Iria: Zeiram The Animation Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Right Path ❯ The Right Path 3 ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The Right Path
AceTalon
Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi
Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
Iria Zeiram by Keita Amemiya
Chapter 3

Doctor Hashime looked up and down the cut on Ranma's wrist. He
stitched it up and expertly wrapped it up in a bandage. Ranma winced.
Damn that hurt. He nervously tapped his foot on the ground, almost
waiting for the door to be broken down and a monster hissing right
outside. Or a tingling in the back of his neck and a scamper behind
him. He was in a clinic. It was a hell of a lot closer than the
hospital, and the Doc was well known around here for being as good as
any other. The Doc stood up and wiped his brow.

"That was a pretty nasty cut, boy." He turned Ranma's wrist
over and examined his work. "My best work yet," the doctor remarked,
nodding to himself.

Ranma looked at the stitches and nodded his thanks. It was
well done. No wide open gaps or too much thread used. Doctor Hashime
wrapped his arm up in a tight tan-colored cloth to cover the stitches.

"I'm not going to ask you how this happened. One reason people
come to me is because I don't ask questions. All I ask is not to
involve me," he stated coldly. Ranma nodded. Though he knew that this
sort of treatment was inevitable, what with being Mercury, he could
understand that the Doc would not want undesirables coming in and
ruining his business. Ranma expected nothing more.

Ranma paid the man, though he was not exactly stocked with
cash at the moment, and left. The Doc just turned around and went
back to his paperwork. He didn't give a damn about the boy. He got
paid and his reputation would remain as the best doctor that could keep
his mouth shut. These days, number one was all that mattered. It was
the way life worked and would continue to work. All to the benefit of
the queen.

Standing in the street, Ranma sighed in relief as he
recalled that guy shouting out for him to stop. The guy needed
directions to a bar and as a side comment he remarked that Ranma should
get his arm checked and pointed at the building across the street.
That was then, and now the troubled youth was torn between going home
and finding the monster to kill so he wouldn't be worried about being
followed home. Well, that is, if he WAS being followed home. Ranma
laughed for a second. Him, kill the thing? That was a joke! He
didn't even know what was going on. Hell, he didn't even know if
George was ok. All he knew was that something bad was happening, and
he was caught in it.

Ranma walked the streets, seeing people go up and down. There
was a group of guys he liked to hang out with in a group talking across
the street, and they waved to him. He waved back, but didn't join
them. He was still getting paranoid. They could get killed and it
would be his fault if they were. The bandaged youth walked a little
faster. They'd also notice the bandage on his arm, and he didn't
want to explain that.

"Dammit," he cursed. "I can almost hear that little freak
crawling on the roof." He looked up with irritation plastered all
over his face. "It just had to happen to me, didn't it?" He asked
himself with a touch of anger. "Me, the loner. The outcast. The guy
who had too much personality to fit in. I'm the one who's cursed to
go running around looking over my shoulder when I'm three days away
from making the most important decision in my life." He chuckled,
which was somewhat ironic. He didn't want the thing hunting him down
when it stood on George, but now it was.

Ranma turned the corner and ran into someone. He muttered an
apology and kept walking, not bothering to look. Until that same
someone spoke to him in a deep voice.

"Hey kid," he said. "You don't look so good. Get into a fight
or something?"

Ranma looked up. It was one of the Mercury knights. The
security force on the planet. This guy looked nothing like the two
fakes he ran into before. This guy was a trained fighter. And he
startled Ranma, who covered his stitched wrist with his hand.

"N-no, I just cut myself," he stammered. "Nothing serious. I
need to get home now." Ranma backed up a few steps before walking
away. He did not want to talk to the planetary guard now. Too many
questions and not enough answers. He had to get back to the high
school. Screw going home.

The guard, also named Joe, just looked on with suspicion. No
one was that nervous without hiding something. That guy who gave him
a word of warning about a boy with a bleeding wrist was true. The location
was even the exact spot the stranger said it would be. He adjusted his
sword belt and followed Ranma at a distance. If he got too close then
Ranma was sure to hear the clanking of his armor.

