Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Forgotten Memories ❯ Finding A Hero In More Ways Than One ( Chapter 4 )

**** All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. This is just one of my ideas! So don't judge me just because of my imagination! ^_^ (\/) cyancat ****

Forgotten Memories

Chapter Four - Finding A Hero In More Ways Than One

"Mousse? Wake Up! It's already after noon."

Mousse felt her arm being shaken and blinked her eyes open to the semi darkness of their room. There stood Akane beside her bed, a twitch of a smile upon her lips.

"Already? I can never tell now that we have to sleep in a place like this." Mousse said as she sat up and stretched her arms.

"Once you come up on deck, you'll see for yourself. I figure you've slept enough for the day." Akane turned and walked to the door, holding it open beside her. "Come on."

"Let me at least change my clothes first, Akane! Geez, it's like you think I want to walk around with my night clothes on." Mousse yelled mockingly as Akane laughed, walking out the door. "Wait for me while I change."

Still laughing, Akane waited outside their cabin door and she thought about how so much had changed in their lives in such a little time. It had only been over a week ago that Mousse had been thrown into their lives and now they were on their way to find Shampoo. She never thought she'd ever be doing this, in any life time. Hearing the door handle turning, Akane turned around to greet the girl. As Mousse stood in front of the opened door, Akane stepped back and her breath caught in her throat as she was stunned by Mousse's appearance. Mousse had taken her long black hair and tied two buns on the top of her head. She also wore a green mid-length dress that was an imitation of Chinese quality along with a pair of black tights.

"Akane? Whats wrong?"

Akane blinked a few times before returning to reality and taking a relieving breath. "Nothings wrong Mousse. It's just that . . . you look so much like your mother that way."

"Really? I was trying to see how she was like when she was younger and I remembered that her hair was like this in the photo. Did I do it right? It still feels kind of funny." Mousse unconsciously touched the buns of hair, her face contorted with a look of troubled worry.

"No, you did all right. It looks okay to me, just like Shampoo used to do it." Akane comforted the girl with a smile. Mousse grinned back and the two started to walk down the hallway toward the upper stairs to the deck.

"So where's everyone else?"

"Where do you think? Genma's playing around for treats from the passenger's children and Ranma's at his usual post, the stern of the boat, away from everyone else."

Reaching the top door, Mousse opened it to unveil a blinding light shining into her eyes. Shielding her eyes and letting them adjust, she noticed that Akane's words were right. Over by another door on the deck was a giant panda playing with an inflatable ball while reaching out one paw for food that many of the children around him were holding or eating. Laughing at his foolishness, Mousse walked out and looked around with Akane behind her.

"You know, it's so nice to be out here in the fresh air. In the city, you have to deal with all the smog and stuff in the air. Never as fresh as it is out on the sea. It even makes me forget that . . . " Mousse trailed off as a sudden urge came over her. Her cheeks widened and she ran to the boat edge, bending over the rail with a sickening sound.

"...Forget that you get seasick?" Akane ended the open sentence, shaking her head in sympathy for the poor girl, heaving over the edge of the rail.

Akane then suddenly felt a hand grip her shoulder and without even turning, she knew that it was Ranma.

"Seasick again?" Ranma said with a surprised tone in his voice.

"Yep, I would have thought she'd get over it by now. We've been at sail for two days now. I guess that's something she'll have to work on."

"By the looks of it, it's going to take a lot of work. Anyway, I wanted to tell you, the captain told me that we'd arrive at the port by tonight, so we can start searching in China beginning tomorrow morning."

"Good, you have any idea where to start heading?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head, failing to answer her question.

"You do remember how you got to the village, don't you RANMA?!" She turned to him, her eyes screaming at him that he was gonna receive a malleting he wouldn't forget.

"Heh, well thats the thing." Ranma shrugged his shoulders. "I never really noticed where the guide took us. We were just kind of there."

Akane put a hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. "Please tell me that your father remem-, never mind. Even he wouldn't. So, Mr. Genius, How're we gonna get to the village?!" she fumed at him.

