When he woke he could feel the hot warmth of the sun on his face. Inhaling deeply, he was unsurprised to smell another person beside him. Opening his eyes slowly, his head pounding and body aching to the bone, he looked up at Kagome's dark eyes as she leaned over him, straightening the bedsheets.
"Who am I?" He asked, knowledge and memories he had no personal experience of crowding his head.
"You are still Saotome Ranma, a practitioner of and heir to the Saotome's School of Indiscriminate Grappling(1). But you are also the reincarnation of a half-breed dog demon that was born during Japan's Feudal Era." Kagome explained as simply as she could for now. More detailed explanations could be given later.
"You are also a reincarnation," he stated as he traced a hand along her side, along a scar he knew of, but had never seen. A scar from a centipede demon after a jewel that had been within her body.
"Yes," she breathed, stilling under his touch, "I to, am a reincarnation."
"As we decree it shall be. Two made one. This one soul divided nevermore." He quoted aloud, the words and their meaning echoing deep within his soul. His hands continued to trace the scars he knew her clothing shielded from his sigh.
"You came to our—my—his world through time travel. Together a pack was formed and an evil was defeated. The quest was given to you by the Gods themselves." Ranma mustered with unfocused eyes, "But it cost you and him each other. So the very Gods gave you an oath that the soul bond between you would be fulfilled as they had so long promised."
Kagome nodded at the summary of events that had occurred years ago, her eyes closed. Ranma could feel her trembling against his finger tips.
"Now I have something of dilemma. I understand now why you were so insistent that you weren't Kikyou. You were the same soul, but a different entity. You also didn't have her memories like I have his. And for some reason, his identity feels more natural than my identity now… perhaps it was because I lived for so long as a half-breed demon." Ranma muttered almost philosophically. "And then there's my life now as Saotome…. What do you want me to do Kagome?"
Kagome's eyes gleamed with unshed tears as she looked at him. "The choice is yours to make Ranma-kun. I cannot make it for you."
Ranma nodded, somehow it was the answer he'd expected. Unlike his family and friends that almost seemed to fight over him as if he was some prize to be won, the life Kagome was offering him was preordained. But he had in a previous life actually chosen that path. And that made all the difference of the world to him.
. . .
Kasumi looked with worried eyes from the kitchen doorway at the subdued group that had gathered in her family living room, eyes watching the clock as it relentlessly ticked away time.
Her father and Saotome-kun weren't even making an effort to appear involved in their shōgi(2) game as Nabiki flipped restlessly through one of her many magazines. Most unusually, the three infamous fiancée's were all seated around the table without engaging in all out war, morosely sipping tea.
There was a reason for the gloom that had settled onto the Tendo house and its name was Ranma. He had not returned home last night.
Late last night she'd called Ucchan's(3) first, only to learn from Ukyo that she hadn't seen him. A phone call to the Nekohanten(4)had revealed similar results. Soon afterwards, the two girls had shown up expressing their own concerns over his disappearance.
In the beginning, they had been confident that perhaps he'd been delayed and she'd just been overreacting, then as the night had passed, they had started blaming each other as the reason for Ranma missing status, but as the night had passed into dawn the squabbling between the three young women had halted. Their primary thoughts concerned with worry over Ranma's unexplained absence.
Another day had past and though they'd attended class in the hopes that he to would be at school, when he had failed to appear they had gathered at the Tendo's once again. The sun was beginning to set as night settled and still no sign of Ranma.
Hearing the unexpected snick of the front door being opened, heads swung from watching the clock to the entrance. There was a moment of tense silence before the door was pushed inward to reveal Ranma in the doorframe.
"Ranma!" A mass of voices chorused, anger being the predominate emotion displayed.
The black haired boy flinched mentally and physically from the aggravating volume.
"Where've you been?" Akane demanded crossly as she surged to her feet and glared at him. Ukyo and Shampoo voicing similar demands as they to surged too their feet.
Ranma fixed curiously unfocused eyes in their direction.
Kasumi and Nabiki exchanged curious frowns, each noticing with their own particular awareness, motherly in the first and mercenary in the later, that Ranma appeared… not sick per say, but decidedly… off balance.
Kasumi frowned, yes, 'off balance' was the best way to describe him at the moment. Ranma's skin was pale, grey eyes unfocused, and his face blankly mask-like, a facial expression common in someone that had just received a severe emotional shock.
"Ranma? Are you sick?" Her question brought a surprised halt to the demands being piled upon him by the three girls.
Akane looked at her sister, confused by the question until she really looked at her family's house guest, finally noting what Kasumi and Nabiki had already seen.
"Do you want me to call Dr. Tofu?" Kasumi continued to ask in a motherly tone of concern.
Ranma just shook his head as he finally stepped forward, heading for the stairs at the opposite end of the room that led to the bedrooms.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?"
Ranma just gave a nod, his disconnection from everyone growing more evident.
"Do you want anything to eat?"
Ranma gave another shake of his head as he continued to walk toward the stairs.
Deeply disconcerted by her airen's(5) uncharacteristic personality, the Chinese Amazon turned on Akane, the most convenient source for her anger. "What did mean tomboy do to airen?"
"I didn't do anything to Ranma you idiot!" Akane angrily snapped back, as the two women turned on each other in an attempt to turn the unfamiliar to the familiar, shouting at each other across the table. Her temper spurred, Akane lunged at her purple haired opponent, knocking the kettle of now cold tea water onto the Amazon.
Everyone froze as in a puff the form of the Chinese girl was replaced with a fluffy haired cat who gave a vocally surprised, "Meow."
Heads frantically swung in Ranma's direction. He stood with one foot suspended over the first step.
A feline Shampoo trembled in the puddle of tea water surrounding her as carefully Ranma placed his foot back onto the floor before he turned slowly to look straight at her.
Breaths sucked in, the occupants of the room began to edge away from the pending explosion.
He was unnatural silent, as for the first time that night, his grey eyes really focused on something. Nerve wracking seconds dragged by, as slowly they heard the build up of a low almost canine growl deep in his chest.
Suddenly his grey eyes turned eerie blue as the whites bled crimson. Lips curled back in vicious snarl to bare unexpectedly canine like fangs.
Shampoo, far more sensitive in her cursed animal form, felt the alien presence roll over her in harshly drowning waves, swamping her in pure, unchecked, terror. The aura chokingly strong and menacing even to those who only had their martial artists senses to rely upon.
Kasumi stepped back into the kitchen and seized the pot of simmering water that was always left on the stove since the Saotome's arrival. Whirling around, she dashed the contents across the room straight at Shampoo.
Another puff and the trembling cat became a trembling Amazon.
The… 'presence' vanished. Ranma creased snarling, exhaling heavily as his eyes drifted closed. Wrapping his own arms around his torso, he gave a full body shudder before opening his eyes once again, turning back around and mounted the steps to his room.
The two men and five women left in the room, all deeply shaken by the events that had just occurred exchanged unnerved wide-eyed looks.
Footnotes:
(1) "School of Indiscriminate Grappling" is also referred to as "Anything Goes School," I am personally referencing from Viz manga translation.
(2) Shōgi: n. Japanese chess
(3) Ucchan's: the name of Ukyo's restaurant
(4) Nekohanten: trans. Cat Café, the dinner run by the Chinese Amazons
(5) Airen: (Cantonese) husband
No comments:
Post a Comment