Ryoga. Hold on.” Ranma said suddenly, her tone changing and her voice taking on a more mature sound.
“What are you talking about? I don’t see the school.” Ryoga muttered, looking ahead. Come to think of it, he couldn’t see a whole lot that was ahead of him. Was a fog rolling in?
“We’re almost there. Just hang on; I’ll get you to a hospital.” Ryoga suddenly realized the way she had thrown his arm over her shoulder had nothing to do with any closeness between them. She was carrying him, bearing his weight like one would a drunken man.
“Hospital? What are you talking about? I’m fine.” Everything was getting harder to see. This wasn’t a fog. It was all disappearing into the endless blackness at the edge of his perception. Darkness was reclaiming the world around him as the two walked. Suddenly Ranma fell, sending both of them to the ground.
“Ranma, are you ok?” He said, trying to get up and check her but finding himself unable to move.
“Ryoga…” Ranma’s voice. It sounded aged, tired. Was she injured? Why couldn’t he move?
“Ryoga!” This time her voice sounded a little more coherent. The darkness was closing in on the two of them and he still couldn’t even twitch.
“Are you alright Ranma?” He suddenly felt Ranma rolling over, taking him with her as they both looked down at her leg. A bone was sticking out of her left leg, jagged and bloody.
“Wake up, Ryoga!” Someone had hit him. In an instant he sat up, a cold sweat on his back as he did so. The street was gone, the darkness was gone. But where was he?
“Will you get up and tend to her? She’s been crying for 5 minutes.” Ryoga looked over at his side, seeing a tired woman in her late 20s lying there in a state of undress. It took Ryoga a few moments to realize it was Ranma laying there, her hair out of its pigtail and just laying on her pillow in a mess. He also noticed the sound of a baby crying, much to his confusion. Finally, what Ranma just said registered in his head.
“You okay, Hon?” She asked, sitting up a little as her long hair cascaded across her back and shoulders. The night gown she was wearing drooped a little, revealing a bit of her bare breast.
“I’m fine. I’ll go check on her.” Ryoga said, getting out of the bed and walking towards the door. He was out in the hallway now, glancing back and forth while trying to figure out where the crying was coming from. He didn’t recognize the house, not like recognizing it would have helped. With no other option he just followed his ears, walking in one direction until he noticed the cries getting quieter and then turning around. With a little trial and error he found his way to the room containing the crying child. It was an obvious nursery, painted a pastel color with baby toys and stuffed animals everywhere. Near the center of the room was a small crib, and from said crib a sound on par with a screaming banshee was emitting. For a baby, she sure did have a powerful set of lungs on her.
“Hey now, why all the fuss?” Ryoga suddenly said, approaching the crib and looking at the child within. A sudden feeling of awkwardness struck him as he looked down at the crying baby. What was he supposed to do? He had no experience with babies. The baby kept crying though. He had to do something. With no other options, he chose to pick the baby up, holding her to his shoulder and tried to calm her. His eyes found a nearby full length mirror and he immediately stopped, gazing at the image it showed him. An older version of himself, holding a baby. His baby. This was his child. His daughter. The thought was almost overwhelming. He had the sudden urge to fall over.
“Where the hell am I?” Ryoga muttered silently, still trying to calm the baby he was holding. What was the purpose of these visions? What was happening to him? Was this his future, or just another bastardized version of the world? Would he ever find out? Was he doomed to jump from one scenario to another for the rest of eternity? The thought made him sick to his stomach. If that was his destiny, he truly was in hell.
“She stopped crying, huh?” Ryoga turned, seeing the woman standing in the door and realizing it was Ranma. No, it wasn’t just Ranma. She was his wife. The mother of his child. This thought, too, caused him to have the urge to fall over. In fact, he did fall over. He landed flat on his back, suddenly feeling unable to move. He could hear a loud noise getting louder. Was the baby crying again? No. It wasn’t a cry. It was a roar. A loud, booming sound that drowned out everything else. Everything was sinking into the blackness again. The nursery was gone, the baby was gone. Ranma remained, still standing where she was and looking at him in the way a wife looks at her husband. Then she too disappeared into the blackness, leaving Ryoga with the booming roar and the intense wind. There was nothing but darkness now, and he once again couldn’t move. Were the visions finally over? Had the demons of hell come to claim him? No. This roaring wasn’t from any animal, demon or otherwise. It was distinctly mechanical, like the roar of a turbine or a propeller. Suddenly the wind completely stopped and the roar became muffled. He could hear people bustling about around him.
“Oi, Hibiki! Wake up, Man.” Ryoga blinked, the darkness vanishing when he closed his eyes and being replaced with the inside of a helicopter when he opened them again. A man in an army uniform sat across from him, an assault rifle in his arms and a sturdy helmet on his head. It took Ryoga a few seconds to realize it was the male Ranma. The name “Saotome” being engraved on the helmet should have been a clue though.
“Sarge’ll tear you a new one if he finds you sleeping on the chopper.” Ranma said, leaning back in his seat and holding his weapon. He seemed to be tense about something. When Ryoga bothered to look around the craft he noticed there were a lot more people in uniforms there. Even he was dressed in one. Much to his surprise, Ryoga noticed he had a sniper rifle in his arms.
“What’s going on? Where are we going?” Ryoga asked, looking around the helicopter in confusion. The roaring engine was still audible, though it was at least muffled enough for him to hear the men around him chuckling. A couple of them were looking at him funny as well.
“’Where are we going?’ We’re going to war, dude! Did you miss the memo?” Ranma suddenly said, a smirk on his face as some of the other guys started laughing at his joke.
“War?” his confusion was apparently very amusing, since the laughter only got louder when he said this. Ranma just rolled his eyes.
“You’re as hopeless as ever, Hibiki.” Ranma muttered, mirth entering his voice. “The Americans are invading, remember? They bombed Shikoku to shit and now they’re attacking Kube and Kyoto. We’re going in to stop them.” As the Saotome boy said these words, the sound of an explosion rocked the entire vehicle. Everyone gripped their weapons as a tense air fell on the entire inhabitants.
