Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ragnarock ❯ Wild Horses & Mountain Girls ( Chapter 2 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Metroanime 
...then the story is continued as Ranma tries to survive in the Bayankala mountains and meets Shampoo...
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Post-apocalyptic / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 11.08.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.9K | Visits: 1.0K | Status: Completed
...then the story is continued as Ranma tries to survive in the Bayankala mountains and meets Shampoo...
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Psychological / Post-apocalyptic / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 11.08.2002 | Pages: 4 | Words: 3.9K | Visits: 1.0K | Status: Completed
Ragnarock chapter 2: Wild Horses and Mountain Girls
Disclaimer: Ranma Saotome, Genma Saotome, Shampoo, Cologne, Nichieju Chinese Amazons, are all copyright Rumiko Takahashi. This is Darkness To Light in flavor.
Yes, Ranma and Shampoo are going to be OOC. Honestly, in this sort of situation, i'd expect it.
---------------
January 12, 1992
Ranma grunted and pushed the rock off of him. "Visit the Bayankala Mountain Range. We'll be safe there. Stupid Oyaji."
Ranma took stock of his situation. His father Genma, gone. They'd gone to some hotshot training ground called Jusenkyo, Genma suggesting that if the sky was going to fall, they ought to get out of the city. And where better than some martial arts training ground up in the mountains?
OK, some big rock was gonna hit the Earth. Big deal. Killed a bunch'a dinosaurs a few million years ago. Ain't got martial arts in front of it, so it didn't concern *him.* Talking about freakin' aliens and ice ages and lotsa other stuff Ranma just didn't understand.
Oyaji had always said, Martial Arts is everything. If it doesn't have Martial Arts in front of it, it wasn't something Ranma should focus on.
Ranma looked out over the smouldering landscape and cursed his father for being an idiot. Not for the first time. Not even the first time today.
They'd stood near the edge of this cliff, looking down at the training site they'd come to find. Then Ranma had glanced up and saw it. Trails of fire cutting through the sky. Falling stars. Naturally, he'd made a wish. Considering the last time he'd eaten, it had been for food.
Naturally he hadn't gotten it. One of those falling stars had hit somewhere to the Southeast. It had hit fairly hard too.
His father had vanished down a slope when the quake hit, oddly enough he'd gone right over the edge towards the very training site they'd been heading for. When the quake had finished, the whatever-they-were started hitting. Lumps of really hot damn rocks that exploded when they
hit.
By the time Ranma had gotten down the slope, there was no sign of his father. There were a lot of little empty pools and burning bamboo poles. There was a hut, and it had taken a hit, but it was mainly intact. He'd gone out to one of the remaining pools to get water. All he'd done was scoop up two handfuls of water and splash his face with it to get the dirt and sweat off.
He'd freaked out until he found a Japanese tour book in the hut that explained the Curses Of Jusenkyo. The teapot, battered and burned along the bottom, immediately became a prized possession.
Ranma had claimed the hut, planning to stay there until someone else showed up. Problem was he'd been outside again and he'd discovered that there were aftershocks. With another load of rocks, some of which had been dumped directly on him this time.
So Ranma had to face that his stupid father was either dead or had left the area. The little hut was still mainly standing, but the ash beginning to drift down after this last shake was not a good sign. Ranma had travelled all over Japan, he couldn't tell you who was currently a member of the Japanese Senate, but he did know what lots of volcanic ash meant.
He'd been hoping that the red glow to the Southeast had been something else.
Ranma ransacked the contents of the hut, discarding many things as useless. Canned foods - keep. Old vinyl records - leave. Flashlight - keep. Calculator - leave. Old books (might have resale value, or they might have information on how to permanently cure this damn curse.
As they were all in Chinese, he couldn't be sure what they were.) - keep, but use a sack so that he could dump them if they proved to be too much trouble. Medical supplies - in his pack as secure as he could make them. Knife- keep, not as a weapon but as this was a fair sized
sharp knife, a survival tool. And so on. He hated to abandon the place. He'd only been there one day and one night, but it was shelter and his father *might* still show up. Unfortunately, if he waited too long he had a feeling he'd be stuck here.
Ranma lifted the sack containing the books and other "expendables" after settling the pack of necessaries. He eyed the hut one last time then left. He didn't have much time if the way the ash coming down was any indication.
Upon reaching the edge of the training ground, he glanced back a final time. He couldn't even see the hut through the thick ash fall, and Ranma adjusted the scarf he'd placed around his nose and mouth again. Belatedly, he realized that maybe he should have left a note. Too late
now.
Ranma trudged off, deciding that as Southeast was a *bad* direction, he should try going Northwest, then circle around the worst of the area on the way back to Japan.
-----------
January 13, 1992:
Ranma spent a few minutes staring down at the girl in indecision.
She was bloodied and battered, and it looked like she had been in one of the landslides triggered by the quakes. His supplies weren't that great, and he was getting pretty damn tired. He was having trouble surviving as it was. He had no business messing with some...
