Part Two, Chapter Seven – A Literal Chase At Last

Walk. Walk. Walk some more.

Ranma was getting seriously annoyed. He glanced back at Ryouga, who was following behind him with a determined expression on her face. It hadn’t changed since… well, since that fight.

“Do you want to stop yet?” Ranma really did. He usually didn’t mind keeping on the move all day, but this was getting ridiculous. It had to be well past midnight – the moon had already risen and set. It wasn’t dawn yet, but Ranma figured that that couldn’t be too far off. What made it worse was that it was the *third time*…

The pink-haired girl just shook her head. “No. It’s this way, I know it is.”

Ranma sighed in exasperation. “Look, Ryouga…”

“No. We keep going.”

“But…!”

“You can stop if you want.”

Ranma growled under his breath. He should’ve known something different was up when Ryouga suddenly snapped awake in the middle of the night after that fight with Herb and yelled one word – ‘left’. Ranma had barely understood Ryouga’s frenzied explanation at such an hour, but he had rolled open the map they’d bought – which obstinately had no mountains near them, much less one named Horaisan. Not to mention that it was different in scale, orientation, and style than the other one. It was impossible to compare to the map that they had lost, but it was the best alternative they had been able find.

Ranma had fallen asleep again while Ryouga had stayed up all night playing with the map, twisting it around and muttering to herself, obviously trying to match it up with her vague memories of the other map. They’d tried this before, but nothing had come of it. When he’d woken up in the morning, she’d fallen asleep at the table, still holding the pen that she’d used to mark a circle on the map. She was convinced that their destination was there.

Even though it was marked as nothing but rolling farmland for miles and miles, with nothing more than a ridge of hills beyond that…

That had been two days ago, and all that time Ranma had had to lead. Ryouga was as hopeless as ever at following a map. Her miraculously acquired sense of direction notwithstanding, she still had no experience with actually finding her way to a destination.

So Ranma was leading, knowing that if he even tried to stop Ryouga would keep walking in a straight line until she either found the Kaisufuu or strode off a cliff into the Pacific.

“Ryouga…” they’d spotted their likely destination, the mapped ridge of hills that were now visible in the near distance, a while ago. They’d known about that, but what hadn’t been marked on the map was a single rocky peak that rose above the rest. That was probably it…

“Keep walking!” her voice fell at the end of the statement, however. “We’ll… we can stop after this hill, ok?” The exhaustion was finally slipping into her voice. Ranma sighed.

“Alright.” It wasn’t that far; Ranma could see their target, a lone tree at the crest of the gentle rise they were climbing. It nice and grassy up there, Ranma could see by the starlight. It would be a good place to camp, and it wasn’t but a few hundred feet off.

A few hundred feet that felt like miles when it was coupled with the taunting promise of rest and sleep, however. Ranma hadn’t been this tired in a long time…

The relief of relaxation wasn’t all that greeted him at the top, however. A sprawling farmhouse, windows dark against the night, was at the bottom of a considerably steeper drop on the other side.

“Ah ha!” Ryouga exclaimed in triumph.

“What?” Ranma turned to look at the madly grinning girl. “It’s just a house…”

“That place was on the map!” Ryouga crowed, ignoring him. “I told you! We’re almost there!” She was practically beaming… hell, she was beaming.

Ranma just settled down on the ground and fished a blanket out of his pack. “Okay, okay, so you were right, happy?” He gestured towards the hills. “That’s probably it, and we can ask at that house in the morning to check.” He leaned back against the tree and pulled the blanket to cover himself. Almost immediately he was asleep.

Ryouga, satisfied at making so much progress fell asleep without even bothering with a blanket. Her head rested against her pack like it was a pillow, a small smile gracing her face…

***

“Horaisan!”

“What?! Speak up!”

Ranma felt like strangling the old man, nevermind his policy of not bullying the weak. Some bastards deserved it…! Ryouga detected his anger and glanced in Ranma’s direction, frowning slightly. Ranma took a step back at this, letting Ryouga finish.”

“Horaisan! The mountain! Have you seen anyone else going there?!” She practically bellowed it directly into his ear. Ranma blinked, but the image of the bullhorn in Ryouga’s hand vanished. Great, now I’m seeing things! First… *that*, now I’m going insane!

The wizened old man jumped back a little, startled. “Horaisan?” he repeated, surprised.

“Yes! Horaisan! Have you seen anyone else going there?”

“You don’t want to go to Horaisan.” The old man leaned heavily on his cane, resting his chin on his hands as if he couldn’t stand under his own power.

“Huh?”

“Yes yes, those three travelers… I told them not to go to Horaisan. You shouldn’t go there, either.”

“Is that it?” Ryouga pointed towards the mountain. “Were they going there?”