“Listen up, Soldiers! The Landing Zone is hot! We can’t risk landing, so you’re gonna have to jump!” Another explosion rocked the helicopter as the entire thing lurched and seemed to go into a steep bank. The sound of a missile streaking through the air passed straight past the wall of the helicopter Ryoga was leaning against. It seemed they had narrowly avoided getting shot down.
“Why the hell are the Americans attacking us anyway?” Ryoga demanded, angry at the entire situation. Ranma just shrugged, a smirk working its way up his face.
“Maybe they’re pissed about the whole Pokémon thing. I hear the kids over there are crazy about it.” Everyone laughed at this joke, just as the Helicopter doors opened and they were all forced to leap out of it into the air. The roar of the helicopter’s engines faded away, being replaced with the sounds of war below them. As Ryoga drifted to the earth he could see bullets from the ground flying all around him. The soldiers parachuting to the ground with him were shooting back, their parachutes gaining multiple holes and falling faster. As Ryoga saw a few holes appear in his own chute, he could only gape in shock. This gaping only intensified when a lucky shot tore through one of the strings holding him to the parachute, causing the entire thing to lose structural integrity and essentially plummet. He was falling like a rock, and the ground was getting mighty close.
Beep…beep…beep…beep...
What was that beeping noise? Ryoga looked around, suddenly seeing nothing but darkness despite the fact it had been day only moments before.
Beep…beep…beep…beep…
Damn it was annoying. What was it?
Beep…beep…beep…beep…
“Cut it out!” Ryoga said, sitting up in bed and looking around. He was home again, lying in his bed.
Beep…beep…beep…beep…
Ryoga turned, seeing an alarm clock. With a grunt, he smacked it.
Beep…beep…beep…beep…
“Hey, I turned you off.” Ryoga hit the alarm clock again, angry that it didn’t turn off. With a growl of anger he crushed it, reducing it to tiny chunks of plastic and circuits. The beeping didn’t stop. Suddenly, a burning pain began to rise from his side. Ryoga collapsed to the floor, holding his side as the pain intensified.
Beep…beep.. beep. Beep. beep.beep.beep.beep.
The beeping was getting faster and the pain only grew stronger. With a grunt of pain Ryoga rolled over onto his back. It felt like someone was cutting him open from the inside.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep.
“He’s going into shock!” The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Ryoga couldn’t concentrate on the voice though. He was too preoccupied with the horrible pain.
Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep
“We’re losing him!” A sudden chill overcame Ryoga, originating from the point the pain was beginning and shortly overcoming his entire body.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The darkness was rushing in again, but this time felt different. There seemed to be finality to it as the blackness absorbed everything it touched. Ryoga felt like he was slowly falling, unable to do anything but watch the blackness get closer.
“Clear!”
eeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
It felt like a bolt of lightning struck him. The darkness seemed to recede, as if it were reeling from a blow. It pulsated back before slowly approaching once again. Ryoga had stopped falling in that instant, feeling the electricity flow across his nerves. It passed though, and he was falling again.
“Clear!”
eeeeep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
another strike of electricity flowed through his body. The darkness shrunk back once more, like it was afraid it may be hit again. Ryoga stopped falling as well, the electricity dancing across his body. It didn’t last. The darkness approached again. He began to fall again.
“Clear!”
eeep. Beep…. Beep…. Beep… Beep…
The darkness fled and Ryoga felt himself land softly on a solid surface. He couldn’t help but feel a little confused. But that didn’t matter. Unconsciousness was claiming him. With a final sigh Ryoga closed his eyes, his body becoming completely relaxed.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Chapter 8
Family Reunion
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The beeping was back. That steady, annoying beeping sound. Ryoga tried to open his eyes, wanting to see where his demons had sent him now. However, he felt it difficult. His eyelids felt so heavy. He felt like he hadn’t opened his eyes in weeks.
“Hey, I think he’s waking up.” Voices. He was tired of voices. He was almost afraid to open his eyes, even if they didn’t feel like they weighed thousands of pounds. He just knew he was in some bizarre new world that he didn’t want anything to do with.
“Ryoga-kun? Can you hear me?” That was Akane’s voice. Damn demons, how dare they tempt him. He wouldn’t bend for them though. They’d have to do better than that to get him up.
“Get your lazy butt up, Ryoga. No son of mine is going to laze about in a hospital bed all day.” Ok, that did it. Akane was one thing, he could ignore Akane. His mother, on the other hand, was a completely different matter. With a groan Ryoga opened his eyes and looked about the room, rather surprised at the gathering. Ryoga’s mother, Akane, her sister Kasumi, Mousse, Genma, and a woman Ryoga could only assume was Ranma’s mother. It was around then that he realized his current location. He was in a hospital room. And judging from the ache in his side, he still had a hole in him.
“What’s going on?” Ryoga muttered, sitting up with a great deal more effort than the action should have required.
“You’ve been hurt, Ryoga. The doctors say something went right through you. They don’t know what it was, but for some reason they think it was a frozen piece of metal.” Ryoga’s mother explained. An icy blade of chi was more like it, but obviously the doctors wouldn’t be able to tell that. He could only assume they saw a hole and signs of frostbite and concluded that a cold blade was used. “Anyway, they found your wallet on you and called the house. Luckily, I was home at the time. I rushed over as quickly as I could.” Ryoga nodded a little. His mom’s sense of direction was a lot better than his and his father’s. She could get around, it just took her a little longer than normal. Ryoga’s father was the one that circled the globe trying to get to the bus stop.
“Boy, where’s Ranma?” Genma asked, his voice firm. Something seemed to be troubling the people from Nerima that were gathered in the room. The mentioning of Ranma’s name caused an unease to settle on the lot of them. Ryoga briefly wondered why.
“Ranma? She’s not here?” Ryoga looked around the room, not seeing the Redhead anywhere. “The last thing I remember was...” A brief flash of Ryoga’s weird dreams flew across his vision. It ended with the mental image of a male Ranma looking up at him in triumph, his hand buried in Ryoga’s abdomen.
“…How did I get here?” Ryoga looked to the faces of everyone in the room, seeking answers and finding none.