"Oh to hell with it," grumbled Ranma as he went down the slope. It took him a few minutes to reach her. It wasn't that far down, but simply leaping down might trigger another slide or open up a crevasse in the cracked ground. Slow and cautious had become the pace after he'd experienced both.
Closer examination revealed that the girl had probably done something similar, just hadn't recovered quite quickly enough to avoid being hit. Broken arm, broken leg - two places, ribs had taken a pretty good hit, so had her head. Ranma had been practicing martial arts his whole life, so he knew a few things about injuries. He moved the bones back into place, wincing and glad the girl was unconscious, and then began splinting them. He used some of the old scrolls that had wooden dowels and tied them into place with strips of cloth from the girl's own clothes. A small backpack was located, and this one had some odd things. Shampoo? Why bother carrying shampoo when there's an active volcano not nearly far enough away? Women!
That left him with an unconscious girl, her pack, his own pack, and his sack. Ranma looked back and forth before putting the girl's backpack into place on her, then using a rope in her pack to tie her into place in a fireman's carry position. Then he slung his backpack over one shoulder, lifted the sack, and was moving again.
It quickly became obvious that there was something wrong with the air. He'd carried heavier weights for longer periods without a dull ache in his lungs. Therefore, it wasn't *his* fault. Not any weakness on *his* part. That must mean... Ranma wasn't sure what it was. Maybe he should have stayed awake in more of his classes. Whatever went wrong with air.
--------
Shampoo groaned and opened her eyes slowly. She'd jumped down, taking a short cut to rejoin the rest of the Tribe, the ground had crumbled, rocks had started coming down all around her, and then...
Then she was getting her first bonbori practice from her Great-grandmother, and seeing her Mother turn away from having such a weak daughter, and then she'd...
Shampoo winced as all the various pains began making themselves known. So she'd come near enough death to experience anew her life. Clearly, however, she was not dead. She hurt entirely too much for that.
Now she could see a little bit more. One arm and one leg were splinted. Various damp cuts and scrapes, the tears in the fabric around them bloody. Conclusion: one of the village Healers had found her. Probably an apprentice as the bindings were well done but not expertly so. She had been laid down with a thin blanket underneath her, and the idiot had put her down so that she had a rock digging in just below her right hip.
Shampoo slowly raised her head to see if it was that stupid Sash who had come across her. Her eyes widened when she saw her benefactor.
Some redhaired girl tending a fire nearby, setting a kettle out to heat. An Outsider Woman?!
Shampoo gritted her teeth in a snarl. This wasn't good. Showing any weakness in front of an Outsider Woman was frowned on to say the least. The problem was that Shampoo wondered if she *could* kill the girl. Yes, she was a tough Amazon warrior. However, she felt about as weak
as a newborn kitten, was pretty badly injured, and had not eaten in some time.
The Outsider drew closer, having taken a battered cup of some kind and dipped it into a bucket also near the fire. She held it out, smiling and nodding.
"You are an Outsider Woman, I can accept no aid from you." Shampoo glared at the girl.
The girl replied in some incomprehensible language, frowning and sniffing at the cup, then muttering something else.
Even though Shampoo was nearly hungry enough to eat her own clothes, she tried to refuse the girl again. The problem came when she tried to shake her head and slap the offending cup away.
When the wave of pain and dizziness had passed, Shampoo realized something *very* wrong had just occurred. She could taste rabbit stew (or more like rabbit soup, and not very good soup either) in her mouth. The Outsider was still there, sitting close enough by that Shampoo
could have reached out and struck her. Leaning close enough that Shampoo could have driven a sword through her without warning. Except that she couldn't seem to move. Her body had somehow gotten extremely heavy. It took a few moments for her to realize why. Her brief glimpse of her clothes earlier had shown large segments of bloody gashes and cuts. She was probably missing a lot of blood right now.
Shampoo cursed that she should be this weak and vulnerable when there was an Outsider Woman here. Now she would be killed. Everyone knew how tricky and dishonorable, how sneaky and hateful Outsider Women were when dealing with Amazons!
The Outsider mumbled something in that language again. Then took a big mouthful of the contents of that cup. Then...
Shampoo stiffened involuntarily as the Outsider kissed her, passing the stew from her mouth to Shampoo's own. She felt her throat stroked and involuntarily swallowed.
The Outsider did this three more times, then said something else in that incomprehensible tongue, then moved away. Shampoo felt another blanket being moved to cover her, then spent several minutes blinking up at the night sky.
Great Grandmother was going to kill her.
Not only had she accepted aid from an Outsider Woman. Not only did she owe life-debt to an Outsider Woman. An Outsider Woman had just given her a reasonable fascimile of the Kiss Of Marriage. Shampoo felt tears come to her eyes that had nothing to do with physical pain.
