Chapter Three: The Three Things That Confused Ryouga

When Ran-kun woke that morning, afternoon light was streaming in the window and the other futon was empty. He looked at the clock. One pm? No wonder Ranma was already up. Ran-kun felt a brief flash of embarrassment at how late he had slept. He found the clothing he had worn the day before clean and folded neatly on the table, dressed quickly, and went downstairs. The only other person in the house was Kasumi.
    
“Kasumi-san?” he asked hesitantly, and was rewarded with a bright smile.
    
“Yes, Ran-kun?”
    
The voice unnerved him a little bit. Why was she so cheerful? He decided to put of his search for Ranma for a little while and talk to her. He might as well find out as much as he could about this world before he left. He felt a little bad about lying to Ranma and saying that he knew how to leave, but now that he seemed not to be in any imminent danger of being either kicked out or throttled. So instead of asking where everyone was, he sat down next to her instead. He had never really gotten to know Kasumi very well; in his world, she was attending college to become a nurse.
    
“Can I talk to you, Kasumi-san?”
    
“Of course. And please, you can call me Kasumi.”
    
“Thank you.” He sat down next to her.
    
They made small talk for a little while. Ran-kun was surprised at how very domestic Kasumi was – she seemed to have few interests outside of the home. He was wondering why, and almost missed her say, “After mother died, Akane…”
    
He interrupted her. “Your… your mother died?”
    
Her expression changed slightly into one of surprise. “Yes, ten years ago. You didn’t know?”
    
He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. She’s still alive in my world.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Kasumi. Kenriko-san is a wonderful woman.”
    
“Still… alive?” the words were whispered, as if she hardly dared to believe it.
    
Ran-kun nodded. “She’s a friend of my mother’s.”
    
“Could you tell me about her?” There was nothing of the vapid, smiling homemaker in the question. Ran-kun realized that this was the nine-year old Kasumi speaking now, the one who still grieved for her mother.
    
“Of course.”
    
Kasumi listened quietly throughout his narrative, tears gathering in her eyes and eventually overflowing them and streaming down her cheeks. Ran-kun understood what she was feeling at the moment all too well, even though he had yet to meet his father and no longer really wanted to. When he finished, she was smiling. “Thank you, Ranma,” she said softly.
    
He nodded. “No problem.” After a few more minutes he left her. It had been a strangely calming experience. He hoped he had helped her, at least.
    
He didn’t bother to turn back and ask where Ranma was, like he had originally intended; it wasn’t too much of a mystery, considering all of the loud crashes, bangs, and shouts coming from the dojo. As he walked up to it, he was startled by the sudden sight of a fist breaking through and then retracting. He couldn’t even tell whose fist it was.
    
He entered with a little trepidation, peeking around the door first. Ranma and Ryouga had paused for a moment, facing each other from opposite sides of the half-demolished practice hall. Ryouga sported a large bruise on his left cheek and Ranma was carrying his left arm gingerly, as if it were hurt, but neither of them seemed even tired. Ranma noticed him and waved in greeting.
    
“Hey, Ran-kun! About time ya woke up, sleepy head!”
    
Ryouga just looked uncomfortable. “Hi, Ran-kun.”
    
“Hi, Ranma, Ryouga,” he greeted, feeling a little surreal saying his own name. He gave the latter boy a brilliant smile and smirked inwardly at the confused reaction. “Please, don’t stop for my sake. I’ve always wondered how I would hold my own against Ryouga if I had trained.”
    
Ranma laughed at that. “Well, it’s awfully close in here, and I don’t want’cha ta get hurt.” He looked at Ryouga. “Park?”
    
The lost boy nodded with a feral grin. “Park. Out there I can kick your ass.”
    
Ranma smirked, and flexed his injured arm, which didn’t seem to be hurt anymore. “Ya mean ya can try, P-chan.”
    
Ryouga growled. “Don’t call me P-chan!”
    
Both of the identical boys laughed in unison, startling Ryouga out of his flash of anger. Eyes twinkling identically, they said in together, “He’s fun to tease, ain’t he?”
    
Ranma nodded. “Yep. Well, let’s go. You can see us really spar outside. This was just a little warm-up.”
    
Ran-kun blinked. “Warm-up?”
    
“Yeah. If we fought in the dojo, we’d demolish it.”
    
“You mean you haven’t already?”
    
Even Ryouga had to laugh – slightly – at that one.

***

    Ran-kun was a little surprised when the fight gathered a small audience. No one really paid much attention to him, except to give him a curious glance and then shrug. He could almost see them thinking, It’s Ranma. Who knows?