“Ryoga, I received a call from Cologne a few days ago. She said that something horrible had befallen Herb and his two lackeys, and she suspected that either you or Ranma were the culprit.” Mousse said grimly, though Ryoga noticed the Chinese man wasn’t actually looking at him. “Ryoga, was Ranma the one that stabbed you?” Mousse began turning his head before he was even finished with his sentence, gazing in the general direction of the door. In the doorway, in a black skirt and white blouse, was Ranma. Ryoga also noticed that she had a walking cast around her left leg, and that the sweater he had lent her was tied around her waist.
“Ryoga, you’re awake,” Ranma said quietly, smiling to herself. “Who are these people?” Everyone’s eyes were now on Ranma, except Mousse, who seemed to be looking at a plant in the corner.
“Ranma, this is Tendo Akane-san, Tendo Kasumi-san, Mousse, my mother… and your parents.” Ryoga stated, pointing to each person as he did so. As he reached Ranma’s parents, the girl’s eyes locked with the two people in question. Her eyes fell quickly to the woman who was apparently her mother, scanning every inch of her face in amazement. There was no doubt in Ranma’s mind that she was related to this woman.
“Mom…?” Ranma muttered, barely able to get the word out. Nodoka’s eyes teared up as she looked at the young woman. Nodoka couldn’t help but smile as she looked at the girl. So much like herself when she was younger. However, she could tell just by looking at her that she held the strength and grace of her father. This girl was a master of the art, there was no doubt about that. Finally seeing the girl again, Nodoka decided to let her hopes for her son to fade. Ranma was her daughter. Nodoka couldn’t allow herself to forget that.
“Ranma…It’s good to see you again.” She couldn’t keep up the façade of formality for more than a few seconds. Both women bursting into tears almost simultaneously, they rushed each other and fell into an embrace. Nodoka hadn’t hugged her child for 13 years and Ranma had no memory of ever hugging her mother. Both of them felt the need to remedy this.
“Ryoga, who are these crazy people?” Ryoga’s mother whispered to her son, staring at the two crying women oddly.
“Ranma’s my friend mom. That’s her mother.” Ryoga responded.
“Ranma? As in Saotome Ranma? Didn’t you know a Saotome Ranma when you were in high school?” Ryoga’s mother asked.
“It’s the same Ranma, mom.”
“You never told me Ranma was a girl.” Suddenly Ranma and her mother broke their hug and looked at each other again, both at a loss for words it seemed.
“Ranma!” Nodoka gasped, noticing the cast when she looked down. “What happened to your leg?” The woman sent an accusing glare at Ryoga, much to his shock.
“What have you done to my daughter?” Nodoka was reaching for her katana before realizing it wasn’t with her. Lousy hospitals, making you check dangerous weapons at the door.
“I didn’t do anything!” Ryoga protested, waving his hands around as he noticed Ranma’s mother was grasping for a sword that wasn’t there.
“Mom! Ryoga didn’t break my leg.” Ranma said. Nodoka calmed down a little, but still look concerned.
“Well then what did happen to your leg? And what happened to this Ryoga boy, for that matter?” Ranma suddenly fell silent and appeared nervous. It seemed like she was reluctant to answer the question.
“We were both attacked.” Ryoga answered. Everyone’s attention went to Ryoga, including a glare from Ranma, which confused him a bit.
“By who?” Genma demanded. That caused Ryoga to pause. How could he tell them that the male Ranma did it without going into the full story?
“Some crazy martial artist. He said he was wandering the world to fight the strongest warriors.” Ranma suddenly spouted out, taking Ryoga’s pause to interrupt with her own version of the story. “He jumped Ryoga all of a sudden while we were caught off guard. Ryoga was beating him pretty badly, so he decided to attack me to distract Ryoga. He lunged at me with a sword and Ryoga pushed me aside and got stabbed. He ran off after that.” Ranma explained. Nodoka’s look of anger towards Ryoga suddenly turned to gratitude. Genma also gave him a look of thanks. Ryoga noticed neither. He was too busy staring at Ranma like she grew a second head.
“What about your leg?” Kasumi asked, noticing the lack of explanation for the broken leg in the story. Ranma sweat dropped.
“Oh, right. Ryoga was injured badly, so I had to carry him back to the village to get him airlifted here. I fell from a small cliff and got my leg caught on the way down.” That explanation seemed to be enough for everyone present. Now realizing that neither of the martial artists had turned into murderous monsters, the tension in the air lifted and all seemed to be well again. Ryoga laid back down on his bed, feeling exhausted but not wanting to sleep. He closed his eyes anyway, wanting to rest his eyes. He opened them again and suddenly realized he must have dosed off; everyone but his mother had left the room.
“Where’d everyone go?” Ryoga asked, sitting up again with great difficulty.
“They went home with that girl of theirs, Ryoga.” His mother responded. She produced a wheelchair from the corner of the room and wheeled it over to the bed.
“Now come on. I’m taking you home too. All you need is a little of mother’s home cooking and you’ll be on your feet again in no time.” Ryoga chuckled a bit at what his mom said and climbed out of the bed. His legs felt like jelly, so he collapsed into the wheelchair without issue.
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Two days passed before Ryoga was back on his feet. His entire body hurt and his muscles felt weaker than they ever had in his life. He needed to remedy this. With a sigh, Ryoga got out of his bed and crossed the room to his closet, removing a simple black T-shirt and a pair of black pants. He was determined to get some training in that day. Thus, he removed the clothes he had slept in and pulled the new ones on. He was just pulling his shirt on when his mother opened the door.
“Ryoga!.” She said, opening the door to see her Son’s bare chest as he was pulling the shirt on. Her eyes fell to the wicked scar on his abdomen and winced, knowing there was a similar scar on his back. Her son healed fast, there was no doubt about that. He had been in the hospital for only 2 weeks and he was already on his feet. But still, the idea that she had nearly lost her Ryoga scared her.
“Yeah mom?” Ryoga finished putting on his shirt and went about tying the bottom of his pant legs down.