She could barely move, though she felt some strength returning now that she'd gotten some food. Still she could barely move, and some Outsider Woman had backed her into the wall. Shampoo wasn't quite sure *what* Amazon Law said about occasions like this.
With an effort, Shampoo levered herself up to get yet another surprise.
The redhaired girl was gone. Instead some boy with black hair was tending the fire. The boy saw her leaning up and said something in the same odd language that the girl had used. Brother and sister maybe? Or husband and wife? They looked to be about the same age.
Exhaustion took Shampoo before she could decide what she was hoping for.
---------
January 14, 1992:
Ranma was suddenly aware that the girl tied to his back was awake and some of her strength had returned. Her saying something that sounded very unhappy and tugging at her ropes was his first clue.
Then she apparently saw where they were and stopped moving. "Aiyaaah."
"Actually I agree," said Ranma. Long drop. Lots of sharp rocks. Narrow ledge. Definitely an "Aiyaah."
The girl mumbled something that sounded angry and frightened at the same time.
"Look, I could drop you off here but you probably wouldn't like that."
More mutterings. In Chinese, Ranma supposed. Pity he didn't speak much more than "Aiyaah" and "Ni Hao."
That burning in his chest had subsided though he was feeling kind of nauseous of late. Maybe there had been something wrong with that rabbit. He couldn't tell from the girl if she was affected by it, she'd spent a lot of time sleeping. Though her coloration looked better since
she'd eaten.
Still, he couldn't tell.
Especially at this angle.
"Ni hao," Ranma tried.
It took a few moments, and when it finally came it sounded kind of petulant. "Ni hao."
Ranma tried talking to her, even though he knew she didn't speak Japanese. She was the first (and only) human being he'd seen since he'd gotten seperated from (stupid baka) oyaji. He hadn't realized how used he had been to be around someone.
And in this blasted, destroyed, mainly silent landscape, it was all too easy to imagine that they were the last people alive. Had there been a nuclear war? How could he tell?
Another tremor went through the ground, causing Ranma to flail and grab the cliff-face for support.
Ranma finally found what looked like a fairly safe place and unloaded his burdens. There was running water, there wasn't any rocks looking ready to roll over the site, and sufficient flat areas to spread a camp.
The girl looked him over, then made a show of looking around for something.
"I don't understand," admitted Ranma while the girl tried to be more obvious in looking around.
The girl said something that sounded uncomplimentary from where she sat.
Ranma sighed and stretched out where the ropes had bitten into his skin. "I don't understand Chinese, and I ain't no good at charades."
The girl said something, another question if he got the tone right.
"Ye got me. Whatever it is you're askin'." Ranma sighed and stumbled a little. "Sure ain't doing too well here. How's your leg?"
The girl blinked at him a few times, then pointed a finger at herself. "Shampoo." Then she pointed a finger at Ranma.
Ranma blinked. Yeah, he'd found some bottles of shampoo in her pack. Was her hair *that* important to her? It wasn't like he understood women at all. His father had kept dragging him around all his life. It wasn't like he'd even spent *this* much time around them before. Maybe girls were like that?
He'd wondered about it ever since he'd found the bottles of shampoo and scroll of scalp massage techniques in the girl's possessions. When everything was going to heck all around them, this girl wanted her hair washed?
Well, he'd have to see what he could do. It was a break, at least.
-----------
January 19, 1992:
"Fujiko, don't do that." Ranma sighed and pulled the girl back from the cliff edge. The odd girl giggled and snuggled up against him in response.
Ranma tried to ignore the girl's attempts to cuddle. He'd started calling her Fujiko because she had hair that had that sort of shade of Mount Fuji purple and acted like a child.
Though she wasn't exactly an unpleasant companion. She was hobbling along on crutches now, slowing him down a lot, but what the heck. He wasn't entirely sure he could face it if Japan was in as bad a shape as that village they'd just gone through.
She was a better listener than Oyaji. Nicer on the eyes too. Not that that was saying much.
She hadn't mentioned shampoo since that one time he'd washed her hair so he must have done a good job with that scroll. Who'd have thought that there was some special technique for washing hair? HAD to be a girl thing. Actually she hadn't mentioned much of anything since then. The most she'd done was make inarticulate noises. And smiled a lot. Weird.
As for the village, that'd been a real mess. Looked like everyone had packed up and left in a hurry, then there'd been looters, then the looters had gone.
Ranma couldn't even tell what the name had been.
The reason the place had been abandoned was easy enough to see. There had only been a thin trickle of water from any of the wells that had hand pumps, and no electricity to speak of for anything else. With the roads cracked from the earthquakes, the inhabitants had relocated. Without water, there would have been no way to fight the fires that were inevitable in volcano country. Without supplies or electricity or water...
There hadn't been much to find that the looters had missed. Mainly some canned food in a discarded rucksack that had apparently been left behind.
Not that he was complaining. He'd ate four cans of tuna, Fujiko had eaten two. Canned carrots and peas had likewise fallen to the two nearly bottomless pits.
