Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Know thy enemy; Know thyself ❯ Upside Down ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: This is not my Anime! *cry*

Chapter two

Ranma awoke with a groan and lay limply trying to figure out what had hit him. Aaaww man! My head is pounding, I feel like I've been hit by a truck.

Shaking his head he unsteadily pulled himself onto his hands and knees. Something felt wrong, and there was a huge, heavy something on his back. He rubbed his eyes as they blurred and tried to stagger to his feet, only to tumble over backwards as whatever was on his back pulled him over.

"Argh!" Ranma lay on whatever it was for a heartbeat then figured out it had straps and wiggled his way out of them and turned to see what it was. A backpack.

A big backpack.

A familiar backpack.

Ranma stared at the pack in bemusement, taking in the stuffed sides, rough condition and most importantly, the red bamboo umbrella strapped to the top of it. Now why have I got Ryouga's backpack? I knowI didn't have it when I passed out.

Behind him Ranma heard a groan and two-and-two clicked. Oh, so it was Ryouga that fell on me, no wonder I feel like I've been knocked over by a ten-ton gorilla.

"Hey P-Chan!" Ranma exclaimed, turning around to prod the lost boy to wakefulness, "Wake u…." Ranma trailed off as the other boy sat up, rubbing his head blurrily.

"Don't call me P-Chan." Ryouga muttered then shook his head. Huh? Only Ranma calls me P-Chan. What was Ranma doing in here? Better yet, where was here? "Ranma…?" Ryouga said tentatively and glanced in the direction he'd heard the voice.

Ryouga blinked.

…

… …

………

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!" Ranma leapt to his feet and stumbled backwards over Ryouga's backpack, landing with crash that fazed him not-at-all and struggled to untangle himself and leap to his feet again.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!" Ryouga fell backwards and banged his head on the floor, then scrambled backwards till he hit the wall where he pushed himself against it till he was standing, then glared across the room.

"Who're you?!" The two chorused together then glared.

"What are you?!" They both tried again.

"What kind of trick is this!?" Ryouga screamed in frustration.

"Whadoyoumean, 'what kind of trick is this'? It's your trick!" Ranma screamed back and managed at last to untangle himself and got ready to attack.

"This is no trick of mine, Demon! Prepare to die!!" Ryouga leapt forward ready to attack but suddenly crashed to the ground as the odd apparition he was trying to attack knocked him to the floor and sat on his chest, staring at him intently.

"R…Ryouga?!" The apparition said finally and Ryouga stopped his struggling long enough to look up.

"What do you know, Demon?!"

The apparition's eyes widened and it grinned, "Ryouga! It's me! Ranma!"

Ryouga stopped struggling completely and stared up at the apparition on his chest suspiciously, "Prove it."

"Aww, come on P-Chan! Do you need your eyes checked or something? Don't I look like me?"

Ryouga huffed, "No actually. You look like me!"

The apparition blinked then understanding suddenly dawned on him and his hands moved to touch the yellow and black bandana that circled his forehead, the short hair utterly lacking a pigtail then he looked down at the clothes he was wearing.

Slowly the apparition slid off of Ryouga's chest and sat down next to him, "So it's not just you. It's me too."

Ryouga froze in the act of sitting up, "What do you mean, 'not just you'?"

"You're me." Ranma said, staring at his hands bemusedly.

Ryouga blinked and attempted to ignore what Ranma had just said. But it was just to glaringly logical.

Slowly the lost boy looked down at the red Chinese shirt he was wearing, and his hand snaked around to lightly touch the loose pigtail that hung down his back.

Both boys sat in silence.

"How exactly did this happen?" Ryouga finally asked in a strangled tone of voice.

Ranma shrugged, "I was looking at a shining crystal ball thing then you came crashing out of the ceiling and knocked me out."

Ryouga blinked, "Crystal ball…thing?"

Ranma shrugged again and glanced around the room curiously, "I was holding it last I remember. Dunno where it is now. It was sorta weird. It was sitting on this table and when I picked it up it had," his face screwed up with the effort of trying to remember, "'Know thy enemy; Know thyself', written on it."

Ryouga groaned, "How do we get back to normal?!"

Ranma shrugged again then leapt to his feet, "If we can find that ball thing, we could get it to change us back!

Ryouga looked up and tried to shake off the eerie feeling he was getting from looking at Ranma, "We can see every inch of this room from where we are now. It's not here." Ryouga felt suddenly overcome with anger, "Ranma! This is all your fault!" he jumped to his feet and grabbed Ranma by the front of his shirt and attempted to shake him.