“I wanted to get you up, dear,” She said, still glancing at the spot the scar was, “Breakfast will be ready in about an hour.” Ryoga’s mother turned around and closed the door behind her, leaving Ryoga in his room alone. After finishing putting on his clothes, Ryoga opened his window and leapt out, narrowly avoiding landing on Mousse.
“Eh? Mousse? What are you doing here?” Ryoga turned to look at the Chinese man. He looked much like Ryoga remembered him, only his hair as a bit longer and the angles of his face more pronounced. The most noticeable difference though was his complete lack of glasses. They weren’t over his eyes, they weren’t on his head. In fact, his eyes weren’t even open.
“Did you walk here with your eyes closed?” Ryoga asked, honestly curious about that.
“Having my eyes open wouldn’t have made a difference,” Mousse responded, “And to answer your earlier question, I came here to ask you a question.” Ryoga glanced at mousse for a moment, wondering what his question might be. However he felt he was wasting time just standing there, so he began to stretch himself in preparation for some training.
“However if you want to get some training first, I would gladly spar with you.” Mousse suddenly said. For a moment, Ryoga rose an eyebrow, curious as to how mousse knew he was about to start training when his eyes weren’t even open.
“Just ask the question, Mousse.” Ryoga said simply, beginning a simple kata.
“What really happened between you and Ranma in that village?” Mousse asked.
“You know what, I changed my mind. Let’s spar first.” With a brief smirk and a nod, mousse dropped his hands to his sides, causing his sleeves to fall over them and obscure them from view. The sudden sound of various pieces of metal scraping against each other could be clearly heard moments before he thrust his hands forward. His danger sense flaring, Ryoga began to move the second he heard the sound. A torrent of chains, blades and weights launched forth from Mousse’s sleeves and impacted heavily where Ryoga had been standing moments before. Ryoga had leapt to the side and was now running in a wide arc towards Mousse, ducking and dodging the chains and weights he was throwing in his direction. Finally reaching the blind fighter, Ryoga leapt into a kick aimed for his face, missing by a mile as Mousse bent to the side and let Ryoga sail past him. In a single motion Mousse straightened himself out and turned around at the waist, throwing one arm behind him and launching a ball attached to a chain at Ryoga. Hearing the ball coming at him, Ryoga tucked into a roll the second he touched the ground, narrowly avoiding the steel ball as it instead crashed into a tree.
“You’re faster than I remember.” Mousse said simply as the many chains he had thrown retracted into his sleeves. Ryoga just smirked a little and returned to his feet. For a few moments, they both just stood at the ready. Then, as if signaled, the two charged straight at each other. Ryoga came in with a jab and Mousse responded by ducking the blow and kicking Ryoga in the face in the same motion. Ryoga was forced to take a step back from the impact and Mousse pressed his advantage, throwing a punch towards Ryoga’s chest. This punch was blocked, as were the following seven punches. Mousse threw an eighth punch aimed for Ryoga’s face, only to have the lost boy dodge to the side. Using the momentum from the punch, Mousse spun around and threw three spinning kicks, the first two dodged and the last one jumped over. As Mousse was completing the kick Ryoga descended with a kick of his own, nailing Mousse in the collarbone and hurling the Chinese man back a good 6 meters.
“Open your eyes, Mousse. I want this to be a challenge.” Ryoga said simply, standing up straight and cracking his knuckles. Mousse chuckled as he regained his feet.
“My eyes,” He chuckled, “are better off closed.” Mousse opened his eyes, revealing cloudy orbs where vibrant eyes once were. Mousse’s pupils had become a glassy white, showing none of the life and depth they once held. Ryoga could only stare at Mousse in something akin to utter surprise. He knew Mousse had bad vision, but this…
“You’re blind.” Ryoga stared at Mousse for a little longer, looking into his unblinking eyes as the Chinese man simply smirked.
“If you think that it hinders me, then you’re sadly mistaken.” Ryoga barely had time to blink before Mousse was in his face. It was quite apparent to the lost boy now that Mousse had been holding back before as blows literally rained down on his body. Ryoga was forced to hop back from the Chinese man, unable to react with the sheer speed Mousse was exhibiting. Before Ryoga even touched the ground again Mousse was already in his face once more, ready and willing to let loose another barrage of attacks.
“I’m not falling for that again.” Ryoga landed in a defensive stance just as Mousse began to throw an attack. His fist was approaching Ryoga’s face at high speed when suddenly gravity seemed to get angry at him. Before Mousse could complete his attack he was floored, his body suddenly feeling too heavy to move.
‘I can’t sense Ryoga anymore. It’s like he’s all around me.’ Mousse pushed against the ground, trying in vain to fight the sudden weight he felt. He could hear Ryoga was standing over him, but his senses were telling him Ryoga’s aura was everywhere. Mousse was literally lying in the middle of it.
‘He’s created a shield of heavy chi around himself.’ Mousse could hear Ryoga was shifting his weight, lifting his foot and preparing for a kick. His body wouldn’t move under this pressure though. He was completely unable to stop the kick as it took him fully in the ribs and hurled him across the yard. The weight suddenly vanished as Mousse left the heavy aura, disorienting him long enough for him to fail to break his fall as he hit the ground hard.
“That’s a new trick.” Mousse grumbled, returning to his feet. Ryoga’s aura was like a bonfire now with the way he was expelling it out of his body. It was hard not to notice him. With Mousse’s level of chi sensitivity, he imagined he’d be able to track Ryoga from halfway across the city with him using that technique.
“It’s been three years Mousse. I’ve picked up a number of new tricks.” Ryoga began stalking towards the blind martial artist as Mousse stood at the ready, studying this new technique for any weaknesses.
“It seems not even you can move very fast while inside that aura. And with the way you’re bleeding off chi you’d exhaust yourself rather quickly.” Mousse was naming off the obvious hindrances the move brought. The sound of metal scraping against metal could be heard in his sleeve as a large iron ball fell from it. Mousse grabbed it by a length of chain and started to swing it around. “Not to mention, with projectile based attacks it just causes yourself more damage.”
