Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Being Lost: Ryoga's New Beginning ❯ Anger, Fear, Wounds, and Words part 2... ( Chapter 4 )

Being Lost: Ryoga's New Beginning

 

Chapter 3; Part 2

 

The Sun crested timidly over the rough mountains to the east. Afraid that it would awaken the inhabitants of the small village that lay beyond them and causing a repeat of the previous days actions. At the edge of the trees, there slowly appeared a lone figure. He had a way about him that made him seem so unremarkable that had even a single other person been there, he would have been overlooked entirely. He wore black sweatpants covered with holes and patches, and a grey short-sleeved shirt with the pattern of a spider web on the front and three parallel slashes on the sleeves. His limbs were small and gangly, his head was bald and his eyes possessed almost no color. Panting and straining, he drug behind him with his left hand a backpack that vastly outweighed him. In his right was a red lacquered-leather and bamboo umbrella that was just as heavy.

 

“Where is it… must find…” He stopped and peered forward across the empty field, and saw the village in the distance. For the second time in his life (or as far as he could remember) he was overjoyed. `Someone there can help me find that noise.' He thought to himself. With that, he dropped his load and began running toward the nearest structure. Before moving even 3 steps his fatigue stopped his legs in mid-stride and he fell onto his face. A large crack resounded through his ears and his face suddenly felt warm. As he pushed himself up, something fell onto his left hand. He looked down and saw it was completely red. `What… how…'He turned his hand over and his palm quickly started to change its color as well. His face continued to heat up and began to feel sticky. Acting on reflex his right hand brushed at the irritation and his nose was pushed violently to the side as the blood was only smeared around. The pain screamed from every limb, every scratch, every fiber of his being for rest; but to him, rest meant death. `Find someone, anyone… then rest…” With his hands, sore and covered in dirt and blood, he dragged himself toward the nearest structure.

 

* * *

 

Jun'ko never had gotten to sleep that night, not for a single minute. He had been (and was) far too angry. And of course, now that he was out of time to sleep, he finally felt tired. In that single night, he had invented as many ways to kill Ryoga as Ryoga had in a year of hunting Ranma. Not bothering to change his clothes he gathered up his tools and went out to his old job to begin tilling the fields. “Eighteen years of fighting for scraps of respect and I'm back to where I was. Absolutely perfect!” He shouted to no one in particular, but loud enough to ensure most of the village would hear him.

 

The crop fields were always soft and fertile, whatever they planted hardly ever needed any attention. They just sprung out of the ground at harvest time like clockwork. Jun'ko set his tools aside and tested the ground with a finger “I can do this by hand.” Slowly and gently he began to till the soil, the lifeblood of the village. It was relaxing; it calmed his mind and allowed his thoughts to wander. The few pets he'd had in the past, his father, building his own hut, moving into the headman's house, organizing the town militia (he started to dig deeper), his supposed moment of Glory when he charged a demon by himself (the line of soil began to become jagged), his being defeated (soil began to fly through the air), losing his position because of Juronai. His hand caught a large root and he ripped it out of the ground in a rage, tearing a deep and jagged line across the ground. It broke off in his hand and he hurled it at the ground screaming “DAMN YOU!”

 

Coming to his senses he surveyed the damage quickly. After a moment of contemplation he thought to himself, `Wow, Juronai can go to some real extremes to get revenge. Too bad he'll have to fill it back up again since I caught him doing it.' He smiled to himself and looked up just in time to see someone slowly crawling into the Headman's house.

 

* * *

 

Slowly, he closed the door behind him and looked around. The room was a mess, wood chips, pieces of metal, pieces of cinders and ash littered the floor. But there was something else on the floor. Its colors were different than the rest of the house. He crept across the floor and knelt down to look closer.