Ranma stammered and stuttered for words as he tried to make up a plan. Before he could say something that meant anything, he noticed Mousse approaching them.

"Oh hey, Mousse! Feeling better?" Ranma greeted the stricken girl as she came closer to them. A peek out the corner of his eye confirmed to Ranma that Akane wouldn't let him go on the subject so easily, but he was happy to be out of the situation for now.

Holding her stomach, Mousse didn't look any better or worse than she had the first time she had gotten sick. "I think I'll be okay for now. Please tell me again why we had to go by boat and not by plane."

"Because these two guys have a thing against planes. And one won't even take a step on the plane and plus they won't allow pandas on a plane even if we could get him to go on the thing." Akane said as she eyed Genma menacingly as he begged for food.

"Right. Forgot about that." Mousse rubbed the back of her head as she felt a pain in her neck. "How much longer are we gonna be at sail? I don't know if I can take this much longer."

"We'll be at port by tonight. Not much more time before we're in China."

"Good, now I'm just going to get something to quiet my stomach. I'll be in our room if you need me."

Turning around, Mousse slowly walked toward the below deck doors. As she neared the doors, she heard the sound of Akane's voice yelling at Ranma. She smiled and wondered what Ranma had done now to deserve it. Well, it wasn't any of her concern, right now she wanted to find something to make her stomach stop from churning. She walked down the stairs and headed for their door. It was embarrassing enough that she got sick in front of everyone on deck, but every time she stepped outside it happened. Closing her eyes, she tried to forget the feelings that were making their way around her stomach. Suddenly Mousse crashed into a large object, banging her head against it and fell down to the floor. She heard a clattering sound in front of her and figured that the object had also fallen down.

"Owww . . . ," she complained, rubbing her head. Opening one eye to see what kind of damage she had done, she saw to her surprise a boy sitting on the floor, also in some pain.

He slowly stood up and dusting himself off, he looked to her on the floor with a questioning look on his face. Mousse couldn't help but stare. She felt so embarrassed she couldn't even move. Great, now just chalk another one up on the list. Standing above her, the boy stood with his hands on his hips. He wore a long red and black robe with a pair of black slack pants. He had short dark green hair that fell over his blue eyes.

"Well, are you gonna sit on the floor all day or do you want me to help you up?" he said as he held out a hand.

Snapped out of her spell, Mousse only shook her head yes and grabbed his hand.

"So, do you normally walk around with your eyes closed?" he said after helping Mousse up.

"No, not usually. I'm so sorry. I was just trying to feel better and I figured if I closed my eyes and concentrated . . . "

"Although I think it made you feel worse, crashing into me and falling down like that. What're you sick from?"

"Oh, I get seasick VERY easily. I take one step outside and bleagh."

"Seasick? I've got something that'll help you. Want it?"

Mousse's eyes flashed wide in anticipation. "Really? If you have something that can cure me from this, then please give it to me. I'm desperate!"

"Okay then, hold out your wrists." He said as he held out his own hands.

Mousse looked at him, an eyebrow raised in question. "Hold out my what?"

"Your wrists. Close your eyes and it'll be fine. You won't be seasick anymore, I promise."

"If you say so." Mousse said, giving the boy one more odd look before closing her eyes and holding out her hands, palms up.

She felt him take her hands in his, thumbs resting above her wrists. Then he suddenly jabbed his thumbs down into her wrist and did a quick twist. Mousse pulled her hands back as quickly as she could with him holding onto them.

"WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS WAS THAT FOR?!" she yelled at him, rubbing the sore spots on her wrists.

The boy just smirked at her and shook his head. "How do you feel?"

"HOW DO I FEEL? I FEEL LIKE . . . like I'm not . . . I'm not seasick anymore! Hey how did you do that!?"

He held up a hand, fingers spread wide. "Pressure points. Just have to know where to push and how hard."

Mousse looked at her wrists in amazement then back to the boy before her. "Whoa, where'd you learn how to do that? I've never seen anyone use pressure points before!"