Still, it was a temporary measure and Ranma knew it. Though if they ran across an all-you-can-eat buffet, Ranma suspected that they'd do damage of Godzilla proportions.
No, what they needed to find was civilization. Maybe get back to Japan.
----------
January 23, 1992:
Ranma was awake, watching the last embers of the campfire, when IT happened. His attention was drawn by the flicker of light, and he glanced up to see something that he would have had trouble crediting.
A whimper from Fujiko indicated that she had seen it too.
The longtime companion of the moon, always showing the same face towards the earth, had a flickering cloud about it. This was not the usual lowlying clouds that were omnipresent in the mountains. This was a cloud that looked for all the world as if it were swallowing up the moon.
Fujiko whimpered again and crawled to Ranma's side, a child in need of assurance.
Ranma admitted that he could use some reassurance himself and merely held her until the child-woman fell asleep.
------------
January 25, 1992:
"Ohhh, my head hurts."
"Do you remember anything, great granddaughter?"
Shampoo held her head briefly. "That boy that was with me. Ranma. He called me 'Fujiko' and took care of me. What happened to him?"
"That girl with the red hair?" Cologne chuckled.
"It's a boy. He turns into a girl with cold water. Not that we found a lot of ANY temperature of water." Shampoo considered for a moment. "At least I *think* he's a he."
"Oh yes, that's the way the springs of Jusenkyo work. I merely wondered if you knew." Cologne cackled again. "He defeated you, didn't he?"
"I think it was an accident," complained Shampoo. "How did you find us? Oh yeah."
"Memory's still a bit scrambled, is it?" Cologne looked out over the landscape. "Well, we've found a place to establish a temporary settlement. What I want to know is what *you* are going to do."
Shampoo sighed and checked her leg. "You fixed it? Good. I guess I'll give him the Kiss Of Marriage. He's not a bad fellow, strong, and he *did* defeat me when I tried to drink that gallon of water."
"You'll travel with him then," pressed Cologne. "To see what lies in Japan?"
"Might as well. I'm not needed here." Shampoo managed a brief return to perky.
Cologne nodded. "Well, it looks like most of the country is in shambles. Beijing survived, but the stories getting to us now are that they have their hands full just trying to survive. Most of the coastal areas, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, were wiped out. If you can believe the reports. So, if you do marry that fellow, and you *do* go to Japan, keep in mind your old village and great grandmother. And *try* to be a little more careful, Shampoo."
"Okay," agreed Shampoo. "Though I may need you to use that shiatsu technique for languages on me."
"THAT old thing?" Cologne shook her head. "That'll make you sound like a ditz, you know. Wouldn't it be better to learn the language the normal way?"
"Maybe, Great Grandmother, maybe. You want to come? I think I'll go greet my husband in proper Amazon fashion."
Cologne snorted. "It's late Shampoo, and the boy was exhausted by the time he reached us. Greet him in the morning."
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January 26, 1992:
This wasn't the first time that "Fujiko" had crawled up next to him during their sleep. In the mountains and thereafter, the two had often slept close enough to share body warmth.
This WAS the first time that Fujiko had kissed him on the lips, then perkily declared "Good Morning, Airen!"
After peeling himself from the ceiling, having that dried up old ghoul explain that by their laws he was now Shampoo's betrothed, and giving with stumbled denials for two hours, Ranma began to calm down.
Cologne's simple stance on the matter was, he could do a lot worse, and frankly they'd better get a move on before plagues really started to cut down on the travel accomodations.
"Plagues?" Ranma had inquired with a certain looming horror. Martial artists he could fight. Things that attacked the moon, volcanoes, and plagues were a bit off his preferred opponents.
Cologne nodded. Volcanoes not only spewed out pyroclastic materials, lava, and ash, they frequently discharged poisonous gas. This and the tidal waves meant that there were areas with lots and lots of dead bodies. That tended to produce plagues. Among other things.
Cologne pointed out that with satellites down and some sort of ionosphere disturbance, communication wasn't nearly as good as it used to be. So she couldn't tell him what was going on in his homeland. He'd simply have to go himself. Shampoo would accompany him, and if they couldn't find a way to Japan, then they could always return to the village.
Ranma spent another four hours in shock. Then tried to sneak off by himself.
Fujiko, which was to say Shampoo, took off after her husband. Cologne merely chuckled and smiled, young people being so full of energy.
And if the future was uncertain, well, Cologne was old enough to remember other times with similar uncertainty. Taking a deep puff on her pipe, Cologne briefly wondered if she had been cursed to live in interesting times.
It wouldn't be the first time, after all.
===================
end second part of Ragnarock.
someone was supposed to continue this. i'm not sure who, that was two catastrophic failures of the computer ago. It's also been a long time since i've heard anything. i had some ideas for Chapter Two, and this is them. Ideally, this series would deal with different groups as they came together and started rebuilding.