 

He identified the colors as: blue, pink, yellow, and gold. Something in his head told him he should touch it. His hand reached up and brushed the material, it was soft and warm. As he brushed it with his palm, something shifted and it fell to the side, exposing Satsuki's face. His hand shot to his chest as something inside him was wrenched and pulled violently. His breathing quickened, but not from fatigue; his heart raced, but not from fear. His mind began to cloud again, but not in the way it had been before. He reached down slowly and ran his fingers through her hair; with every passing second, his face was being drawn to hers.

 

* * *

 

Ryoga reached up and cupped the chin of his son, wiping away a tear. “Don't cry Ryu, It's a part of life. Mine has been happy and full, and I have no regrets.” Ryu opened his eyes and gazed despairingly at his father. Even in his old age he still seemed ready to conquer the world. No one knew why he was dying, Ryoga believed it to simply be his time to go.

 

“But dad…”

 

“No `but's' Ryu, no one can cheat death.” Ryoga Smiled.

 

“I don't understand though. What about that pig curse of yours?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“And your lack of direction, your fickle heart, Ranma getting your bread, never beating him, Akane hating you for being P-chan, that time you…”

 

“OKAY! I get it! God, I'm on my freakin' deathbed and you have to make me feel pathetic.”

 

“Well if you don't like it so much, then why not just wakeup?”

 

“What are you,” Ryoga's words slurred off into morning-mouth babble as he pealed his consciousness back to the real world. In truth, neither one world nor the other was fairly appealing at the time. As his vision focused, he saw that someone was leaning over the girl who had freaked out the previous night. “Hey!” he snapped. The person jumped back from the girl and stared back at Ryoga, his face, hands, and shirt, along with the girl's shoulders face and hair were smeared with blood. “What did you do?!”

 

The boy leaped for the door, Ryoga leaped for the boy; they collided and crashed through the door in a mass of limbs and wood fragments. The two tumbled onto the grass and a lot of struggling and kicking ensued. Somehow, one knee found the others groin, and the boy jumped up to run away. Ryoga bit his tongue and forced himself after him. The boy stumbled on a rock and was tackled from behind.

 

“What did you do to her?!”

 

The boy tensed violently and began to shake. Fire snaked into his veins and tore its way through his body. Low moans of discomfort morphed into screams of pain as his body convulsed violently. Ryoga froze in shock and all he could do was attempt to hold his captive down.

 

* * *

 

Not to far away, behind a shrub, Jun'ko watched as things unfolded. As they stood, he was watching as some stranger covered in his own blood and tears was lying on his stomach and screaming in pain, as the resident demon was almost entirely naked and lying on top of him. Jun'ko wanted to keep watching, incase something even more incriminating happened, but he desperately needed to puke. Two seconds later he was filling in the hole he had just ripped into the field, planning to blame the new mess on Juronai as well.

 

* * *

 

Juronai was busy cleaning up porcelain shards and failed indigo paintings when, for the second time that morning, he sneezed hard enough to throw himself backward.

 

* * *

 

It felt as if the fire had consumed his body, the pain was so maddening he couldn't form a single sentient thought. Then he began to change. His limbs began to thicken and form, his nose straightened and re-set itself, his milky eyes turned dark brown and brown hair sprouted from his head to cover his eyes. With that, the fire cooled and released its grip on his body, and the boy was left a limp mass of flesh on the ground once again.

 

He moaned as the world started to come back. Ryoga had rolled off him once the convulsions had stopped and now he turned the kid over and sat him up. He started to brush the boy off and his hand caught on something. Removing his hand, he saw that there was a piece of wood stuck in the boy's chest. Ryoga yanked it out and tossed it aside. “Who is this guy, and why do his clothes seem familiar.” The boys head flopped back and he stared at Ryoga, “You are like me, but not me,” he breathed.

 

Satsuki appeared in the doorway, having been awoken by the crash and afraid to look outside because of the screaming. Her words mirrored Ryoga's thoughts, “What is going on here?”

 

The now brown eyes widened and his pupils narrowed `The voice!' He threw Ryoga aside and dove at Satsuki. Like a deer in the headlights, she stood there frozen; covering her face just before he would crash into her.