"Ryouga! Calm down! How was I to know what the silly thing did? How was I even to know you were going to fall on my head!?" Ranma pulled Ryouga's hands from his shirt a little more roughly then necessary, "Just sit down. We can't figure this out if we run around beating each other up!"

Ryouga stared in startlement at his stinging wrists then slumped down onto the floor, instantly retreating into his own little world to do some serious thinking.

Ranma sighed and scratched at the center of his…well no… Ryouga's chest. How did he always get into messes like these? It's not like he went looking for trouble. No. He just waltz' along on his merry way and trouble finds him. This situation was just typical; and somehow Ryouga had, once again, blamed it all on Ranma. Ranma's expression turned into a scowl, how come it was always his fault? Wasn't it possible that it could be someone else's fault? Perhaps Ryouga himself, or even Akane??

Of course not, what was he thinking; Ryouga was hardly ever at fault was he? Not to mention the angelicness of his dear dear Akane. In annoyance Ranma punched his hand at the ground and was startled out of his thoughts as the floor buckled underneath him, fracturing around the area he'd hit. He blinked stupidly at his hand. It had never really occurred to him just how strong Ryouga really was, just how much did the lost boy actually pull his punches when they fought?

Ranma didn't really have much time to ask as, the moment he thought it, the floor around him shattered and he was falling for the second time that day. As the air rushed up around him he heard a startled yell behind him that he couldn't make out then darkness swallowed him again as something heavy hit him in the back of the head.

-=-=-=-

Ryouga leapt forward as the floor started to disappear out from under the startled looking Ranma, but got there a second to late as the now-not-so-Pig-tailed martial artist was swallowed by darkness.

"Ranma! Come back with my body!" Ryouga blinked the moment the words were out of his mouth, nearly distracted by the complete ridiculousness of the statement, then sat back and glared. Not only had Ranma fallen through the floor with Ryouga's body… but his backpack had fallen in too. It was small consolation to the boy that he had Ranma's backpack along with Ranma's body…how was he going to survive out in the wilderness with whatever it as Ranma had with him? Whatever was in the pack would, of course, be good enough for Ranma to survive…but Ryouga, perpetually lost, needed more then a few small items to get him through. He shook his head; somehow he'd have to survive. He always had before. The first order of business was to get out of this chamber though, or else he really was in trouble.

Looking around, Ryouga noticed something that had somehow missed his gaze the first few times he'd looked around; grooves, in the walls. Leading upwards and perfect for climbing. Ryouga tracked them with his eyes, straight up and to an opening in the ceiling. Perfect.

Climbing to his feet, Ryouga dodged around the black pit in the floor where Ranma had fallen and quickly scaled the chamber wall till he reached the top and found himself in a forest clearing. A forest clearing with a fire in the center of it…a fire with six disreputable looking thugs sitting around it…six disreputable looking thugs that were now leaping to their feet and trying to hide behind one another.

Ryouga climbed fully out of the hole in the ground and put his hands out in front of him in the time-honoured gesture of peaceful intentions, "Excuse me. Could you tell me which way Tokyo is?" he used his most polite tone, the thugs really did seem to be having trouble with having Ryouga in their camp.

"R…right. Jus' go north of 'ere, you'll see 'he sign's that'll point 'he right way once you hit 'he road." One of the men, obviously the leader, said hesitantly, pointing in the correct direction with one finger.

Puzzled Ryouga bowed and, with a murmured 'thank you', headed the way indicated; only realizing an hour or two later that it was obviously something Ranma had done since it was Ranma those men had seen.

-=-=-=-

Ranma coughed weakly and twitched slightly against something holding him immobile.

What was going on? Last he remembered he'd been falling into darkness after hitting the floor of the Orb chamber far to hard… He must have been knocked out, but where was he now? And why was he tied up? Well obviously somebody had found him. And he was tied in such an odd way; his hands and feet were all bound together in front of them. He twitched again trying to loosen his bounds but they were tied to securely for him to get them off short of some major use of strength. It would probably be better to figure out where he was before he did something like that though. Why was it still so dark anyway? He couldn't see a thing.

Wriggling a little on the spot Ranma struggled to sit up and finally managed it after the 5th try. Why was he finding it so hard to move? Ryouga's body wasn't that hard to move around in compared to his own. Furthering his wriggling, Ranma shimmied backwards until his back met up with something big that halted him. It was sort of soft, but Ranma couldn't move it, at least not from the position he was in anyway.

Frowning Ranma decided it was time to get the bindings off. Straining, he pulled his hands and feet away from each other as hard as he could and the rope burst outwards nearly immediately. Ranma shrugged; Ryouga really was strong.