********************************************

Elder Mercury tapped her delicate finger on her throne.
Boring, as usual. Life was never as enjoyable as she could have hoped,
but there wasn't anything she could do about it. She turned to the man
to her left, sitting on a small stool who was holding his head in pain.
Maeda, the advisor, had a hangover.

"It isn't as if it matters at all," thought Mercury. "There
isn't anything important for him to do anyways. I can manage my own
planet."

"Advisor, is there anything on the schedule to do for today?"
She asked in a somewhat tired voice. There was nothing more irritating
than to following court etiquette for the sake of the court. She
herself could run this place much more efficiently, but that would
leave her vulnerable. She needed a scapegoat for safety's sake.

"No my queen, there is not,"Maeda said, grimacing. Half a bottle
next time, the middle-aged man who wasn't in his drinking prime was
thinking as he massaged his temples. "Your notice has been sent.
Anyone spreading rumors about the monster will be arrested." He drank
a cup of wine next to him. When in doubt, drink some more. The stuff
wasn't as good as sherry, but it'd do. The haughty ice queen just
looked at him, disgusted at her advisor's apparent alchohol addiction.

"There's hasn't been any rebel activity recently either. A
pity too, I was hoping to do some more research on the rebel's
behavior," she thought absently. A ring on her left hand glowed
briefly, and Mercury sat up. Someone was coming. The ring was an early
warning sign that someone new had entered the premise.

Soon, a troupe of guards marched in and Maeda made a half-
hearted effort to pay attention, but a sudden wave of nausea hit him
and he collapsed back into his chair when he tried to stand. Mercury
ignored him.

"My queen," said the Captain, paying homage to the ruler of the
planet. The rest of the soldiers followed suite, kneeling to the queen.

Mercury waved off the court etiquette. "Yes yes," she replied
irritably. "What is it?"

"Trouble." The captain stood up, but the rest held their positions.
"We have reports from the...guards...stationed in one of the towns. They
have spotted a boy disrupting the peace. The rumor about the monster."

"Strange, the royal notice was put up only yesterday too," she
thought. "So? Why does this matter require the notice of the queen then?"
She said aloud. "Just find the boy and throw him in the town jail."

"My queen, there's more. We have not found this boy, but instead
an old man."

"And?"

"This old man looked as though he was nearly gutted on the spot.
There was a rather large puncture on his chest and he was breathing
rapidly." The captain paused to wipe his brow. Now came the disbelief.
"The old man said he was attacked by a monster. The one terrorizing the
galaxy."

"What?!" Mercury stood up, eyes flaring. The captain cowered
under her gaze and the rest of the squad were gauging the distance from the
throne to the door, wondering nervously just how quickly they could escape
if she got mad. Or madder, as she already seemed to be mad. "Continue!"
She demanded. The queen must know more about this. If it was true, or just
some rumor, she had to know.

"Th-there's not much else to say," stammered the Captain. "We've
brought the man with us and threw him in the dungeon. We figured that you
would want to question him like the others."

"Others?" Mercury glared at him. Did he dare suggest that there was
evidence before now about an infamous monster that terrorizes an entire
galaxy and never spotted once ever leaving the planet it was rumored to have
attacked on?

The Captain's face turned white. "No," he protested. "My apologies,
my queen, we meant that we suspected him to be a rebel."

"Really?" she settled down into her seat. "And what brought on this
flash of insight?"

"He wears the symbol of the Furies on the inside of his shirt. It was
a chance discovery, while we checked his wound. And he was working as a
janitor."
The Furies was a galaxy-wide organization. It was well known as a
supporter of the rebel cause, but no one had found any permanent trace
that they were what was thought of them. With many buildings on several
planets, they were well-entrenched in the industry of the planets that
they were situated on. The government could not rid themselves of these
suspicious buildings without severe consequences. The disgruntlement of
the peasants would further increase, because the Furies mainly dealt with
the lower and middle classes. The gap that separated the two would be
larger. The economy and the industry would be dealt a severe blow and
might totally collapse.