     The two boys faced off, Ryouga wielding a red bamboo umbrella in a posture that even Ran-kun could tell was an attacking stance, and Ranma crouching into a relaxed defensive form. There was a brief moment when all was frozen, then suddenly Ryouga gave off a great shout and darted forward, moving faster than it seemed someone of his bulk ought to be able to. No matter how fast he was, though, Ranma was a great deal lighter and more lithe, and jumped up and out of the way easily. He seemed to hang in the air for longer than should have been physically possible before he was joined above the ground and attacked again.

    The fight when on much like that for nearly an hour – Ryouga would attack and Ranma would dodge, sometimes counterattacking in the moment of opportunity, sometimes taunting, sometimes merely showing off with a particularly dazzling display of acrobatics that often seemed to be necessary, somehow. The fight became more intense quickly, and Ran-kun was awed at the speed of Ranma’s punches when he actually initiated the attack. What surprised him the most was Ryouga’s use of bandannas as weapons, however. At first he wondered at the usefulness of the attack, but then one of them sliced clean through a thick tree branch and he revised his opinion.

    Finally both they came to a sudden stop, facing each other on opposite sides of the much-damaged field. Neither looked particularly injured, and Ran-kun wondered. Had they been holding back?

    Suddenly Ranma smirked. “I won,” he announced simply, and at first the claim seemed ridiculous. After all, Ryouga was still standing and looked just fine. Then all of a sudden his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed face first on the ground.

    Ranma walked over to him and pushed him onto his back. “Hey man, ya alright?”

    Ryouga opened his eyes slowly and groaned as he sat up. “I could’da beat you.”

    Ranma rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.” He offered a hand to help Ryouga stand up, but it was rejected as the lost boy jumped to his feet.

    “I’m not hurt,” he insisted.

    “Yeah, right,” Ranma said, and poked a spot on his side, making Ryouga wince with pain. “That should hurt, seein’ as how I hit it about three hundred times. You should’a been able to block that one, pig-boy.”

    “Don’t call me that!” Ryouga snapped. “And I was busy!”

    Ran-kun followed at a distance as they continued to bicker all the way back to the dojo. He smiled to himself. At least they were friends, whether they admitted it to each other or not.

***

Ryouga argued with Ranma on the way back to the Tendo Dojo only half-heartedly. He was curious about the strange person that Ranma called ‘Ran-kun’ but looked just like his nemesis. Ranma had refused to say much, insisting that it was Ran-kun’s place to tell the story, not his. He did it just to annoy Ryouga, of course, and it was working, much to Ryouga’s… well, annoyance. The realization of the motive obviously didn’t help.

But he found himself eating the lunch that was offered silently. He was habitually introverted anyway, and the fact that Ran-kun looked exactly like Ranma – except maybe with slightly longer hair – didn’t help much.

Ran-kun wasn’t so shy. “Y’know, you’re not exactly the same as the Ryouga I know,” he said, thinking, If only you knew the half of it…

Ryouga looked at him quizzically, and Ran-kun wobbled a little. Wow… if only he knew how cute he is when he’s confused… that bandanna is so freakin’ sexy… I’ll have to get Ryo-chan to start wearing one. “Yeah. You’re a lot… I don’t know… quieter? And then there’s the thing with your rivalry with – um, Ranma. I know he got you cursed and all, but really, isn’t enough enough?”

Before Ryouga could think of an answer, Ranma jumped up and hauled his twin out of the room. Ryouga blinked.

***

“Don’t you dare, Ran-kun!”

Ran-kun looked at Ranma innocently. “Do what?”

Ranma reddened. “You know what I mean.”

“What? Stop flirting with him? Why would you care? It’s not like I’m Ranma, after all. I’m just Ran-kun, little confused boy from another world.” He made his best innocent expression.

Ranma rolled his eyes. “Akane’s a better actor than you, y’know.”

Ran-kun scowled mockingly. “Look who’s talking. Geez. Anyway, since you’re not using him, I don’t see any harm with me having a little fun. He’s just so cute, how do you expect me to resist?”

It was difficult to make Ranma speechless. But he suddenly found himself in such a state, shocked by the lightly teasing statement. Facing his smirking opponent, he finally managed to gather his wits and started to say something when the two of them abruptly vanished into little sparkles of white dust.

***

Ryouga shrugged off the duo’s sudden departure and helped himself to generous portions of Kasumi’s cooking. After living out of his pack for nearly three weeks, the homemade meal – cooked by such a good chef, none the less – was more important than whatever squabbles Ranma was having with himself. He didn’t even notice the oddness of that logic, such was his concentration on the food. He hardly noticed when he vanished into speckles of white dust and reappeared in a hazy, colorless void. He was mildly annoyed that the table and food on it wasn’t there anymore, but he somehow kept his plate, and that had enough to keep him occupied for at least a minute.

***

~Mordain

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