The old man squinted, following her finger. After a moment of searching for the right direction, he nodded. “I warn you though, it’s dangerous-”

“Thanks!” And Ryouga was off before the old man could finish his sentence, dragging a bewildered Ranma behind her.

“Watch out for the monsters!” But the two were already merely specks in the distance. The old man sighed. “They’ll find out soon enough…”

***

“This… this wasn’t on the damn map?!” Ranma stared up the sheer cliff face and blanched slightly, intimidated although he’d never admit it. It was more impressive then it seemed in the distance.

“Beats me…” Ryouga looked up as well and could almost feel her spirits falling. “Do you think you can scale that?”

“I think so…” Ranma placed one hand on a promising potential foothold and pressed. The stone crumbled under the stress. “…or not.” He tried another outcropping.

Ryouga stepped up to the wall and glanced each way. Up, down – nothing. Left, no… right… “Hey, what about…” Suddenly she caught a rustle of movement out of the corner of her eye. Ranma saw it to, and as one they spun around to see –

Nothing. Then Ryouga glanced up.

“Hey!” Three blurry figures had appeared more than halfway up the cliff, where it sloped to a slightly less imposing angle. They had apparently come from the side…

Ranma and Ryouga had just enough time to see Herb’s face, smirking confidently down at them. Then they were gone…

“How are they climbing so fast?” Ranma exclaimed.

“Great! How are we going to catch up with them?” Ryouga said at almost the same time. She looked wildly around. “There!” It wasn’t much, the holds placed too far apart for her to reach. “We can-” She turned to face Ranma, but he was gone. “Where-”

“Here!” Ranma called from a ledge nearly twenty feet up. “Jump!” He stretched a hand down. “I’ll pull you!”

With a running leap Ryouga managed to lock one hand firmly with Ranma. The other one scrambled for purchase on the cliff, and in a few seconds she was safely on the ledge, looking dazed. Her head spun, and despite the urgency of the situation, she could only think of holding Ranma’s hand in her own. Why…

Ranma had already started to jump up again. “C’mon!” he shouted, reaching out to help her again.

Without even thinking Ryouga leapt for it, scrambling for the scant purchase that Ranma had found. It didn’t offer much rest, though, because then he was off again and her along with him. Together they ran up the mountain, helping each other when necessary. It wasn’t until Ryouga landed on the soft grass at the top, hand still holding Ranma’s, that she realized that she hadn’t really needed the help. She certainly didn’t need to be holding his hand now… but…

A growling noise started in the bushes in front of them, and soon they were surrounded by the noise, along with dozens of pairs of eyes peering between leaves…

The two tensed for action. Then their adversary stepped out, and they froze in confusion. A… monkey? Then the rest of the troop stepped out, and they understood the threat. When that many teeth and claws were bared, monkeys were a perfectly viable enemy…

But for all the obvious aggression, the apes didn’t attack. They seemed confused, actually, although still hostile.

As a mater of fact, the monkeys were confused. The other three to come up were clearly out of their league, carrying the sprits of the tiger, wolf, and dragon with them, but these two…

The boy emitted the aura of a cutely smiling girl. But the girl… her aura couldn’t make up her mind between just herself, an angry and dangerous dark-haired human boy, and, curiously enough, a small black pig. The first and the last were harmless, but the second…

The apes attacked anyway.

“Ouch! Damnit… take that, you stupid monkeys!”

It was a long an vicious battle – well, not really - but finally the enemy was defeated. The monkeys fled, leaving the two wondering if they should feel proud of their victory.

In the end, they decided they’d lost anyway, in losing track of Herb.

***

“Damnit! They could be anywhere in this forest!” Ranma grumbled, pushing a clump of vines out of his way angrily.

“Yeah…” Ryouga agreed sourly. She poked a rock, and it exploded. The Bakusai Tenketsu was a good stress reliever.

“Ow! What was that?”

Ranma and Ryouga looked at each other. Slowly, they each reached out a hand to push a pair of branches away…

Lime and Mint didn’t notice. They were apparently too intent on whatever their task was, and Mint on complaining about bees or something as he wiped a small trickle of blood from his forehead. Ranma and Ryouga looked at each other, not believing the opportunity.

They let the branches fall back into place as they conferenced.

“Herb’s not with them. That’s a lucky break…” Ryouga commented.

“Yeah. She must be resting or something… I can handle these two. They might be able to tell me where the Kaisufuu is… you keep looking, ok?”

Ryouga nodded curtly. “You sure?”

“Yeah.” Ranma smirked. “Piece ‘o cake.”

They headed off in their separate directions. Ranma paused. “Just don’t take on Herb before I get back, ok?” he called. When there was no response, he turned, but Ryouga was gone. He offered a small prayer that she didn’t find their real enemy, shrugged, and continued following Mint and Lime.

***

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