Nevertheless, they were carefully watched. This was the first time
ever that one was caught doing business outside their, well, business.
A school janitor was not the type of work they did.

"Very good. I commend you and your men, captain." Mercury tapped
a slender fingernail on the armrest. What to do, what to do. The soldiers
all had a smirk on their faces; with a compliment from the queen good
things were sure to happen. "Your new task is to find this boy. I will not
allow him to spread discontent through the city. This meeting is over."
The queen nodded to her advisor, who understood what he needed to do and
hurried off.

"Action, huh?" snorted one of the soldiers, elbowing his companion.
"Yeah, finding a needle in a haystack would have as much action as this!"

"All right, so I was wrong," grumbled the companion sourly. "Not
like anything happens around here anyways, unless its some damn revolt
or something."

******************************************************

The high school was empty, only a spot of blood on the ground to
show that anyone had ever been there. Ranma collapsed on the ground and
trembled. Where the hell was George? There was no way the old man could
walk away on his own with a frickin hole in his stomach. Granted, it
didn't seem immediately life threatening, but still...

The old man was hurt...or worse... and it was probably Ranma's fault.
He didn't mean to, didn't even know if it really was his fault, but it
seemed like it and thats all that mattered. The guilt was there, for
reasons imagined or not.

School hadn't even gotten out. They were still there, the students,
oblivious to their surroundings, oblivious to anything that didn't concern
them. It was really surprising, that no one had even bothered to look out
the window just once out of boredom. That's all he needed right now; for
someone to look out the window and find him crouching over a stain of blood,
with a bandaged arm. The seemingly average paranoid pigtailed noble stood
up. There was nothing left to do but wait. George said three days.

Ranma cursed. "Damn that monster," he swore under his breath as he
walked out the school gates. "I don't even know if George set the meeting
point now. I might be stuck here forever alone because of a chance
meeting with fate. Fate who walked on four legs with claws long enough to
decapitate me with a single strike."

The school seemed like a distant shadow now. It was fast becoming
an unwanted memory. Ranma would probably never see it again after the
day was out.

************************************************************* *****

The guard, Joe, that had followed Ranma backed up into an alleyway.
Well, this was certainly new. A spot of blood at the school, and the boy
was a part of it somehow. A murderer, maybe? Joe rubbed his chin as he
thought. This boy...there was something strange about him. He was
paranoid, most likely. The way he was always on the lookout. But
besides that, he looked like he knew something. Something important.

Being a guard for several decades, he'd learned a few tricks while
wandering the streets. A good judge of character was almost necessary for
a town guard on the lookout for thieves and such. It was at times like
this
that it really came in handy.

He didn't normally do things like this, but Joe had an uneasy feeling
about that kid. It didn't settle well with him.

************************************************************* ********

Maeda couldn't believe it. His own son. It was his own flesh and blood
that was running amok trying to spread discontent around. It had taken a
bit
of work, more than a little actually, what with all the crap that was going
on
in the cities and villages, but it had been worth it. Or hadn't been,
depending on how one looked at things.

"My son, how could you? I had such high hopes for you...at least you
could have gone out and had some fun before trying to ruin your families
name,"
he said sadly. "Oh well, there aren't many babes in jail, but you're gonna
have to improvise, son. Or something."

Maeda decided to make some preparations. Might as well get it over
with. If luck was with them, Maeda and Uriko would have permission to have
another child by the end of the week. Better to start early than late.

************************************************************ *********

"Time for another "lesson in life" from the parents," Ranma thought as
he looked up the house. Strangely, there weren't any lights lit. What was
going
on?

The entire house was dark. The icicle's hung with a dark foreboding
glimmer.

The paranoid youth put his ear to the wall, but heard nothing. Especially
paranoid, after the disapearance of George and the disapearing monster.