“I can’t move very much, that’s true. And I can keep this up for 4 days. I’ve done it before.” Mousse hurled his ball and chain, aiming for the top of Ryoga’s shield. The ball was caught and dragged down by the increased weight of Ryoga’s aura, but the lost boy dodged back and caught the massive ball before it could smash his head in. “And when it comes to projectile attacks, you really shouldn’t attach them to chains.” Ryoga yanked on the chain, dragging mousse off his feet and towards Ryoga’s heavy aura.
‘Shit,’ Mousse thought, ‘I’ll lose if I’m caught in that aura again.’ Mousse’s sleeves sounded off with a cacophony of metal as an avalanche of death flowed forth from his sleeves. Ryoga wouldn’t stand a chance within his shield. He couldn’t move fast enough to avoid the barrage and with the added weight put on the weapons he’d be dragged to the ground. Forced to drop his shield, Ryoga leapt away from the attack and landed a few feet away. He pulled his belt off in mid jump, causing it to go rigid in his hand and promptly stabbed it deep into the rock solid earth below him.
“Bakusai Tenketsu Zoutei! Ishibou!” Ryoga placed his palm against the ground next to his impaled belt as he called out the attack, causing the rock to crack in a circle around him. With a sudden explosion Ryoga was airborne, his belt now impaled in a long cylinder of stone that was about 3 feet in diameter and about as long as Ryoga was tall. Gripping his impaled belt like a handle with both hands, Ryoga twisted around in the air and brought it down towards Mousse. The blind martial artist dodged to the side, hearing the club put a crater into the ground.
“You’re just full of surprises, Ryoga.” A Chinese long sword shot out of Mousse’s sleeve and into his hand. He held it up and at the ready, hearing Ryoga pull his massive club out of the ground and ready it as well. A rustling of feet, a grunt of effort, quick steps labored by weight. Ryoga was coming at him in a full charge. He could sense the chi that was keeping the belt stiff. It was being held above Ryoga’s own aura. He was coming in for an overhead strike.
“You’ll never hit me with that thing.” Mousse muttered, holding his sword up defensively as he heard the swing of the massive club. He leapt back while simultaneously striking with his own sword. He felt steel meet stone, heard the sparks fly. Mere moments later there was a crash, signifying that Ryoga completed the swing and put another crater in the ground. Mousse readied his weapon again, listening as Ryoga pulled his club out of the ground again.
‘It’s smaller now.’ Mousse thought. His assumption had been correct. Striking heavily against the stone club had cracked it, and when Ryoga completed his swing he broke off a chunk of his weapon. Ryoga looked at his weapon and saw the chunk that had broken off with a bit of annoyance. He needed to stop smacking it against the ground. With another rush he attacked with a horizontal swing, which Mousse parried with his sword. For a brief period both went back and forth, attacking and defending in a dance of steel and stone. Ryoga’s club was rapidly losing shape and Mousse’s sword was becoming chipped and dull. With a shout of effort, Ryoga brought his club around on a homerun swing, just as Mousse attacked with a powerful downward slash. The stone club finally shattered completely, leaving Ryoga’s belt completely uncovered. With the momentum of his swing still behind it, Ryoga slashed with the belt and cut Mousse’s sword in two. Both men jumped back, Ryoga now holding a limp belt and Mousse holding a broken sword.
“Shall we call that one a draw?” Mousse asked. Ryoga just laughed in response.
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A constant tapping sound echoed down the street as Ryoga slowly followed behind mousse, who was feeling his way down the road with a long wooden staff he produced from his sleeve. Ryoga looked to the ground in shame, trying to ignore the sound of Mousse’s stick hitting the ground while simultaneously making sure to not lose track of him. There was something about needing a blind man to lead you somewhere that made Ryoga feel like less of a man. It was incredibly embarrassing.
“So you and Kasumi tied the knot, huh?” Ryoga suddenly asked. He needed to say something to take his mind off the fact that Mousse could find his way around better than Ryoga could, and he had to use a stick to do it.
“Is it really that surprising?” Mousse responded. He didn’t look at Ryoga as he said it. He was blind, after all. Once your eyes stopped working head position meant very little. Aside from the intimidation factor brought on from being glared at through blind eyes, Mousse had very little reason to point his head in any given direction.
“Of course it’s surprising! Three years ago all you did was follow Shampoo around like a love sick puppy. Now you’re suddenly married to Tendo Kasumi with a kid and everything.” Ryoga stated.
“It’s Mu Kasumi now.” Mousse responded.
“Eh?”
“Her name is Mu Kasumi. She took my surname when we married.” Mousse’s stick found the edge of a building and he turned a corner, Ryoga on his heels.
“Your last name is Mu?” Ryoga asked. “What’s your full name?”
“Mu Su Shi. The first symbol is actually my surname.” Mousse responded, still leading the lost boy through the streets of Nerima.
“Your name is Sushi?” Ryoga asked, a bit of a smirk on his face.
“Indeed. That’s why I prefer to go by Mousse.” They turned another corner and continued down the road.
“So what’s your son’s name?” Ryoga felt the need to keep the small talk going, or else he’d have to concentrate on Mousse’s stick again. Mousse turned his head towards Ryoga a little, as if to look at his face despite the fact his eyes were currently closed.
“His name is Akira. Kasumi named him after her grandfather, I believe.”
“So his name is Mu Akira?” Ryoga asked, seeing Mousse nod his head. “Not bad, I suppose. It’s better than Mu Takoyaki.” Ryoga chuckled a bit as he heard Mousse growl a little under his breath.
“Don’t make me hurt you.” Ryoga chuckled again at Mousse’s response, but made no further comments about the Chinese man’s real name. The two of them suddenly stopped in front of a building, Mousse’s hands slowly feeling across the brick of the barrier wall. His fingers found their way to a metal plaque that was attached to the wall. A family name was etched into its surface in intricate Kanji, and just below that were a series of raised bumps. Mousse felts these bumps with his fingers, a brief look of concentration on his face, as if he were trying to interpret them.
“We’re here.” He suddenly said, dropping his hand from the plaque. Ryoga blinked and actually read the kanji on the plaque, seeing that it did indeed read ‘Saotome.’