 

It never happened.

 

Ryoga could only stare in absolute confusion at the person who had just thrown him, that was now on his knees and hugging the girl's waist; laughing madly and screaming “You saved me!” over and over.

 

* * *

 

“No, for the third time I do not know who he is, where he came from, or why he is covered in blood.” Ryoga stated with increasing force. Getting his point across wasn't so bad, but he had to put his dirty clothes back on and the drying goo had made them sticky and cold.

 

“And it's just coincidence he looks and sounds like you?”

 

Ryoga turned and looked at the newest oddball he had met in his life; sitting in the corner, hugging his legs, and glancing rapidly between the girl and him. Ryoga was sure he had seen his clothes somewhere before, and his speech seemed to have a more urban accent to it than the more archaic dialect of the villagers, but the similarities ended there. In fact, Ryoga was certain the guy was American.

 

“He does not! How am I supposed to know anything about him anyway, he doesn't even know who he is. Are you sure you don't have a name?”

 

The boy just stared.

 

“Never mind about him, who are you and why are you stalking me.”

 

“I am not stalking you.”

 

“The well, the bedroom, and… the cooking pot. However you did that, I don't know, but it can't be coincidence.”

 

Ryoga knew it actually was, but was too tired to press the subject.

 

“My name is Ryoga Hibiki, and for the moment it seems I'm the acting headmen for this village.”

 

The girl's eyes betrayed her stoicism for a moment and flashed in fearful shock. A look that was missed by Ryoga but noticed by the boy.

 

 

“I don't know what I'm doing here really, I'm actually lost. But this village seems to need my help. I don't need a house this big to myself; I suppose you can stay here if you want.”

 

Ryoga turned to the guest in the corner, so he missed her second look. This time she looked angry.

 

“You can stay too… uh `No-Name'.” Ryoga turned back, “You have a name right?”

 

“…Satsuki, just Satsuki. And we can't go around calling him `No-Name'. How about Yuichirasonia.”

 

“No way will I remember that.”

 

“What will you remember?”

 

Ryoga thought for a moment, “How about… Ryu?”

 

* * *

 

Somehow, Ryoga found himself carrying an old style wooden shovel, searching for a field to plow. Not that he minded it; just that he wasn't sure how Satsuki had talked him into it so easily. She would clean up the house, while he worked the fields. Simple really, he had just done it without a single thought. “Women… how do they do that to me?”

 

“Onimori-sama?”

 

Ryoga looked down, and there was Juronai; half naked, wrist deep in pale-green/yellow goo and mud; sporting some very large bruises and looking a little nervous.

 

“What are you doing here sir?”

 

“Is that vomit?”

 

“Uhmm, I guess.”

 

“Why is that hole filled with vomit?”

 

“I wish I knew.” Juronai snarled through an aching jaw, in the distance he saw Jun'ko as he walked past the space between two houses.

 

“Can I help?”

 

“If you want to, grab that bucket.”

 

As Ryoga turned around to retrieve the item in question he saw that he had walked in a straight line from the front of the house to the field.

 

“How did I…?”

 

* * *

 

`Ryu… ryu…' he rolled the word… no… the name around in his head. “Ryu…” he breathed lightly. “My name is Ryu…” He was still sitting in the corner, staring at the ground, thinking to himself. He was happy that they had named him, overjoyed in fact. But something just didn't feel right. Images in his head, that were clearly not his own, were swarming about; throwing into his senses things that he never could have conceived of on his own. People he had never seen before yet held dear. Nine people who looked like him but much taller, in fact the world seemed larger in his thoughts; a strange pain in his heart that he had never felt before, a woman who felt soft and warm, and a man who caused only pain. What did it all mean?

 

Ryu raised his head and spoke again, “Ryu.”

 

Satsuki, who had been collecting shards of scattered metal, turned to this new sound. “What?”

 

Ryu looked up at her, but avoided her eyes. Looking at her face made his chest hurt. “My name… it is Ryu.”