Turning from where he sat Ranma was in time to see what had blocked his way clearly as the lights in the room flicked on suddenly. Ranma stared.

It was a backpack.

A familiar backpack.

Ryouga's backpack.

Ranma stared at the backpack in complete shock. It was bigger then him.

Ranma shook his head and stared again. This couldn't be right. How was the backpack bigger then him?

A dark shadow suddenly blocked out all the light and Ranma stared up…and up…and up…

"Here Piggy, piggy, piggy. Now don't you run away; we've got a nice hot pot boiling for you. Come' ere!"

Ranma ran.

-=-=-=-

Ryouga was having an interesting day.

First he'd found his way to the road easily, without getting lost once. Then he'd correctly followed the signs posted along it to reach the first township on the way to Tokyo. Not once getting lost. Not once!

Ryouga was smiling. He wasn't just smiling, he was happy. Being happy reflected in his smile; he was making other people smile. Such complete and utter pure happiness was infectious.

In his hand Ryouga held a small map of the town he was in. He beamed at it. It said that two streets over and a block up he'd find a ramen café. Ryouga set off, his smile creating waves of happiness along the streets behind him, until he reached the café. Perfectly. Not getting lost. Ryouga's smile widened. Life was good, and the only thing to make it better would be a plate full of hot ramen. Easily remedied; he turned to entire the café…

…And was drenched in a tub full of cold water.

Ryouga's eyes went wide. No! Not P-chan! Not when his day was going so… Ryouga's thoughts caught up with events. He wasn't P-chan. But he had shrunk slightly; and his clothing was far too baggy all-of-a-sudden.

"Oh Miss! Are you all right? I'm terribly sorry, I didn't see you there." A young man, a little older the Ryouga hurried out of the café, a bucket in one hand and a sheepish expression on his face, "I really am sorry miss. Please, How about some Ramen? On the house?"

Ryouga stood, completely immobile, as he carefully thought through all the information available to him, then his smile came back twice the size it had been. He hadn't turned into P-chan…he'd turned into Ranma-chan. Ryouga directed his dazzling grin at the young man, "Yes please. That would be just great!"

Humming quietly Ryouga followed the relieved young man inside for the perfect Ramen to compliment the perfect day.

-=-=-=-=-

Ranma wasn't having the perfect day.

After being chased around a barn by a hungry farmer Ranma had managed to grab Ryouga's backpack by the strap and drag it with him as he dashed from the building and into the surrounding forest where he was immediately set upon by a pack of wild dogs. Still dragging the backpack, his only hope of turning human again within it, Ranma had managed to escape the dogs; but only by running off the edge of a cliff, plunging 15 feet through thin air, and landing in a fast flowing river where he'd had to cling, with all the might he could, to the backpack by his teeth until the pack had finally been thrown up onto a bank where Ranma now lay, completely exhausted.

Have to get up… Slowly Ranma dragged himself to his feet and worked the strap of the backpack open and wriggled inside, searching for the small portable element he knew Ryouga carried with him. He had to turn human again, he couldn't handle being P-Chan…

Finally managing to wriggle down properly Ranma nudged the element with his nose and immediately set his teeth into it and began to pull it to the top of the pack. Then froze.

"….'manda! Look, someone's backpack Do you think there's anyone nearby?"

Ranma's world was suddenly tipped on it's axis as the backpack was lugged upright.

"Whoa! It's heavy, what do you think's in here?"

Light suddenly entered the darkness of the pack and Ranma found himself staring up at the faces of two blonde girls.

One squealed, "Oh look! A cute little Piglet! Oh 'manda! Can we keep him?!"

The one who was obviously ''manda' laughed, "I doubt the owner of this pack would want you stealing his pig Connie."

"But there's no one around. Can't we just take everything home and leave a note to come and get it all? If he doesn't come then we can keep it!"

'Manda tilted her head to the side then nodded, "Alright. Go get Papa to help with the pack and I'll write the note." Connie screamed with delight then leapt to her feet and ran off out of Ranma's sight.

"Sorry little guy. If I don't let her have her way she'll scream and pout all night. I just hope your real owner shows up." So saying 'Manda fastened the flap of the pack shut, effectively cutting off Ranma's only hope of escape and after a few moments there were some muffled voices then Ranma was made dizzy as the backpack was lifted up and carried.

Curling up in the pack Ranma cursed, he wasn't even going to tempt the gods by asking if the day could get any worse. He already knew it would.

-=-=-=-