No, it isn't necessarily a Shampoo + Ranma story. They COULD end up together, Shampoo thinks they should, but another pairing is certainly likely.
They'd be a bit OOC. Frankly the mood here wouldn't support the manga tendency for everyone to be thoughtless jerks with a limited attention span. In this sort of setting, such people usually don't last very long.
=================
Disclaimer: Ranma Saotome, Genma Saotome, Shampoo, Cologne, Nichieju Chinese Amazons, are all copyright Rumiko Takahashi. This is Darkness To Light in flavor.
Yes, Ranma and Shampoo are going to be OOC. Honestly, in this sort of situation, i'd expect it.
---------------
January 12, 1992
Ranma grunted and pushed the rock off of him. "Visit the Bayankala Mountain Range. We'll be safe there. Stupid Oyaji."
Ranma took stock of his situation. His father Genma, gone. They'd gone to some hotshot training ground called Jusenkyo, Genma suggesting that if the sky was going to fall, they ought to get out of the city. And where better than some martial arts training ground up in the mountains?
OK, some big rock was gonna hit the Earth. Big deal. Killed a bunch'a dinosaurs a few million years ago. Ain't got martial arts in front of it, so it didn't concern *him.* Talking about freakin' aliens and ice ages and lotsa other stuff Ranma just didn't understand.
Oyaji had always said, Martial Arts is everything. If it doesn't have Martial Arts in front of it, it wasn't something Ranma should focus on.
Ranma looked out over the smouldering landscape and cursed his father for being an idiot. Not for the first time. Not even the first time today.
They'd stood near the edge of this cliff, looking down at the training site they'd come to find. Then Ranma had glanced up and saw it. Trails of fire cutting through the sky. Falling stars. Naturally, he'd made a wish. Considering the last time he'd eaten, it had been for food.
Naturally he hadn't gotten it. One of those falling stars had hit somewhere to the Southeast. It had hit fairly hard too.
His father had vanished down a slope when the quake hit, oddly enough he'd gone right over the edge towards the very training site they'd been heading for. When the quake had finished, the whatever-they-were started hitting. Lumps of really hot damn rocks that exploded when they
hit.
By the time Ranma had gotten down the slope, there was no sign of his father. There were a lot of little empty pools and burning bamboo poles. There was a hut, and it had taken a hit, but it was mainly intact. He'd gone out to one of the remaining pools to get water. All he'd done was scoop up two handfuls of water and splash his face with it to get the dirt and sweat off.
He'd freaked out until he found a Japanese tour book in the hut that explained the Curses Of Jusenkyo. The teapot, battered and burned along the bottom, immediately became a prized possession.
Ranma had claimed the hut, planning to stay there until someone else showed up. Problem was he'd been outside again and he'd discovered that there were aftershocks. With another load of rocks, some of which had been dumped directly on him this time.
So Ranma had to face that his stupid father was either dead or had left the area. The little hut was still mainly standing, but the ash beginning to drift down after this last shake was not a good sign. Ranma had travelled all over Japan, he couldn't tell you who was currently a member of the Japanese Senate, but he did know what lots of volcanic ash meant.
He'd been hoping that the red glow to the Southeast had been something else.
Ranma ransacked the contents of the hut, discarding many things as useless. Canned foods - keep. Old vinyl records - leave. Flashlight - keep. Calculator - leave. Old books (might have resale value, or they might have information on how to permanently cure this damn curse.
As they were all in Chinese, he couldn't be sure what they were.) - keep, but use a sack so that he could dump them if they proved to be too much trouble. Medical supplies - in his pack as secure as he could make them. Knife- keep, not as a weapon but as this was a fair sized
sharp knife, a survival tool. And so on. He hated to abandon the place. He'd only been there one day and one night, but it was shelter and his father *might* still show up. Unfortunately, if he waited too long he had a feeling he'd be stuck here.
Ranma lifted the sack containing the books and other "expendables" after settling the pack of necessaries. He eyed the hut one last time then left. He didn't have much time if the way the ash coming down was any indication.
Upon reaching the edge of the training ground, he glanced back a final time. He couldn't even see the hut through the thick ash fall, and Ranma adjusted the scarf he'd placed around his nose and mouth again. Belatedly, he realized that maybe he should have left a note. Too late
now.
Ranma trudged off, deciding that as Southeast was a *bad* direction, he should try going Northwest, then circle around the worst of the area on the way back to Japan.
-----------
January 13, 1992:
Ranma spent a few minutes staring down at the girl in indecision.
She was bloodied and battered, and it looked like she had been in one of the landslides triggered by the quakes. His supplies weren't that great, and he was getting pretty damn tired. He was having trouble surviving as it was. He had no business messing with some...
"Oh to hell with it," grumbled Ranma as he went down the slope. It took him a few minutes to reach her. It wasn't that far down, but simply leaping down might trigger another slide or open up a crevasse in the cracked ground. Slow and cautious had become the pace after he'd experienced both.