 

“Are you alright with that name?” Satsuki replied softly.

 

“It's not good name?”

 

“Of course it's a good name, it just seems that you don't like it.”

The boy thought for a moment, “No, it is a good name; what about yours?”

 

“Satsuki.”

 

“I know, but, is it good?”

 

Satsuki looked away from him and saw the destroyed ink painting. “It used to be good, I suppose, but now…”

 

Ryu saw that she had stopped cleaning, and was now staring at the floor, “Did my words make you hurt?”

 

Her head jerked up and she looked him in the eye as his voice snapped her out of her trance. Ryu quickly looked away. “No, they didn't; just old memories. Would you like to help me?”

 

Still looking away, he smiled and whispered, “Always.”

 

* * *

 

It is sometimes hard to tell how you should feel about your life. When you still enjoy old comforts but need to deal with new discomforts it can be fairly confusing. Some become stoic, others get frustrated, and others still let nothing bother them. Jun'ko had said `too hell with it all' long ago and decided to just be angry all the time. Having been forced back into his old hut, sore, hungry and dirty, he was ready to skin the first thing that looked at him wrong. Yet he had only been out of the job for a day, and organizing troops as quickly as he had when Ryoga had arrived gained him some extra pull with the villagers. Those especially who were already afraid of him.

 

At this particular moment he was at the edge of the forest, as near to where “Riaga” came from as he could remember. `There has got to be something…' Jun'ko leaned against a nearby boulder and mulled everything over again. For the past hour he had scanned the field between the village and the forest. By painstakingly drilling the militia he had put together for information and examining the field itself, he had formed a perfect re-enactment of the battle in his mind.

 

`He rarely struck directly; it was either in a chain of motions or retaliation.' The memories seemed to project themselves into the real world. “He carries his momentum through each strike, and was so certain that only one blow would be enough he never looked back.” He reached up and adjusted the pin holding his top-knot together; suddenly a though dawned on him and he smirked. “Now I know his weakness, I just need to set him up to fall.” The smirk turned into a smile as his the gears in his mind began to tick faster; formulating plans and calculating the possibilities. By the time he got back to his hut, everything had been planned.

 

He slid the door open and paused. Stepping back from the door he took a hard look at his once and present home. The wood was crudely cut and very rough. The roof sat at an angle and was well worn. His gaze drifted over the house nearest his and then the next, on-and-on until he had examined the entire town. `It's crude and run down, but it's home. Once or twice someone might have left, but all through his life he couldn't remember a time when anyone had come in to the town.

 

`Why would he?' His thoughts offered, “Why would they?” He replied. His mind immediately stopped that train of thought, caused his stomach to growl and pointed his eyes at a man smaller than him who was carrying a basket of mandarin oranges. Jun'ko started walking towards the other man and called out to him forcefully.

 

* * *

 

Yes, it was puke. For some time, all the two did was just stand and stare at it. Neither one wanted to do what they had thought of, nor wanted to think of a better idea and thus hasten the process. Just staring at it made the both of them feel sick; it was chunky, slimy, had some clear streaks, and smelled like rancid sour vegetables. `Who would want to touch it?'

 

“Should we, maybe, scoop it out with something?”

 

“I guess, but then what?”

 

Ryoga chewed on his bottom lip. `What could you do with a bucket of puke? They have a well instead of a river, so we can't do that. There's no way I can go into the woods, I could get lost again.' More time passed in which they stared and scratched the occasional itch. Then Juronai picked up his shovel and stepped up to the hole.

 

“I think I have an idea, Onimori-sama.”

 

Ryoga got the idea almost immediately and they both got to work; and with the two of them the job was done inside of 5 minutes.

 

“Good as new!” the younger boy declared. And in truth, it was. The once jagged hole and disturbed ground was now just another evened-out section of the well worked field.

 

Ryoga nodded in approval, “Not bad. Should we start tilling now?”

 

“Yes, but not here. This is Jun'ko's patch of dirt. You can start on that one over there if you like.” Juronai gestured to another section of untilled earth near the edge of the woods before turning and starting away.

