Abandoning One's Manhood
Prolouge: Lost and Found... and then Lost Again
by Minako
All of the Ranma 1/2 characters and related stuff belongs to Rumiko
Takahashi. Any original characters I may decide to stick in here are
mine, steal them and I'll cry. Then I'll get over it and steal them
back, after sending you flames until your email account is full. ^_^
-------
A boy wandered through the middle of nowhere. He was rather cut
up, and his clothing had probably seen better days (at least we should
hope it had). He was stumbling a bit, from exhaustion no doubt, and he
looked as if he hadn't slept in days.
Wandering out of the forested area he had been in, the boy
walked slowly down the road. After a short time, he stopped short in
shock, and stared at the house in front of him.
"No way..." He whispered. "This can't be... am I really... am I
finally... home?" The boy stumbled up the steps to the house, then
tried his key in the lock. Sure enough, it opened. "WWWOOOOOHHHOOOOO!!"
The word echoed down the street, and most people ignored it. Only a few
stopped to stare at the boy, crying in the open doorway. After a
moment, the boy regained his composure and entered the house.
Once inside, he dropped his large bag on the ground near the
door, and tried to remember just where his room was. After a minute, he
decided to take a chance, and against his better judgement, he headed
upstairs with the bag in tow. Lucky for him, his room was right at the
top. Shoving through the door, he collapsed on the bed, and began
laughing in joy.
After nearly a year, Ryouga had finally made it back home.
-------
"Hey, old man! Just where are we goin'?" Genma paused to turn
and look at his son.
"To visit my old friend Hibiki." Ranma looked genuinely amazed.
"You have friends?" Genma replied by elbow dropping his son on
the head.
"Of course I do! Foolish boy!" Ranma shoved his father away
from him.
"Yeah whatever. Why do I have to go?" Genma walked away. "Hey
you! What's the deal? Answer me! Why do I have to go?" Ranma had a very
bad feeling about this.
"I want you to meet his daughter." Ranma looked surprised, then
he punched his father.
"I don't need any help getting a girlfriend thank you." He
growled. Genma backed up to a safe distance before responding.
"It's not quite like that boy. You see, you're already engaged
to her." Ranma twitched.
"I'm WHAT!?" Genma was off and running, and Ranma was following
close behind. "Get back here!" Ranma yelled, wishing he had something
he could throw at him.
"It was arranged before either of you were born! We decided to
join our two families! I haven't heard from him since then!" Ranma
growled in frustration.
"The hell! If you haven't heard from him since then how the
heck do you even know he's got a daughter?" This thought stopped Genma
in his tracks, and Ranma slammed into his back.
"Well... of course it's a girl... it must be..." Having
forgotten the danger his son posed, Genma then took a shot upside the
head.
"STUPID OLD MAN!!" Yelled Ranma. He watched in satisfaction as
his father soared through the air. Without missing a beat, he began
walking in the general direction his father had flew in, a confused
look on his face. 'Hibiki... why do I know that name?' He wondered as
he walked. Then he shrugged it off 'The old man must've mentioned it
sometime' and he left it without another thought.
-------
Ryouga woke up. He stared at the ceiling and tried to remember
just where he was this time. 'Oh yeah... home' He sat on his bed
crosslegged and looked around the room, aside from the large bag laying
on the floor, it looked pretty much the way it had before he'd left.
Things were strewn about the floor, clothing in odd places, furniture
turned over. He grinned. Boy, he'd been in awful mood after Ranma
hadn't shown. He sighed and flopped back on his bed, debating about
whether he should stay home to see if anyone would show up or not. He
laughed at the thought. 'Yeah right, my parents' directional sense is
about as good as mine.' He smiled at the thought of not being the only
one so bad off. He sighed as he tried to think of what to do. He
thought about all the places he'd ended up, and how long it had been
since he'd been home. 'High school's started... I haven't been here
since junior high... this is all Ranma's fault! If he hadn't left when
he did!' His anger began to return. 'Ranma... how dare you... it's all
your fault... your fault...'
"YOUR FAULT!!" He jumped up from his bed and made his way out
of the room, just barely remembering to pick up his large travelling
bag on the way out. Walking downstairs, he walked through the door in
front of him, exiting the house. Slamming the door, but forgetting to
lock it, Ryouga ran down the street, screaming in rage. "RANMA!!!" This
time, a few more people stopped to stare, but most of them just got out
of his way and continued with their lives.
Hours later, he stopped, his rage mostly gone. He looked around
himself and sighed. 'Man, I'd kinda wanted to take a bath before
getting lost... oh well.' He thought as he wandered in another random
direction, looking for a hot spring this time. 'Ranma... this is your
fault.'
-------
Not too far from where Ryouga wandered, a man stood looking
around at his surroundings. He sighed and continued walking towards the
city, brushing near black hair out of his eyes as he stared at a map.
After a long minute, he threw the map into the oversized bag on his
back and continued to walk.
"Defective thing." Was all he said as he slowly made his way
into the city.
-------
Da-a! My first try at a multiple part fic. It's kinda hard to write,
because I wanna write the fun parts (hence the reason the epilogue's
done, and it's no coincidence that the third part is closer to being
completed than the second ^_^ Anyways, I would really like to know what
people think of this, daybreak_impression@yahoo.ca constructive criticism's
ok, but flames make me cry. I also know I'm insane, and understand if you
think Ranma and Ryouga being a couple is gross, but with those two as a
couple in mind, go watch the episode, "Ranma, You Jerk!" and maybe you'll
understand me a bit better ^_~
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geocities.com/tokyo/club) (
geocities.com/tokyo)