Part Three, Chapter Four – Pride

Akane felt like pacing. Or screaming. Or something. The patients that had been found in the wreckage of Horaisan were gone. The news didn’t say anything more than that – in fact it didn’t even say that. It simply said that they weren’t being held at the hospital anymore. The implication was that they had been discharged, but no one had yet gone to pick them up and Akane doubted that the hospital would just let them wander away.

She was aggravated. How like Ranma to just wander away without telling anyone! Baka! Bakabakabaka… Ryouga better not be hurt! She was mildly surprised to find herself worried about the pink-haired girl, but it was easily explained by the fact that the news programs had mentioned that it was the girl who was in more serious condition. They had said very little about the two patients at all, however.

If she weren’t so certain that the two were headed home, she would have run out there herself and found them. And likely throttled one of them into orbit.

Or at least that what she wanted to do. Akane sagged, slumping down in her chair like a rag doll – or someone who was very, very tired. She would never admit it when they got back, but she was worried about them. At least they were alive. She tried to console herself with that. But there was something else that worried her, something that she couldn’t put a finger on.

Akane shook her head and headed upstairs. She was tired. Not much had happened, but it had been an exhausting two days…

***

In the morning, when she opened her eyes to stare blankly at the ceiling for several minutes, Akane didn’t feel much better than she had the night before. What happened to sleep easing the worries of the night before, she griped mentally before pulling herself out of bed, staring blankly in the mirror for several minutes, and finally dressing for class. She ran out of the house without breakfast, not really wanting to deal with her family right now. 

The walk to class was a blur, done mostly my simple reflex. She stared at her feet. If she didn’t look up there was no way of knowing that there wasn’t another person following the same path…

“Akane?”

She looked up sharply. A female voice saying her name…

Akane deflated slightly when the image of a familiar girl with short black hair came into focus. “Hi, Yuka,” she greeted absentmindedly. She had reached the school without really realizing it.

Yuka raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with you?”

Akane shook her head firmly and pulled her attention fully into the conversation. Snap out of it… she chastised herself before answering. “Nothing.”

Her friend didn’t look convinced. “Right…”

The issue wasn’t pushed, much to Akane’s relief.

For all of ten seconds. Akane winced.

“Do you expect me to believe that?” Yuka exploded, as if the words had been a bomb with a very short fuse. “You’ve been out of it for days. Worried?”

“No,” Akane insisted, tightening her grip on the handle of her bookbag even as she forced her facial muscles into relaxation and smiled. “What would I be worried about?” He gaze slipped off the face of her friend and towards the gate of the school, where students swarmed in. She stared blankly for a moment.

A taller figure passed by, eyes not even veering from its intently straight path.

Akane blinked. “Who…?”

Yuka, not sure if she was the one being addressed, turned and looked. There was nothing to see other than the vaguely familiar faces of her classmates as they flowed past, however. She scrutinized the crowd for specific faces, but it was sadly easily to tell, since every figure was draped in one of two outfits of similar coloring. “Are they back?”

Akane ignored her friend’s question. She started to run for the gate, but turned around and tossed her backpack at Yuka, who caught it, surprised.

“I’ll be back later! There’s something I have to take care of, first!” She hiked up the sleeves of her uniform in obvious preparation for running. This just befuddled Yuka more.

Before she could try to ask again, Akane was out of the gates and gone. The black-haired girl looked at the bag in confusion for a moment before turning to go to class. No point in being late herself, and she needed to let others know what had happened…

***

Akane pumped her arms faster. The streets were crowded at this time of the morning, making it impossible to search for anyone, so Akane ran rather than looked, following the most likely path.

She skidded to a halt in front of a very familiar restaurant. It wasn’t open this early in the morning, but there were definite signs of activity inside, and several voices were audible even though no voices were discernable over the noise of the street. She hesitated before opening the door. It might not be any of her concern… but… if that person was back…

She swung open the door and stepped boldly inside, face set.