 

“Wait!”

 

Juronai jumped and spun around quickly.

“Could you… um, show me the way?”

 

“But it's right there.” Juronai said, pointing and looking confused.

 

“Well can't you just take me there?” `God I'm pathetic.'

 

After a moment of staring Juronai nodded a quick “okay” and walked back towards the field. Ryoga grabbed the boys shoulder as he walked past; and they were at the new field inside of 30 seconds. Ryoga let go and Juronai immediately headed back toward the town.

 

“Hey!” Ryoga called over his shoulder, “Aren't you gonna' help?” His shovel sank into the soft soil as he talked.

 

Juronai turned around and walked backwards as he yelled back. “I will later, right now I need to go talk to Ms. Maigo!”

 

Ryoga kept working and called back, “Who?!”

 

“You know, that girl you met last night, she… ooph!” He tripped on a discarded root `How the heck did that..?' “I'm okay!”

 

Ryoga hadn't heard him. He was frozen to the spot. With a shovel above his head and staring at the hole he had just made. `Maigo… Satsuki Maigo; as in daughter of Masakimon Maigo, the old headman!'

 

“Oh shit.”

 

A shovelful of dirt fell on his head, then an orange peel hit him from behind.

 

“The look suits you Riaga,” came a sneer from behind him. Ryoga tilted his head and squinted as he turned. To him it was clearing the dirt off his head and lack of sunglasses, but it looked to Jun'ko like blatant arrogance. “You find your place in the world, did you?”

 

“What is it you want?” Ryoga asked calmly.

 

Jun'ko cracked his knuckles, “The list is getting bigger by the moment, but right now I want my sword back and for you to leave. Scratch that.” He slowly began to walk forward, “I want you to crawl out of here; broken and crying.” At this he was nose to nose with Ryoga, staring him dead in the eye.

 

“You're kidding, right?”

 

Jun'ko grabbed a handful of Ryoga's shirt “You want to find out how serious I am!? I even know your weakness! And I'm gonna' tell everyone.” His lips curled up into a smile of supreme self confidence.

 

“You wouldn't” Ryoga began to shake.

 

Jun'ko made a show of taking a deep breath, turned to face the village and yelled, “Who wants to hear..!” And suddenly ducked Ryoga's fist as it nearly took his head off. `Bingo.' He jumped away from a spinning back-fist and casually dropped into a fighting stance.

 

Ryoga hesitated, `Could he actually know?'

 

It hadn't taken too much searching to discover the insult that had set Riaga off more than anything else. “I can't believe you'd just attack me like that, you PIG!”

 

Ryoga threw himself at Jun'ko. Punching and kicking wildly. `Can't let him tell!' He threw a right roundhouse kick and Junko ducked, Ryoga planted his foot and spun into a sweep kick with his left. Jun'ko jumped over it, making no attack of his own.

 

`I knew it, now to just…'

 

Ryoga kept attacking and lost control of the direction of the one-sided fight, exactly what Jun'ko wanted. With every step and dodge he led them away from the field and towards his trap. “Maybe I won't have to tell. I bet they'll all figure it out!” A fist grazed his nose and he leapt back again. Suddenly the angles lined up and he grinned again as he prepared to move straight backward. `Almost, just on more push.' Ryoga swung a haymaker and missed; Jun'ko jumped forward and poked him in the eye.

 

Ryoga balled his fists together in a double-hammer and growled in anger as he swung them downward. Jun'ko dodged again. As Ryoga's fists hit the ground, he bent his elbows and pushed off the ground with his feet; sending his body through the air in an inverted donkey kick. Again he felt no contact. As he landed, one foot extended outward and he wound his arm, the next shot would end it.

 

As Jun'ko saw Riaga flip over, he knew his plan would work. All his momentum would be in his next blow; Jun'ko planned to use that momentum to make Riaga brake his own hand. It was a good plan, in theory. He saw Riaga plant his feet and did a back-flip of his own. Right onto the top of the large boulder he had leaned on earlier.