Closer examination revealed that the girl had probably done something similar, just hadn't recovered quite quickly enough to avoid being hit. Broken arm, broken leg - two places, ribs had taken a pretty good hit, so had her head. Ranma had been practicing martial arts his whole life, so he knew a few things about injuries. He moved the bones back into place, wincing and glad the girl was unconscious, and then began splinting them. He used some of the old scrolls that had wooden dowels and tied them into place with strips of cloth from the girl's own clothes. A small backpack was located, and this one had some odd things. Shampoo? Why bother carrying shampoo when there's an active volcano not nearly far enough away? Women!
That left him with an unconscious girl, her pack, his own pack, and his sack. Ranma looked back and forth before putting the girl's backpack into place on her, then using a rope in her pack to tie her into place in a fireman's carry position. Then he slung his backpack over one shoulder, lifted the sack, and was moving again.
It quickly became obvious that there was something wrong with the air. He'd carried heavier weights for longer periods without a dull ache in his lungs. Therefore, it wasn't *his* fault. Not any weakness on *his* part. That must mean... Ranma wasn't sure what it was. Maybe he should have stayed awake in more of his classes. Whatever went wrong with air.
--------
Shampoo groaned and opened her eyes slowly. She'd jumped down, taking a short cut to rejoin the rest of the Tribe, the ground had crumbled, rocks had started coming down all around her, and then...
Then she was getting her first bonbori practice from her Great-grandmother, and seeing her Mother turn away from having such a weak daughter, and then she'd...
Shampoo winced as all the various pains began making themselves known. So she'd come near enough death to experience anew her life. Clearly, however, she was not dead. She hurt entirely too much for that.
Now she could see a little bit more. One arm and one leg were splinted. Various damp cuts and scrapes, the tears in the fabric around them bloody. Conclusion: one of the village Healers had found her. Probably an apprentice as the bindings were well done but not expertly so. She had been laid down with a thin blanket underneath her, and the idiot had put her down so that she had a rock digging in just below her right hip.
Shampoo slowly raised her head to see if it was that stupid Sash who had come across her. Her eyes widened when she saw her benefactor.
Some redhaired girl tending a fire nearby, setting a kettle out to heat. An Outsider Woman?!
Shampoo gritted her teeth in a snarl. This wasn't good. Showing any weakness in front of an Outsider Woman was frowned on to say the least. The problem was that Shampoo wondered if she *could* kill the girl. Yes, she was a tough Amazon warrior. However, she felt about as weak
as a newborn kitten, was pretty badly injured, and had not eaten in some time.
The Outsider drew closer, having taken a battered cup of some kind and dipped it into a bucket also near the fire. She held it out, smiling and nodding.
"You are an Outsider Woman, I can accept no aid from you." Shampoo glared at the girl.
The girl replied in some incomprehensible language, frowning and sniffing at the cup, then muttering something else.
Even though Shampoo was nearly hungry enough to eat her own clothes, she tried to refuse the girl again. The problem came when she tried to shake her head and slap the offending cup away.
When the wave of pain and dizziness had passed, Shampoo realized something *very* wrong had just occurred. She could taste rabbit stew (or more like rabbit soup, and not very good soup either) in her mouth. The Outsider was still there, sitting close enough by that Shampoo
could have reached out and struck her. Leaning close enough that Shampoo could have driven a sword through her without warning. Except that she couldn't seem to move. Her body had somehow gotten extremely heavy. It took a few moments for her to realize why. Her brief glimpse of her clothes earlier had shown large segments of bloody gashes and cuts. She was probably missing a lot of blood right now.
Shampoo cursed that she should be this weak and vulnerable when there was an Outsider Woman here. Now she would be killed. Everyone knew how tricky and dishonorable, how sneaky and hateful Outsider Women were when dealing with Amazons!
The Outsider mumbled something in that language again. Then took a big mouthful of the contents of that cup. Then...
Shampoo stiffened involuntarily as the Outsider kissed her, passing the stew from her mouth to Shampoo's own. She felt her throat stroked and involuntarily swallowed.
The Outsider did this three more times, then said something else in that incomprehensible tongue, then moved away. Shampoo felt another blanket being moved to cover her, then spent several minutes blinking up at the night sky.
Great Grandmother was going to kill her.
Not only had she accepted aid from an Outsider Woman. Not only did she owe life-debt to an Outsider Woman. An Outsider Woman had just given her a reasonable fascimile of the Kiss Of Marriage. Shampoo felt tears come to her eyes that had nothing to do with physical pain.
She could barely move, though she felt some strength returning now that she'd gotten some food. Still she could barely move, and some Outsider Woman had backed her into the wall. Shampoo wasn't quite sure *what* Amazon Law said about occasions like this.
With an effort, Shampoo levered herself up to get yet another surprise.