Only to narrowly avoid getting nailed in the forehead by a porcelain bowl. The dish shattered against the door, and Akane sighed in relief, thankful for her good reflexes. Then she was drawn back to reality by the pressure of sudden attention.

The six people in the restaurant stared at her. Well, one set of eyes stared at a tall potted plant to her left, but it was the thought that counted and since Mousse’s glasses were perched on top of his head instead of over his eyes he probably thought it was her, at least…

It was like a strange, distorted déjà-vu. She wondered if she ought to have caught the bowl. After all, she would’ve been severely annoyed at Ranma if he hadn’t caught her when she was the object being tossed about in the Nekohanten like an unwanted sack of potatoes.

The tall, cloaked figure made a noise of irritation. That was easily the most bothersome of the gazes leveled at her.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, remembering her original purpose. The cloak may be concealing, but it was also very conspicuous when worn on the streets of Tokyo in bright hours of early morning.

The shortest figure, perched on a table that had been swept clean, rapped the butt of her cane on the table. “We’re closed,” Cologne informed her imperiously. “Please leave.” There was little that was polite about the statement other than it’s phrasing.

“I don’t want food.” Akane steadied her own gaze at the hooded figure, narrowing her eyes. “You’re back. I want to know what happened.”

For a moment there was no answer. “I have nothing to say to you, other than that I hope the two you are looking for are dead.”

“You bastard…” Akane tightened her hand into a fist at her side. She cleared her throat. Her previous words hadn’t been audible. “They’re not.”

Now she was regarded with more interest. The cloaked figure leaned back, slightly but significantly, lessening the intimidation factor greatly. “They aren’t?”

Akane shook her head firmly. “No. It’s all over the news. No names were given but they’re alive, I’m sure of it.”

The two boys who flanked the taller, cowled figure glanced at each other. The taller of the pair grinned, pleased in a fearsome way with the news. Akane recognized him as the one who had kidnapped her initially and suppressed the urge to yell at him, or attack him, or something even less wise.

Shampoo, behind Cologne, looked pleased. Mousse looked distinctly irritated, but Shampoo smacked him over the head for some unknown reason, startling him out of it. The duck-boy’s glasses flew off of his head and clattered on the ground. He immediately dropped to the floor, blindly searching for them.

Cologne snorted. “Of course they are alive. Something like that would not kill son-in-law. But…” The small Amazon matriarch thought for a moment. “Are you certain that there are two survivors?”

Akane, slightly confused, nodded.

“Perhaps the other is not the girl…” Cologne mused. “But that matters little.” She waved the question off and turned back to the other visitors.

The cowled figure’s opinion on the matter was impossible to determine. Akane got the impression of a scowl, somehow. “They are worthy opponents,” she admitted, grudgingly, in a rumbling voice. It was impossible to determine the gender of the person, but Akane remembered it being identified as female earlier and relied on that assessment.

“I do not have what you want,” Cologne informed her. It sounded as if she were repeating the statement.

The cowled woman – Herb, Akane suddenly recalled the name - turned back towards the Amazon trio. “You tricked me, old woman, and I won’t forget that. But…” she shook her head. “I will search on my own, then.”

The two boys who resembled a tiger and a wolf glanced at each other. They seemed to want to say something, but followed their leader as she started to leave.

“Wait!” Akane stepped in front of them before they reached the door and spread out her arms, stopping them. “What happened?”

Herb looked down at her. Some light made it inside the hood, faintly outlining some facial features for the first time. The expression revealed was very, very angry. Akane took an involuntary step back.

“They destroyed the cure, then destroyed the mountain in an attempt to defeat me,” Herb summarized before pushing past Akane and stepping up to the door.

The door opened – but no one stepped outside.

“Now that was a pretty shitty way of putting it,” complained Ranma, crossing his arms over his chest. Ryouga, behind him, slapped a hand over her forehead and groaned.

***

~Mordain

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