What was there to hear anyways? What did he expect to hear? His mother
scratching away at a piece of paper with her pencil, making plans on her
life, his
life, and his fathers life? His father, a drunken lush who happened to
stumble
upon the job as the queen's advisor, the most vulnerable job that could be
had in
the royal court, drinking and moaning about how life dealt him a sorry hand?
Or
himself, bitching about life being 'wrong'? Thats what he saw himself as
right now.
Bitching about life. About how it didn't work out the way he wanted so he
was
leaving.

For his whole life, next to the crap his parents put him through, nothing
had ever worked out. His school life was hell. No one had physically tried
to push
him around, he wasn't the type to be bullied. No, it was worse, as if he
didn't
exist. Was it better to be hurt and acknowledged, or ignored and forgotten?
Ranma
wasn't given the choice, it was already made for him. The teachers barely
acknowledged him, besides to tell him to wait in the hall. They didn't
respond to
any of the students, who had learned this lesson early on and asked nothing.

Life beyond school was nothing. He went to a gym to work out and play
some sports, but those that he called friends weren't exactly friends
anyways. Just
acquaintances that would acknowledge him and were a little warmer to him
than
people were to strangers. And that was the story of Ranma's life. Nothing.

Except for now. Ranma heard something squeaking. It faded to silence
as the moments passed.

"Strange," Ranma thought, pressing his ear to the door. "What was that?
I'm almost positive we don't have talking rats in the house. Is Pops moving
some
furniture? Nah, the old guy would probably break his back."

He opened the door. There was nothing, except a few torches lit that
gave off a dull glow that enveloped the large room, but gave off little
warmth.

Something was setting Ranma's nerves on edge. Or maybe it was just
the events of the day, but he slowly made his way up the stairs instead of
bolting up
the stairs to his room. There was someone drinking in his room, heavy
drinking,
because Ranma could smell the brandy from halfway up the stairs, and the
light in
his room was the only light at the top of the stairs.

"Dad, what the...what are you doing drinking in MY room?" Ranma
asked, exasperate. He didn't want to sleep with the smell of brandy
everywhere.

Ranma opened the door, and on the table sat his dad. He was not only
drinking, but he was smoking. Dammit, the old man was trying to get him to
move
out or something by making his room smell like crap!

"Hey Pops, just what do you think your doing drinking and smoking in my
room?" Ranma asked, more than a little irritated.

"Well son, the drinking and smoking is to prepare me for what I'm going
to tell you." Maeda took a deep draft from his cigar before continuing.

"Son, you know me and your mother have always loved you. We always
wanted the best for you, and although our views may have been different, we
both
have shown you how much we care."

"Care? Yeah, you've shown me that much. You didn't blink an eye when
I nearly commited suicide because of depression for crying out loud! Nor
have you
ever said anything besides 'get laid' and you expect me to believe that you
care?"
Ranma thought angrily. He bit his tongue and waited for the rest of the
lecture.

"But now we're going to have to let you go."

"What? Back that up. You're letting me go? You make this sound like
I was just fired from a job!"

"Well, not quite. Son, you've been charged with criminal activities.
Whatever it was you were doing today was against the law. So this will be
our
last goodbye."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT OLD MAN?!"
He screamed, clenching his fists and walking up to face Maeda. "I was
attacked!
I needed help, and thats a criminal activity?"

"Well...I guess so." Maeda picked up the nearby bottle and drank half of
it in a gulp. He wasn't exactly reasoning at that point. "Sorry son, but
its the only
way I can keep my job. It is your own fault, but maybe if your mother and I
had
taught you better this never would have happened..."

It was at that moment, from behind the curtains, from behind the door, and
from the corner far corner, three men fully decked out in plate mail
appeared, each
holding a short sword and a knife in their belts.

"...but there is nothing to do now but bid you a farewell. You are
disowned from this family, boy. You will have no more contact with it this
family
or its inhabitants." With that problamation Maeda finished off his third
bottle
of alchohol, this one whiskey. "Well, now disowned son, you're going to
jail.
There aren't any girls there, but I'm sure you'll improvise or something."