“So are you going to tell me what really happened on that mountain?” Mousse inquired, “I don’t buy Ranma’s story of a wandering martial artist.” Ryoga looked at the blind man for a few moments, seeing his cloudy eyes were open and seemed to stare right through him. For a few moments he weighed the pros and cons of telling Mousse the truth. He wasn’t sure why Ranma had lied, but he figured it was for good reason.
“Yeah, that was a lie.” Ryoga finally spoke, sighed a little as he did. He saw no reason to lie to Mousse. It was obvious he knew something was up anyway. “A random martial artist didn’t just happen across us. It was Ranma. A male Ranma.” Ryoga told Mousse the whole story. He told him about Horaisan, and the legend of the waters that stood at the bottom. He told him about the fight, and the way the Male Ranma wanted to kill Ranma to absorb her chi. He told him everything.
“…I see.” Mousse muttered, closing his eyes. “What happened to this male Ranma? Where is he now?” Ryoga turned away from the Chinese man and looked to the Saotome home. For a few moments, he just stood there and looked at it, trying to memorize every detail of the building. He wanted to make sure he would recognize it should he happen by here again.
“I don’t know. He might be dead. I think…she killed him.” Mousse just nodded and turned away from Ryoga. He stood there for a long while, still staring at the building as he heard Mousse’s stick taps getting fainter and fainter until he could hear them no more. Yet Ryoga still stood and looked at the building, unable to move any closer or farther away. For some reason, a sudden sense of destiny struck the Hibiki boy. Behind that door was the rest of his life. Should he cross the threshold, he would be changed forever. He was as of yet unsure if he wanted to take that step. His thoughts found their way on his old life, long ago when the only concern he had was vengeance. His live was so much simpler then. Ryoga stood there for a long while, unsure of whether he should step forward or turn back. Finally, after what seemed like half an hour, he approached the door.
“Oh, you’re that Ryoga boy! Please, come in.” Ryoga had knocked on the door and was greeted by Ranma’s mother. He couldn’t help but stare at her in mute surprise as he followed her into the house. She looked so much like Ranma it was almost shocking. The sound of a fight suddenly reached Ryoga’s ears and he glanced towards the living room, seeing the backyard through an open Shoji and spotted the familiar redhead brawling with her father.
“You’re getting slower, girl! You can do better than that!” Genma’s shout was followed by a loud kiya from Ranma. From the way Ranma’s father flew past the door, Ryoga could only assume she kicked him in the stomach with everything she had.
“How long have you been friends with Ranma?” Ryoga turned away from the fight when he heard Nodoka’s question. She had some tea in her hand and presented him with a cup, which he gratefully took.
“Since high school, actually. Ranma and I go pretty far back.” Ryoga answered, drinking a bit of the tea as Nodoka sat down at the table. Ryoga followed suit a few moments later.
“So you knew her before Jusenkyo, then?” She asked. Ryoga nodded. “What are your feelings towards my daughter, Ryoga-kun?” Ryoga opened his mouth and immediately froze. Being put on the spot like that had been completely unexpected. He drank his tea and closed his mouth, unsure of how to put his thoughts into words.
“Ryoga-kun!” Redheaded tackle attack to the rescue. Before he was able to answer Nodoka’s question, he had been thrown to the ground by Ranma.
“You’re slow, Ryoga. You should have been able to dodge that.” Ranma chuckled, offering her hand to the downed Hibiki boy. With a growl, Ryoga got to his feet under his own power, looking rather indignant over the whole incident.
“So, what brings you here?” She asked, looking at Ryoga in obvious curiosity. Behind her he noticed Genma and Nodoka give each other knowing looks before slowly leaving the room.
“Uh…” ‘I wanted to see you.’ “…No real reason.” Ryoga muttered, though his thoughts were on other things. He looked at the girl that stood before him for a few moments, noticing the white gi she was wearing hugged her body in all the right ways. Looking lower, he saw she was wearing the walking cast still.
“You’re fighting on a broken leg?” He asked, an obvious look of worry on his face.
“Hey, just because I have a cast on doesn’t mean I can’t fight. I just kicked pop’s ass, I can kick yours too!” She was pretty annoyed by Ryoga’s reaction. She was still just as tough as ever. She didn’t need his sympathy.
“You couldn’t take me when you were healthy, let alone now. You should go lay down and take your weight off it. You might hurt yourself more.” A punch aimed at his face was his only response, and Ryoga was forced to jump back to avoid it. Ranma wasn’t stopping at that though, she rushed forward for another punch and nailed Ryoga in the chest as the two of them flew out into the yard.
“You can’t beat me, Ranma!” Ryoga growled out, though despite his angry tone he was smirking. Ranma came flying at him with a leaping kick, striking out with her good leg and forcing Ryoga to dodge to the left. She landed and spun, striking out with her broken leg this time and nailed him in the temple. The plastic boot of the cast hurt quite a bit more than he thought it would, but it wasn’t enough to faze him much. Ryoga rushed forward with his own attack, punching at the red haired girl with both arms. She blocked his attacks on handed, suddenly leaping up and catching him in the face with another kick that caused him to stumble back. He didn’t let her get the upper hand though. She was rushing forward to continue her assault just as he brought a leg up for a reverse hook kick. She stopped on a dime and bent over backward, completely avoiding the kick and righting herself immediately. Ryoga’s fist was already on a path to intercept her face, but Ranma proved her speed far exceeded his by ducking the punch with ease. While Ranma’s body went down and avoided his fist, her pigtail stayed put for a brief moment. Ryoga took his opportunity and grabbed onto her hair, preparing to yank Ranma back to her feet. She nailed him in the abdomen before he had the chance, and the two separated.
“You bastard, attacking a girl’s hair.” She muttered. She had attacked him before he could yank on her hair, but he still pulled hard enough to break the string that held her hair in a pigtail. Ranma’s dark red hair now fell freely down her back as she took up an offensive stance, preparing to rush Ryoga. She was off like a bullet, leaping into a series of spinning kicks. She managed to strike Ryoga 3 times with each foot before she had to land, and as soon as she touched down on her good leg she spun around into a vicious roundhouse aimed for Ryoga’s head. Unlike the previous 6 kicks he managed to block this one, however the walking cast on her leg shattered on contact with his arm.