"I learned it at my village. It's something thats quite usual for every person to know. In fact, I'm heading home now. Oh, but hey, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Tonic, and you are?"

"Oh, I'm Mousse. I'm sorry again about crashing into you. I really didn't mean for it to happen."

Tonic started to walk down the hall backwards, still looking in her direction. "It's okay Mousse. It happens. Just don't go walking with closed eyes again. Promise?"

"Promise." Called Mousse back to him and watched him walk toward the deck doors. Something then suddenly urged her to go with him and not back to the room. She took off running and skidded to a walk as she came up beside him. He looked at her, bewildered that she followed him, but kept walking, a smile creeping up his lips.

Mousse looked at the floor, silent as they walked before she finally got the gumption to talk. "So where's home?"

"Out in the middle of the forests in China. It's just a small village that my tribe thrives in."

"What's your tribe called?" she sheepishly inquired, interested in this new information and to some degree, the new boy.

"The Joketsuzoku. We're an Amazon tribe to those that have to classifyus."

"If you live so far away, what're you doing here?"

"I wanted to go on an expedition. Travel the world, see what there is to see, you know. Get a feel for the world before I have to deal with the rules and laws of tribal life."

"I see. Where did you travel to?"

"Let's see . . . ," he counted off on his fingers, "I've been to the Americas, both North and South. There's also parts of Africa and Europe. The first place I visited after I left home was India. I was just in Japan looking for someone. Despite the fact that I couldn't find the guy, I can't go anywhere else and have to head back to the village earlier than I planned."

"Sorry to hear that. Is it really that bad to live at your village?"

"Well, to some point it is and it isn't. With our people, guys are treated a lot differently than how you treat them. Women, since they are the major warriors, are the heads of the village. Men are the lower caste, so to speak. We stay at home and take care of everything that the women are not willing to deal with. We can train in fighting but we're not accepted as real warriors. Thats the main reason why I hate to go back. When I do, just because I'm of age, I have to be married to a girl there and I'm not really looking forward to it."

Mousse's heart sank. He had to get married? Geez, she hadn't even known him for ten minutes and already he was unavailable. And just when she was thinking that he was really cute too.

"Why would you have to get married? I thought that people should choose for themselves who they want to stay with." Mousse said with a heavy heart.

"Normally the elders would let that be the case, but since I've turned seventeen, they've been on me to court a girl. I didn't and wanted to go on this trip. They agreed I could go as long as that when I returned, I would be married to whomever they picked. I took them up on the offer, at the time it sounded like a great deal. Now, it doesn't sound so great anymore."

Tonic's face saddened and as they neared the doors, he paused and looked down to the ground before taking a breath and looking back up at Mousse. She was surprised at the change of expression on his face, moments ago, he had been sad and grim, his eyes soft with an unhappy reflection. Now his face showed no sign of before and he was smiling again. His eyes danced with a nervous laughter, showing that Tonic was uneasy about his predicament, but he wanted to hide it all.

"Well, I've been rambling too much about myself. It's only fair I learn more about you other than you can get seasick very easily. So where are you from?" Tonic said as he opened the door and walked out with Mousse beside him.

"China, I believe."

"You believe? You don't know?"

"Well, I was born in Japan, but my parents weren't originally from there. They were from China and thats the reason why we're on this trip."

"We? So you're here with your parents, huh?"

"No, I'm here with some friends of mine. They're old friends of my parents. Hey there they are now!" Mousse pointed with a finger to the group before them.

Tonic stood amazed or at least stunned at the scene before him. A man in his early thirties was fighting with a very large panda, and it was actually fighting back with practiced martial arts moves! Although he could see that the panda wouldn't win against the man, Tonic tried to figure out how the panda knew how to fight like that! A large group of passengers had surrounded the incident, but it was still easy to see the events. Tonic then realized that Mousse had taken him by the arm in his amazed stupor and began to pull him toward the fight. There was one last jump high in the air by the man and then he came down upon the panda, knocking it through a pair of doors and down the stairs. Seeing that the fight was over, the crowd quickly dispersed to their own activities. Tonic then realized that Mousse was heading straight toward the man who had been fighting and beside him, a woman also in her thirties.