"That fat drunken bastard!" Ranma swore silently. Even thought the old
man was his father, the man he'd known his whole life, he wanted to kill
him, hurt
him, anything. The man had broken the trust he ever had in his family, no
matter
how much he disliked his family. Except now he couldn't do anything.

Ranma looked around. He was surrounded, the door was blocked and the
only other way out was the window, which was a from the second floor. More
actually, since he was lucky enough to have his window hang over a cliff
that would
add another floor to the fall, and the snow wasn't likely to break his fall
at all.
No way out. But maybe...

"Screw you all, and screw the law!" Ranma yelled, picking up a chair and
throwing it at the nearest guard. Ranma rushed past the guard, bending low
as to
avoid any reaching arms, as the chair impacted with the guard's arm. The
guard in
front of the window braced himself and held his weapons ready, thinking that
Ranma
was planning on tackling him out the window over the edge.

Ranma might have been thinking that, but he quickly changed the plan when
the guard protecting the window stood ready. Acting quickly, he picked up
an empty
bottle off the ground and threw it at the guard's head.

The bottle shattered and the guard winced, but little else happened as the
guard was wearing a helmet. However it did distract him long enough for
Ranma to
knock him to the side and leap out the window.

Maeda took a step forward, startled that Ranma would prefer death or
permanent incapacitation, for there was no medical care in jail, over giving
up
quietly.

Ranma was not planning on going to jail. He grabbed the branch that was
just out of sight below the window and swung down to ground level.

Too bad Ranma had no training in such tactics. He had probably
dislocated a wrist or a joint, not to mention a bruising upon landing,
rather
badly at that. He had strained both his arm muscles and they hurt like hell
too. He wasn't prepared for the sudden halt in momentum that the tree
branch
brought. The bandage around his injured hand started turning red again.
Still, It was better than being arrested. He could still run too, which was
a
plus.

Too bad he didn't know there was a guard named Joe that had been
following him from town.

"Infidel!" Joe yelled. He drew his sword. "I knew there was something
amiss when I saw you in town. Now surrender, or die!"

"I just get all the luck," Ranma muttered. Too bad, this time he didn't
have a chair or bottle to distract the guy. Oh well, time to do things the
old
fashion way.

"Hey look, a three headed monkey riding a spoon!" Ranma pointed
behind Joe.

"Huh? What?" Joe turned around confused, and Ranma bolted. Joe
would never catch him now, with his the bulky armor. Ranma took advantage
of
his short lived head start and ran like the wind in the opposite direction.

"Shit!" Joe cursed. He looked up. The guards couldn't see him, but
they'd
hear him.

"He'd headed for the woods to the south!" He shouted to the window
as he ran to the nearest stable. He'd get to the nearest town and alert the
militia.


******************************************** ****************************

Ranma didn't care about family. He didn't care about some damn monster.
He didn't care about being alone for so long. Right now all he cared about
was
escaping from the ones that chased him. If they caught him, he'd be thrown
in
prison.

Ranma remembered some of the things George had told him. The rumors.
People that went in never came out the same way as before. Would the same
thing
happen to him, too? Or would he be killed? Imprisoned for life?

None of the choices sounded very desirable, which was why Ranma was
still running.

Ranma made his way through the woods, weaving left and right to avoid
running into any trees. He knew the area like the back of his hand. Well,
the
hand that didn't have 16 stitches in the the wrist at least.

Weaving around the trees Ranma ignored everything. He had to keep his
mind focused on one thing: to escape. He still did not know what had gone
awry
in his life.

It would take him a half an hour of looking over his shoulder and forging a
path through the powdery snow to reach the town he was trying to get to.
Once
there, Ranma would have to figure out what to do.

************************************************************** *

Queen Mercury slouched on the chair. No one was there, and it was unlikely
that anyone would be coming anytime soon. Nothing left to do. She decided
to
visit her daughter. To check up on her studies and such. Queen Mercury
walked to
the royal bedroom, where Princess Ami spent most of her time.