The redhaired girl was gone. Instead some boy with black hair was tending the fire. The boy saw her leaning up and said something in the same odd language that the girl had used. Brother and sister maybe? Or husband and wife? They looked to be about the same age.
Exhaustion took Shampoo before she could decide what she was hoping for.
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January 14, 1992:
Ranma was suddenly aware that the girl tied to his back was awake and some of her strength had returned. Her saying something that sounded very unhappy and tugging at her ropes was his first clue.
Then she apparently saw where they were and stopped moving. "Aiyaaah."
"Actually I agree," said Ranma. Long drop. Lots of sharp rocks. Narrow ledge. Definitely an "Aiyaah."
The girl mumbled something that sounded angry and frightened at the same time.
"Look, I could drop you off here but you probably wouldn't like that."
More mutterings. In Chinese, Ranma supposed. Pity he didn't speak much more than "Aiyaah" and "Ni Hao."
That burning in his chest had subsided though he was feeling kind of nauseous of late. Maybe there had been something wrong with that rabbit. He couldn't tell from the girl if she was affected by it, she'd spent a lot of time sleeping. Though her coloration looked better since
she'd eaten.
Still, he couldn't tell.
Especially at this angle.
"Ni hao," Ranma tried.
It took a few moments, and when it finally came it sounded kind of petulant. "Ni hao."
Ranma tried talking to her, even though he knew she didn't speak Japanese. She was the first (and only) human being he'd seen since he'd gotten seperated from (stupid baka) oyaji. He hadn't realized how used he had been to be around someone.
And in this blasted, destroyed, mainly silent landscape, it was all too easy to imagine that they were the last people alive. Had there been a nuclear war? How could he tell?
Another tremor went through the ground, causing Ranma to flail and grab the cliff-face for support.
Ranma finally found what looked like a fairly safe place and unloaded his burdens. There was running water, there wasn't any rocks looking ready to roll over the site, and sufficient flat areas to spread a camp.
The girl looked him over, then made a show of looking around for something.
"I don't understand," admitted Ranma while the girl tried to be more obvious in looking around.
The girl said something that sounded uncomplimentary from where she sat.
Ranma sighed and stretched out where the ropes had bitten into his skin. "I don't understand Chinese, and I ain't no good at charades."
The girl said something, another question if he got the tone right.
"Ye got me. Whatever it is you're askin'." Ranma sighed and stumbled a little. "Sure ain't doing too well here. How's your leg?"
The girl blinked at him a few times, then pointed a finger at herself. "Shampoo." Then she pointed a finger at Ranma.
Ranma blinked. Yeah, he'd found some bottles of shampoo in her pack. Was her hair *that* important to her? It wasn't like he understood women at all. His father had kept dragging him around all his life. It wasn't like he'd even spent *this* much time around them before. Maybe girls were like that?
He'd wondered about it ever since he'd found the bottles of shampoo and scroll of scalp massage techniques in the girl's possessions. When everything was going to heck all around them, this girl wanted her hair washed?
Well, he'd have to see what he could do. It was a break, at least.
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January 19, 1992:
"Fujiko, don't do that." Ranma sighed and pulled the girl back from the cliff edge. The odd girl giggled and snuggled up against him in response.
Ranma tried to ignore the girl's attempts to cuddle. He'd started calling her Fujiko because she had hair that had that sort of shade of Mount Fuji purple and acted like a child.
Though she wasn't exactly an unpleasant companion. She was hobbling along on crutches now, slowing him down a lot, but what the heck. He wasn't entirely sure he could face it if Japan was in as bad a shape as that village they'd just gone through.
She was a better listener than Oyaji. Nicer on the eyes too. Not that that was saying much.
She hadn't mentioned shampoo since that one time he'd washed her hair so he must have done a good job with that scroll. Who'd have thought that there was some special technique for washing hair? HAD to be a girl thing. Actually she hadn't mentioned much of anything since then. The most she'd done was make inarticulate noises. And smiled a lot. Weird.
As for the village, that'd been a real mess. Looked like everyone had packed up and left in a hurry, then there'd been looters, then the looters had gone.
Ranma couldn't even tell what the name had been.
The reason the place had been abandoned was easy enough to see. There had only been a thin trickle of water from any of the wells that had hand pumps, and no electricity to speak of for anything else. With the roads cracked from the earthquakes, the inhabitants had relocated. Without water, there would have been no way to fight the fires that were inevitable in volcano country. Without supplies or electricity or water...
There hadn't been much to find that the looters had missed. Mainly some canned food in a discarded rucksack that had apparently been left behind.
Not that he was complaining. He'd ate four cans of tuna, Fujiko had eaten two. Canned carrots and peas had likewise fallen to the two nearly bottomless pits.
Still, it was a temporary measure and Ranma knew it. Though if they ran across an all-you-can-eat buffet, Ranma suspected that they'd do damage of Godzilla proportions.
No, what they needed to find was civilization. Maybe get back to Japan.