"Ranma! Akane!" she called out to them, "Look at me! I'm not seasick anymore!"

She skidded to a halt before them, a wide smile apparent on her face and her grip still on Tonics arm.

"That's good to hear, Mousse." Ranma said as he spied the young boy Mousse was attached to. With a raised eyebrow, he turned back to Mousse, "And just who is your new appendage?"

"Oh!" Mousse realized then that her grip was still tight on Tonic and quickly released him, "Sorry. This is Tonic! He helped me get rid of my seasickness! Now I can walk around whenever I want!" Mousse spun around a few times to indicate that she was telling the truth.

Akane smiled broadly at Mousse and turning, addressed Tonic.

"Well, Tonic, thank you so much for curing her. I just wish she had met you at the start of the trip. Maybe she could have enjoyed the time we've been at sail a lot better if she hadn't seen most of it from the deck rails."

"I was happy to do it. After how we met, I couldn't help but cure her."

"Just out of curiosity, how did you cure her?"

Tonic smiled and straightened his posture, proud of his abilities. "I used pressure points on her wrists. It's something that everyone at my village gets to know."

"Yeah!" Mousse spoke up, "He's from a village in China! They're called the Jokets-, Joukens-, Jokantsu-"

"Joketsuzoku," Tonic said, correcting Mousse with a laugh, "We're just a small Amazon tribe in the forests. Not that much really."

Both Akane and Ranma did a double take at Tonic, before looking at each other and passing unspoken words between them. Ranma then turned back to the boy, disbelief apparent on his face. "You're kidding right?"

"No, why would I kid about my village? I really am from the Joketsuzoku tribe."

"Okay then. One question, do you have an elder by the name of Cologne?"

"Cologne? Yeah, she's an old one, but she's there. How do you know about her?"

Ranma scoffed at Tonic's question and began to laugh out loud, bringing out weird expressions from both Mousse and Tonic as they watched him. Ranma held his side and guffawed as hard as he could bear. This was just too weird and it had come straight to them! What wonders would cease now? Although, Akane was not laughing beside him and was merely waiting for the guy to stop. She smiled apologetically at Tonic and gave Ranma a swift kick in the shins, telling him to cut it quits on the laughter. Taking Ranma several more minutes to quiet himself as he had laughed himself into quite an uproar, Ranma once more turned to the boy, yet a smirk was still on his face.

"Oh, she's just an old acquaintance, really. It's still unbelievable . . . Tonic, would you mind guiding us to your village?"

"Why would you wanna go there? I don't even know if they'd allow you to enter the village."

Akane rolled her eyes, knowing Ranma wouldn't let that stop them. "Lets say we have some unresolved issues to deal with there. If it's a trouble to do it, we can pay you for guiding us. How about it?"

Tonic stared at Akane for a moment, pondering her words. "Okay, I'll do it, but when we do return, he," Tonic motioned toward Ranma, "has to tell the elder council that I'm his apprentice."

Ranma's face blanched a little. "That you're my what?"

"Come on. I've seen you fighting just a moment before. Even though it was just against a panda, I could tell that you're good and a master of a lot of techniques . . . And now that I think about it . . . how did that panda know how to fight?"

"Umm . . . " Ranma scratched his head, "There is an explanation, but it's too long to tell you, anyway. Why would you want to be my apprentice? You don't even know me!"

"Fine. You know me as Tonic. Who are you?"

"I'm Ranma Saotome and this," he motioned toward Akane, "is my wife Akane Saotome."

"Very well, I greet you Akane and Ranma Sao . . . to . . . me." Tonic went silent before turning a skeptical eye at Ranma, "Wait, you're not 'the' Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Martial Arts, are you?"

"Yeah," Ranma said confused, "I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You possibly can't be him. I've been searching all over Tokyo for four days before I even got on this boat for Ranma Saotome! He was nowhere to be found! How is it possible that I find him . . . you here of all places?!"