Ami was in her young adult life. The girl was very intelligent from what
the
tutors had said. She was going to finish schooling by the time all the
others of
her age were starting college. The one problem was that she hadn't been
exhibiting
any skills in ruling a planet whatsoever so far. That would probably come
with age,
but the Queen didn't know if her daughter's attitude was right for ruling.
Ami's
personality was too much an intellectual and not enough of a take charge
type. The
queen knocked on the door to announce her arrival.

"Yes mother?" Ami looked up from the book she was reading. Some sort of
sappy romance novel.

"Hello, Ami. I just came by to see how you are doing."

"I've finished my studies for the day, if that is what you are referring
to."

"No dear, I just want to know how you are doing. What do you do in your
spare time these days? What activities do you like to do? That sort of
thing."

"Well, mother, my first and foremost hobby has always been to read. It's
been
that way since I was in elementary school. For what I do, I like learning
how to do new
things, then try them out."

"Such as?"

"Magic."

"Oh." Queen Mercury wasn't sure if she wanted Ami to learn magic yet.
Magic was not easy to learn, nor control. If Ami already knew how to cast
spells by
now, then she's be a danger to many people. Or maybe...she was the next
Senshi?
"Can you cast spells yet?" Ami shrugged.

"Only minor ones right now. I'm having trouble with some spells."

"That's quite an achievement in itself, to cast spells at all." Again, Ami
shrugged as if to say 'nothing to it'. "I hope keep up the progress. You
may be
destined for great things later on." Leaving that thought hanging, Queen
Mercury
left the room. Ami went back to her studying. She knew nothing of Senshi
or these
'great things' her mother was talking about. She'd worry about it later.


Outside, A figure cloaked in darkness crouched by the window. He'd spent a
great deal of time and energy getting this close to the queen. He hoped
that it
hadn't been wasted. So far, he'd heard some interesting things, but nothing
enough
to warrant the hardships it had taken him to get to the palace.

"So the princess is a natural spellcaster," the cloaked man mused. "Maybe
she
isn't tainted by the same curse her mother is inflicted with. If not, she
may be a
senshi."

Not so much a curse as a personality makeover. No one really knew what had
happened to the queen. The queen had not been entirely changed; she still
acted the
same way as always towards her daughter.

The man dressed in black, so as to hide in the shadows, crept up to the
next
window. His magically enhanced hearing trying desperately to pick up
information
that could help him.


"My queen!"

A guard ran down the hall and stopped to kneel in front of Queen Mercury.
She
gestured for him to stand up.

"Yes, what is it?"

"The boy, the one from the school, has escaped!"

"What?!"

"He's inside the Frozen Woods and is making his way towards the town. I
don't
know the name."

"Send a squad to patrol the town. This boy will be found." The queen
gritted
her teeth. She really didn't care about a snot nosed kid telling tall
tales. It was
a matter of principle. If anyone found out what this boy was doing, that he
was
disobeying the most recent law, than others might try also just to spite the
royalty.
If any of the royalty found out, it would undermine her political power.
Those
bloodsuckers were experts at taking the smallest story, rumor even, and
using it to
topple the most powerful of families. "Move it!" She barked.


"Something useful for once," the man in black murmured. The boy...the one
George had been talking about? The old man was, by all accounts, still
working at the
school where the boy went. If something had come up, George would have been
the
first to know and have told them. It couldn't have been that boy. Whoever
it was must
have been pretty gutsy to have pulled off a stunt to do something that
angered the queen.
Intruiged, the man in black decided to take another step forward. He wanted
to know
who this boy was.

The man climbed the side of the palace, placing himself between a wall and
a tree, he 'walked' up the wall. He needed to hear more. Right now he
wasn't satisfied
with the bits and pieces he already had.


The queen paced her room. Damn those fools! If only they had been doing
their jobs right this wouldn't have happened. What kind of rabble was
recruited for
the guards anyways? She summoned another guard to her room. The guard
awaited her orders.

"I need you to keep an eye on Maeda. He must be dealt with if he causes
any trouble."

"My queen?"

"The man is the father of the criminal. He may act rashly if something
does
not happen quickly. We must be prepared if that does happen, for his own
good."