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January 23, 1992:
Ranma was awake, watching the last embers of the campfire, when IT happened. His attention was drawn by the flicker of light, and he glanced up to see something that he would have had trouble crediting.
A whimper from Fujiko indicated that she had seen it too.
The longtime companion of the moon, always showing the same face towards the earth, had a flickering cloud about it. This was not the usual lowlying clouds that were omnipresent in the mountains. This was a cloud that looked for all the world as if it were swallowing up the moon.
Fujiko whimpered again and crawled to Ranma's side, a child in need of assurance.
Ranma admitted that he could use some reassurance himself and merely held her until the child-woman fell asleep.
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January 25, 1992:
"Ohhh, my head hurts."
"Do you remember anything, great granddaughter?"
Shampoo held her head briefly. "That boy that was with me. Ranma. He called me 'Fujiko' and took care of me. What happened to him?"
"That girl with the red hair?" Cologne chuckled.
"It's a boy. He turns into a girl with cold water. Not that we found a lot of ANY temperature of water." Shampoo considered for a moment. "At least I *think* he's a he."
"Oh yes, that's the way the springs of Jusenkyo work. I merely wondered if you knew." Cologne cackled again. "He defeated you, didn't he?"
"I think it was an accident," complained Shampoo. "How did you find us? Oh yeah."
"Memory's still a bit scrambled, is it?" Cologne looked out over the landscape. "Well, we've found a place to establish a temporary settlement. What I want to know is what *you* are going to do."
Shampoo sighed and checked her leg. "You fixed it? Good. I guess I'll give him the Kiss Of Marriage. He's not a bad fellow, strong, and he *did* defeat me when I tried to drink that gallon of water."
"You'll travel with him then," pressed Cologne. "To see what lies in Japan?"
"Might as well. I'm not needed here." Shampoo managed a brief return to perky.
Cologne nodded. "Well, it looks like most of the country is in shambles. Beijing survived, but the stories getting to us now are that they have their hands full just trying to survive. Most of the coastal areas, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, were wiped out. If you can believe the reports. So, if you do marry that fellow, and you *do* go to Japan, keep in mind your old village and great grandmother. And *try* to be a little more careful, Shampoo."
"Okay," agreed Shampoo. "Though I may need you to use that shiatsu technique for languages on me."
"THAT old thing?" Cologne shook her head. "That'll make you sound like a ditz, you know. Wouldn't it be better to learn the language the normal way?"
"Maybe, Great Grandmother, maybe. You want to come? I think I'll go greet my husband in proper Amazon fashion."
Cologne snorted. "It's late Shampoo, and the boy was exhausted by the time he reached us. Greet him in the morning."
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January 26, 1992:
This wasn't the first time that "Fujiko" had crawled up next to him during their sleep. In the mountains and thereafter, the two had often slept close enough to share body warmth.
This WAS the first time that Fujiko had kissed him on the lips, then perkily declared "Good Morning, Airen!"
After peeling himself from the ceiling, having that dried up old ghoul explain that by their laws he was now Shampoo's betrothed, and giving with stumbled denials for two hours, Ranma began to calm down.
Cologne's simple stance on the matter was, he could do a lot worse, and frankly they'd better get a move on before plagues really started to cut down on the travel accomodations.
"Plagues?" Ranma had inquired with a certain looming horror. Martial artists he could fight. Things that attacked the moon, volcanoes, and plagues were a bit off his preferred opponents.
Cologne nodded. Volcanoes not only spewed out pyroclastic materials, lava, and ash, they frequently discharged poisonous gas. This and the tidal waves meant that there were areas with lots and lots of dead bodies. That tended to produce plagues. Among other things.
Cologne pointed out that with satellites down and some sort of ionosphere disturbance, communication wasn't nearly as good as it used to be. So she couldn't tell him what was going on in his homeland. He'd simply have to go himself. Shampoo would accompany him, and if they couldn't find a way to Japan, then they could always return to the village.
Ranma spent another four hours in shock. Then tried to sneak off by himself.
Fujiko, which was to say Shampoo, took off after her husband. Cologne merely chuckled and smiled, young people being so full of energy.
And if the future was uncertain, well, Cologne was old enough to remember other times with similar uncertainty. Taking a deep puff on her pipe, Cologne briefly wondered if she had been cursed to live in interesting times.
It wouldn't be the first time, after all.
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end second part of Ragnarock.
someone was supposed to continue this. i'm not sure who, that was two catastrophic failures of the computer ago. It's also been a long time since i've heard anything. i had some ideas for Chapter Two, and this is them. Ideally, this series would deal with different groups as they came together and started rebuilding.
No, it isn't necessarily a Shampoo + Ranma story. They COULD end up together, Shampoo thinks they should, but another pairing is certainly likely.
They'd be a bit OOC. Frankly the mood here wouldn't support the manga tendency for everyone to be thoughtless jerks with a limited attention span. In this sort of setting, such people usually don't last very long.
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