He saw Ranma’s eyes widen as the cast broke apart. The next few moments practically moved in slow motion. The redhead brought her leg down again and flinched the instant she put her weight on it. She lost her balance, falling backward and quickly lanced out a hand and grabbed onto the front of his shirt. Ryoga wasn’t prepared to stop her descent though, and instead he was pulled down with her.
Whump!
For the briefest of moments, Ryoga thought he could hear birds singing in the nearby trees as he gazed down at the woman under him. Once again he found the two of them laying in the grass with him on top of her. He could feel her every intake of breath, felt her breasts barely touching his chest when she inhaled. He could smell the thick sweat she had worked up during her spars, and he could smell her own scent underneath. That sweet, familiar scent that he could identify with ease. As he looked down into her eyes, their faces so close their noses were practically touching, he couldn’t help but smirk. The woman laying beneath him, with her hair spread across the grass like a fine silk, smiled up at him, her eyes locked with his.
There was little hesitation this time. Ryoga kissed her with everything he had.
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The End
Oh man, I spent forever writing this! I really had to struggle to get this out, and I think the quality suffered for it. To be honest, I couldn’t help but feel that I had to top the previous chapter, which proved to be quite difficult.
But it’s over! The story is finished! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. However, there are still many unanswered questions. Whatever happened to the Male Ranma? What exactly did he do to the musk? What happened to the kettle? What will happen with our heroes now that they are finally together? Will I ever answer these questions?
You know, I probably will end up writing an epilogue. So don’t think I’ve abandoned these characters just yet. You may end up seeing them again.
Ryo-Wolf
Disclaimer: Ranma ½ doesn’t belong to me.
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Lost Manhood, Lost Memory
Epilogue
A Glimpse of the Future
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“I've got an idea, Ranma. Why don't you come back to college with me?” Akane asked, a smile on her face.
“W..what? I don't know Akane...” Ranma muttered. She was pretty surprised by the sudden suggestion. She hadn't even considered schooling. She didn't even remember going to high school!
“Come on, Ranma! You've been out of school for 3 years. You have to go back sometime.” Akane chided. “Besides, the new school year will be starting soon. It's the perfect time to enroll.”
“But...I'm not exactly good at book work. Did I even graduate from high school?” Ranma asked. The expression on Akane's face didn't exactly give her high hopes in that regard.
“You shouldn't worry about that, Ranma. There are tests you can take that can give you the equivalent of a high school diploma. With a little tutoring, you should be able to pass easily.” Hinako pointed out. She hadn't exactly been in the conversation, however she felt the need to add her two cents.
“Yeah, Ranma! Hinako's a teacher, she'll be able to help you get in.” Akane got excited again. Ranma was feeling a little awkward now. However, she really didn't have a reason to say no. It's not like she could just stay home with her parents all day, and she was a bit old to go to high school.
“Alright, I'll go with you Akane.”
------
“Wake up, Ryoga.” Ranma insisted, jabbing the slumbering man in the ribs a couple time with her elbow. Normally, she would have just let him sleep, considering it was a long train ride and all. However, he had started to mumble in his sleep, and it was becoming embarrassing to sit next to him.
“Huh, wha?” Ryoga mumbled, sitting up straight and rubbing his eyes. “Where am I?”
“Train to Okinawa, remember? Kasumi and Mousse invited us along to a hot spring resort.” Ranma responded, pointing at the married couple across the isle from them. Mousse was showing Akira a card trick, while Kasumi flipped through a magazine.
“Oh, right.” Ryoga muttered, relaxing into his seat. He spotted a magazine tucked into the pocket of the seat in front of him and picked it up, flipping through the pages in an attempt to find something worth reading.
“What?” Ryoga asked, glancing at Ranma. She had been giving him a weird look ever since he woke up, almost as if she was accusing him of something.
“Who's Sachiko?” She asked, crossing her arms and glancing at Ryoga with that same look. It wasn't exactly a glare, but it certainly didn't look friendly.
“Huh?” Ryoga asked, confused.
“You were talking in your sleep Ryoga. So tell me, Who's Sachiko?” Ranma asked. Ryoga swallowed nervously, giving his full attention back to the magazine. He wasn't about to divulged the specifics of his dream to Ranma. It was far too embarrassing.
“Nobody. Don't worry about it.”
---------
“Oh my God! Ranma, You're alive!” Ranma turned around upon hearing the voice, fairly surprised to see a brown haired woman in a bathing suit and an apron running towards her with her arms open. Before the redhead could properly react, she was enveloped in a tight hug.
“Where the hell have you been? It's been three years you jackass, I thought you were dead!” The woman gushed, openly crying on Ranma's shoulder. For her part, Ranma was incredibly confused. She was also fairly embarrassed about the whole thing.
“Eh, Ukyo? What are you doing here?” Ryoga asked. It seemed his words only drew Ukyo's attention though, as he too was yanked into the fierce bear hug.
“Ryoga, you're here too! It's a miracle!” Ukyo cried out, hugging them both like a barnacle on a ship.
“Ryoga, who is this crazy woman?” Ranma asked, struggling out of Ukyo's hold and looking at the chef like she grew a second head.
“What are you talking about, Ranma? It's me, Ucchan! Don't you recognize me?” She said, looking intently at the redhead.
“Ukyo, Ranma has amnesia. It's why she disappeared for three years.” Ryoga explained. She glanced at Ryoga for a second, a confused look on her face.
“Really? He doesn't remember anything?” Ukyo asked. Ryoga nodded in response.
“Come on, Ukyo. I should probably fill you in on what's happened in the past three years. Wait here Ranma.” With those words, Ryoga grabbed Ukyo by the arm and moved down the path a little ways. Ranma just stood and watched, barely able to hear them talking as Ryoga explained everything to Ukyo. After a few moments, the woman started to glow a bright red, pulled a giant bladed Spatula out of nowhere, and promptly tried to cut Ryoga in half with it while screaming 'You son of a bitch!'