The guard saluted, then left. The queen sat down and sighed heavily. She
didn't need to stupid buffoon to run the government, but there were times
where she
wished she could place some of the burden on top of him so she could think
with a
clearer head. It was too bad that it had to be Maeda's son to break away.


"Maeda...Maeda...who is that?" The man tapped his chin. "Oh yeah, isn't
he the...queen's advisor? What about him? The father of the criminal?
That means
his child..."

The man slapped his forehead in exasperation. The answer was obvious;
Maeda's son was the boy George had been talking about, and he was on the
run.
But why hadn't George told them anything? If anything wrong had happened,
he was
the one who should have alerted them. Maybe he was mistaken. Maybe it
wasn't the
one and the same boy George had been talking about. The man really wanted
to stay
and wait for some more information, but his intuition was telling him that
something
was wrong, that there was a reason George hadn't told them anything.

"Damn," he thought. "We were hoping that we wouldn't need to take him
for another couple of days. George told us he was near to become ready, but
the
boy has no choice now. Time to go rescue some punk kid." The man made sure
his
boots were tied tightly and ran across the courtyard, avoiding the guards
and leaping
over the palace walls. "Why do I always have to be the babysitter?" He
asked himself
belatedly.


"This isn't happening to me!" Ranma yelled out. He was running down the
street, with a wild look in his eyes. That may very well have been because
from all
around him there were men in armor everywhere, ready to throw him in jail or
kill him
him if he resisted. Well, he was resisting, so jail wasn't much of an
option. "Not
happening, not happening, not happening!" Ranma skidded to a hald and
rounded a
corner. Definitely a bad day.


"He's headed down the alley!" Someone cried out. There were people
everywhere, staring at him and pointing.

"Why can't anyone in this place mind their own business?" Ranma thought
furiously. "I swear, its as if they never saw someone being chased by an
army of
guards."

Ranma lost track of which street he ended up in after turning left, then
right,
then right again, and so on, and eventually just kept running in a straight
line,
running and hoping to lose them.

He should have realized that it was hopeless. After a couple minutes at
running as fast as he did, Ranma was getting tired, fast. His breathing
quickened
and he stopped in another random alley to catch. A hand snaked out and
wrapped
around the surprised boy's neck from behind. Ranma, surprised, flailed
about and tried
to cry out.

"Shut up, you stupid brat! You'll attract their attention," The voice
whispered urgently.

Ranma stopped struggling and calmed down. The guards passed by and the
hand relaxed. Ranma turned around to see this mysterious person. The man
snorted.
>From look the guy was giving him, like the grimace you get when you eat a
bad meal,
he wasn't at all satisfied with what he saw in Ranma. Ranma, aware of the
scrutiny,
narrowed his eyes and his posture changed to a more arrogent stance. Who
was this guy
to judge him anyways?

"You the boy George was talking about?"

"George? The high school janitor?"

"Yes, him. Are you that...kid he was talking about?"

"I suppose..." Ranma was wary of this man. He could tell right now that
he
wasn't in the man's good graces.

"Come with me, unless you're planning on dying here." The man
turned to the shadows.

"Wait a second! Just who are you? How did you know I'd come here?" The
man
turned around.

"Do you really have time for these meaningless questions? Your going to be
hunted
down like a criminal-no wait, you already are being hunted, and most likely
executed if you're
caught. I'm not going to stay here to coddle you and make you feel safe,
risking my own life
doing it. Either follow me or die."

"You had better be worth it, kid," He stated before he walked
into the shadows of the nearest frozen building in sight.

Ranma cursed and kicked the wall. He didn't have any choice here. The man
was
right. There was no time for questions. So Ranma walked into the shadow,
fully prepared to
hit a brick wall.

He didn't.

"What the?!" Ranma exclaimed before missing the first step of the stairs
and
falling down long row of jutting rocks before landing on his side. "Oww..."
He mumbled

As he looked up, the sight that greeted him wasn't very friendly. A small
tunnel,
barely large enough to stand in, led into the gloomy darkness. A single
torch, which the the
mystery man lifted from his sconce, was the only illuminating source of
light.