 

“Baksai-Tenketsu!” Ryoga yelled. His finger sank knuckle deep into the granite and he held there for a second.

 

*BOOM*

 

The boulder exploded outward into thousands of jagged shards. When the smoke cleared Ryoga was gingerly brushing himself off and Jun'ko was out cold a good 40 feet away. When he turned to leave his foot inadvertently kicked something. He looked down, and there was his umbrella and backpack.

 

Back at the village, a farmer stood just outside the door to an average-for-the-town sized house. Without moving he yelled through the open door. “Hey, Haku! We don't gotta' move that big rock anymore!”

 

“Does that mean I can go back to sleep?”

 

“No, we still gotta go move that stump!”

 

“Fuck.”

 

“Finish getting ready. I'm gonna go get that blanket back from Jinken.”

 

* * *

 

It had been some time since he had spoken with her, in a one-on-one sense. All the same, she was different; very different; quieter, colder and still reserved. But, given his relationship with his father and the past day, he knew how quickly and how much things could change.

 

“He took out every last one of us faster than we could attack. He knocked out Jun'ko at least twice and he was begging for mercy in the end.” He noticed a stranger behind her polishing Jun'ko's old sword. “He even gave Onimori-sama his sword.”

 

Satsuki's eyes twitched but she didn't turn her head. She didn't need to look; it was the only thing in the house she refused to clean and she already knew there was no stopping Ryu from doing something he was told.

 

“'We?' He fought you too?”

 

Juronai's shoulders sank and his polite smile faded instantly. “No. I - I ran. In fact, I'm not in training anymore.”

 

“Alright.”

 

“Now I'm doing Indigo - wait, huh?”

 

“I said `alright'. Why?”

 

“I just thought you would… never mind. Afterward the town got together and decided to make him headman. The whole things a blur, really. I remember showing him the house and getting that food for you, but that's it.” He chuckled softly “Now I have a few bruises I can't explain and some pieces of wood in my back.”

 

Her mind wandered back to her return to the village; to Kithra, and the chase. She remembered watching the creature that would become the next headman tear another demon in half and bathe in its blood. Behind her, Ryu strained on his tiptoes to clean higher on the wall; having finished with the sword.

 

“The village knew he was a demon and they let him stay anyway?” A slight rise in her eyebrows was the only clue, besides her voice, as to how shocked she was.

 

“After he beat us all he took them all to the healer. Who doesn't want a demon protecting them?” A flicker of motion caught his eyes and he slowly leaned back and looked up, Satsuki looked too. Ryu, who had been told to clean the room and run out of space, was now face-up bracing his legs between two beams in the ceiling and feverously scrubbing it with a wet cloth. Satsuki responded first, then Juronai.

 

“What…”

 

“…the…”

 

“Hello.” Said Ryu, who noticed they were staring.

 

Suddenly the house was rocked by a not-to-distant explosion. The three covered their ears. Juronai leaped up and ran to the door. Satsuki followed behind him cautiously.

 

Higher up in the room, a drop of soapy water fell from the Rag in Ryu's hand and pooled in his eyebrow. The explosion shook his foothold and he began to slip. His hands shot out again as the drop of water in his eyebrow rolled into his eye. It stung for only a moment, but was enough to make him cringe. His hand, covered with the soapy rag, slapped the beam and slipped off; throwing him off balance and dropping him to the floor. The snap was wet and thick, but the soft floor muffled the sound. For a second he layed doubled over before his body shifted and was laid prone with a *thump*. His head was clearly too far to the side, and through the skin of his neck you could clearly see the shape of a neck vertebrae straining to poke through. Another second passed, his eyes opened and he sat up. His hand came up and began to push at the side of his head. There was a sickeningly wet grinding noise and everything snapped back into place with one last *crunch*.

 

Juronai turned back “Now what was that?”

 

Ryu glanced around as if to say “What?”