"I've been gone with Akane and Mousse for the past week, Tonic. I can see why you didn't find me. But, why have you been looking for me?"

"I wanted to learn at your dojo. I heard about your fighting style and I thought it was incredible! I had to learn everything that you could teach me!"

"You want to learn at our dojo? But you're an Amazon! You're already masters of a long-known tradition in fighting!"

"But I want more! What I learned at home wasn't enough and they weren't willing to teach me anymore. What else can I do but leave the village and go out into the world? Besides," Tonic crossed his arms and stared back at Ranma, a challenging glint in his eye. "If you don't agree, I won't take you to my village."

Ranma crossed his arms as well, not wanting this boy to get the upper hand. "We could follow you, you know that."

"Then I won't go home right away. There are many detours I could take that only I know the passageways through."

Scoffing at Tonics words, Ranma switched to another tactic. "Someone else could take us there. I'm sure there are many guides in China that'd be willing to take the job."

"We don't let many people remember where we live and hardly anybody leaves the village other than on special occasions." Tonic came back, knowing he had Ranma in a pinch."I'd think you'd have a lot of trouble finding a guide that would even go near our village."

Ranma stared down at Tonic, not willing to give up the fight, yet racking his brain to find another way to get the boy to guide them. The two were held in a staring match, neither wanting to back away from the fight. Akane waited until she couldn't take anymore of the stupid behaviors that the boys were carrying on. She quickly stepped between the two, blocking their view.

"He'll do it Tonic. I think he'd be honored to have an Amazon train at his dojo." Akane said, trying not to act out too violently, but at the same time delivered a severe blow behind her to Ranma's gut with her elbow. "Won't you Ranma!?"

"Do I have a choice?" Ranma said, still cringing back from Akane's blow. She then tried again to jab him, but he jumped back away from her and turned his back to them, regaining whatever he had left of his dignity. "Fine, I'll say he's an apprentice at the dojo. Will you lead us to the village now, Tonic?"

"Sure, I'd be happy to." Tonic said, smiling in victory. He then turned to the quiet Mousse beside him. "Now, since we have everything settled, how about we get something to eat Mousse? My treat. You're probably really hungry now that your seasickness is gone."

Tonic took her hand in the future hope of leading her to the diner. Mousse couldn't help but feel the blush rise on her cheeks as she felt Tonic holding her hand and seeing him smile at her in that way. "Ss..sure. That'd be great."

Now this time, Mousse was being quickly pulled away by Tonic holding onto her hand. As she followed along with her blush still red upon her cheeks, Mousse tried to cover it up as best she could with one hand. It felt weird for a guy her age to be acting so nice to her, as none had ever looked her way at the orphanage. But it felt nice to have a friend (especially a good-looking one at that!) amidst everything that was happening. Finally she could have someone to travel with that could relate with her. It still felt weird to travel around with just three adults that she hardly knew or at least two adults and a panda that she hardly knew.

Well, how do you like it so far? As you may have guessed already, I am pairing Tonic and Mousse together. The girl needs someone, Come On!

Also if you have read my other fic, you may have noticed that I used the name Tonic again. It was the name of Mousse's father in 'When I Thought I'd Lost You.' Its just that I can't get enough of it. Tonic is such a great name, especially for Ranma fics!! Heck, I'd even name my son that, if it wasn't for the fact that it's a name for a hair product.

Speaking of weird names, I've heard so many weird girls names these days, like Eden, Arien, Lexus, Sola, what is up with adults naming their kids like this?

Anyway, My love for the Mousse and Shampoo pairing has brought me further into the story. I hope to have another chapter or two up for both fics by the end of August. So please hold on! Even though its not that big of a deal to some, I am happy to see that people read my fics and LIKE them.

Next chapter:

The group arrives at the Joketsuzoku village and finds Shampoo. Also an update on how Ryoga and Ukyo are doing in their quest for Mousse.

Thanks for reading though and hopefully I will finish both of my fics soon.

^_^ (\/) cyancat