"Get up, boy. The sooner we leave the better." His cold words were tinged
with
impatience. Mr. cloaked man didn't even bother to look around or wait for
Ranma to stand
before walking into the darkness.

"H-hey, wait up!" Ranma stood to his feet unsteadily and ran to catch up.

Behind him, unknowingly, the small, dog-like creature stared at the tunnel
with its
beady eyes. It leaped down to the ground level from the stairs and stalked
its prey stealthily.


"Hurry up, boy." The man quickened his pace, eager to see this mission
over with.

"Would ya stop calling me boy?" Ranma asked, irritated. He hurried to
catch up.
"I have a name you know."

"Not one that I care to know, so keep quiet." the man didn't even turn
around as he
coldly stated this.

"Bastard," Ranma muttered under his breath. He desperately wanted to
counter this
arrogant jerk's statement about himself with what he could do, except the
problem was that he
didn't have the skill to back it up. "Someday I'll show you, and shove
those words down your
throat."

He didn't have much time to dwell on his imagination of physically shoving
words
down the man's throat. A gloved hand blocked his path and he stopped
walking abruptly.

"We're here." He said.

What 'here' was wasn't much. A small room with a mirror. Ranma expected
people;
he expected a giant room with torches lighting the entire place, or maybe
magical globes of light
hanging from the ceiling. What he got was a small cramped room with a
tarnished mirror.

"Well, I guess I shouldn't have been expecting anything anyways," He
thought dourly.
"Who knew that I'd be a convict running away from the royal guards? Or that
my father was
such a pansy? Or that I would nearly break my arms falling out of that
tree? Or that that...
THING would chase me from school." He still shuddered at the memory of it.
"Come to think
of it, the thing just ran off. Where did it go?"

The answer came to him, literally, as he felt a heavy weight slam down on
his
shoulders. Ranma cried out in shock and surprise, hitting the ground hard.
It hissed and stared
into his eyes, showing no emotion whatsoever in those black, pupil-less
orbs. Ranma knew he
was going to die when he saw the shadow of scythe-like claw in the light of
the flame draw
back. All that crap he'd just been through and he'd die now. The claw came
down in a fast,
swishing motion and Ranma closed his eyes

His yell of pain drew the man's attention.

"Stupid boy," He muttered to himself. He drew a thin, shining object out
of his pocket
and stuck both ends into the wall. He reached behind him to halt the
claw's descent and gripped
it.

"You're more trouble than your worth," He stated coldly, throwing the
beast in front
of him. The beast fell, but didn't hit the ground. The shining object the
man had attached to the
walls was a thin wire, and the beast was right on top. A little more weight
and the wire would
cut right through him.

The man did just that by bringing his foot down upon the monster, slicing
it in half.

"Wh-who are you anyways?" Ranma was stunned. This guy had just killed
that
creature in less than a minute without breaking a sweat!

"Heh. Just call me Bob." Bob picked up his metal wire and pocketed it.
"Put your
hands on the mirror." He reached into his sleeve and brought out a tiny
glass bead, which he
crushed and dropped the powder to the ground.

Ranma watched with curiosity. With his attention turned to the bead, he
didn't notice
that the old, dull mirror had lost its reflective quality and reflected the
image of another room.
Or that he could walk through it. With Ranma's sudden loss of support he
fell forward face first.

"...Next time, warn a guy, will ya?" He muttered, rubbing his nose.

"Feh! Its your own fault for not paying attention." Bob walked over Ranma
and
grabbed his arm, pulling him up. "Say goodbye to Mercury, because you won't
be seeing it for
a long, long time, if ever."

Ranma looked backward at the rapidly dulling mirror. The image slowly
faded back
to reflect the room, and with it faded Ranma's worries. He was no longer on
Mercury, and he
could have a fresh start.

"Don't get soft on me now, boy. We still have to leave Venus, and it's not
gonna be
that easy as this was."