“Huh, wonder why she did that.” Ranma muttered, content in simply watching the enraged chef trying to murder her boyfriend. Too bad she didn't have any popcorn.
----------
“Greetings, Ryoga-dono. It's been quite awhile, hasn't it?” Ryoga spun around when he heard the voice, losing his concentration and ending his practice abruptly. It was no doubt about it, The aged woman behind him was none other than Cologne. Time had not been kind to her, it seemed. Despite the fact it had been a mere three years since he last saw the woman, Cologne looked to have aged 50 years. She had looked fairly old before, but now she seemed ancient, almost decrepit. Ryoga couldn't remember a time in which the elder had ever looked so fragile.
“Old lady? What are you doing here?” Ryoga asked, breathing a bit heavily from his practice. He had originally intended to be a bit more vicious in his response, but her appearance changed his mind immediately.
“I received word that my son in law lives and you think I wouldn't come to see him? You are more foolish than I thought, boy.” Cologne chided, walking slowly across the yard towards a lawn chair that sat nearby. She still moved with the same grace as always, but it seemed that the power had left her body. Ryoga would not have been very surprised if a brisk wind could knock her off her feet.
“However, considering the word we received from the Tendos, it seems you are fairly foolish anyway. To think, you actually are seeking a relationship with my son-in-law. You must have some kind of death wish.” Cologne said simply, chuckling slightly. She leapt up into the lawn chair and seemed to relax, completely unconcerned with her surroundings.
“Death wish? Hate to break it to you, Cologne, but you hardly look like a threat to me right now.” Ryoga responded. Though he made no move to get into a defensive stance, his muscles tensed and his hands formed into tight fists. He wasn't about to be caught off guard.
“Heh, you may be right about that. I'm not the one you should worry about, though. I didn't come here alone, you know.” Cologne answered, coughing a few times lightly into her hand.
“Die!!!” Ryoga spun around like a top, a spike of fear shooting up his spine as he saw the woman that was descending upon his position. She hung in the air, her clothes and hair billowing behind her from the wind while her eyes held nothing but hatred.
Ryoga barely moved in time, rolling across the dew covered grass as Shampoo's sword bit into the space his body had previously been occupying. As her blade moved, it seemed to split everything in its path. The grass, the ground, the wall, even the air itself seemed to part in the wake of her attack.
“Oh, Shampoo, How nice of you to join us.” Cologne muttered, pulling some kind of thermos from her robes and taking a wary sip, not wanting the liquid within to burn her tongue. “You may kill him now.”
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“I don't know if I can take this anymore, Mousse. I mean, Akane has been all but hitting on me since I got here. Then Ukyo showed up, and now Shampoo? I can't keep up.” Ranma muttered, slouching over on the porch. Mousse just sat where he was, his eyes pointing towards the koi pond but not truly seeing anything.
“You left a lot of loose ends when you disappeared, Ranma. It's only natural that you'd have to face them all now that you've returned.” Mousse replied.
“Well, what should I do about it? I'm not a lesbian, Mousse. And I don't really like the idea that Shampoo has tried to murder Ryoga every time he comes back into town.” Ranma was about at her wits end over the whole thing. The girls were nice and all, but this was becoming ridiculous.
“There is something you could do to get them off your back.” Mousse suddenly said, drawing Ranma's attention, “They are only so intent over you because of who you were. You could tell them about the other Ranma. He is who you were.”
----------
“Saffron is a being of fire, Ryoga. He provides heat and light to the people of Phoenix mountain. However, even with all his might, his power is not limitless. He will burn out, as he had many times in the past. And when that happens, he will die and be reborn.” Cologne muttered, coughing a few times. Ryoga looked at her warily, unsure of how to respond.
“Why are you telling me this?” Ryoga asked. The old woman was nothing but a mystery to him. Sometimes she was helpful, sometimes she wanted him dead. He couldn't tell which one she was right now.
“Because Saffron does not retain himself when he is reborn. He loses all his memory, gains an entirely new personality. Whenever Saffron dies, he dies in every sense of the word. When he is reborn, it is someone else that takes his place. I've lived through many Saffrons. He is sometimes kind, sometimes cruel, sometimes insane. He's never the same twice. Saffron knows his time is coming, and he fears it.” Cologne added on. She took a sip of her tea and continued on.
“We've been spying on the people of phoenix mountain ever since they took Jusenkyo from us. It turns out that Saffron has been searching for something. He's looking for a way to...recharge himself, so to speak. And, he believes he's found one.” Cologne paused long enough to take another sip before continuing.
“How he learned of her, I do not know. But there are many phoenix hiding in Japan. They are looking for a woman whose chi burns like fire. Sound familiar?”
----------“Damn it!” Ryoga swore, punching another tree in anger. Why didn't she just listen to him? Why wouldn't she let him explain? No, she had to throw him out the window, and now he didn't know where the hell he was!
“I gotta get back. I have to explain myself, or else she'll never forgive me.” Ryoga muttered. Damn it, it was just his luck she'd walk in on that. He never should have helped that crazy woman and her pig. Then he wouldn't be in this mess.
“You seem as angry as ever, Ryoga.” Ryoga glanced towards the source of the voice, seeing two cloaked figures coming down the forest path. Good, someone who recognized him. That meant he was somewhere familiar, which meant he could get back to Ranma soon.
“Hey,” Ryoga said, pretending to know who he was talking to, “Which way is Tokyo?” The taller cloaked figure chuckled a bit, removing his hood in the process. Ryoga hadn't been able to see his face before, due to the darkness, however now he could see him clear as day.
“It's good to see you again, Ryoga. I trust you've been taking care of my sister?”
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The End. To Be Continued in LMLM: Aftermath.
There it is, the epilogue I promised ages ago. As you can probably tell, it's just a bunch of teaser scenes from the eventual sequel. That's right, I'm writing a sequel.
Don't ask me when it'll premiere, since I haven't got a clue, but it'll take place immediately from where LMLM left off. So those of you who still have this story on your alert list, you might as well take it off. The next time I update this, it'll be as a separate story.
Ryo-Wolf