Part Two, Chapter One - The Beginning of a Journey

Ryouga was even more silent than usual as they began the first phase of their journey. She was lost in thought – or at least Ranma thought she was - so deeply that she would’ve gotten as hopelessly lost as usual if she hadn’t been paying minimal attention at least to following him.   

Ranma felt oddly upset by what had happened. Am I jealous because he said it before me and kissed her today? Some part of him, the part that he showed to the outside world, protested at the thought of being jealous of the ‘tomboy’, but he shoved that thought away. I know I get jealous of those guys who can just glibly proclaim their love, ‘cause I can’t do it even though it would… I don’t know what would happen, but at least then she wouldn’t think that I really hated her… I know I… feel *something* for Akane, but do I love her? Sometimes I think so, sometimes I wonder… And she always seems to hate me… well, not always but often enough that I can’t figure her out. It doesn’t help that everyone *expects* us to get married, either… everyone except the other people who want to marry one of us, anyway… but that’s not much better!

They took the train out of the city, but not all the way to their destination even though they had the cash for it. They needed the time it would take to walk there to train, and with the map they figured it would be easy to beat Herb there even with just a small head start. They played cards to alleviate the mind-numbing boredom of the ride, but didn’t talk much. At least not until Ranma couldn’t take the silence anymore. It simply wasn’t in his nature to keep so quiet for so long. And of course, with typical Ranma tact, he chose almost the most sensitive topic to speak about.

“So what was that all about?” he asked, drawing a card from the pile and glancing at it. Rats.

Ryouga’s expression darkened, but she only answered with a simple, “Tens?”

“No, go fish,” he answered. “C’mon, Ryouga, at least talk to me here! You haven’t said a word since we left.” He watched Ryouga draw the card with a stoic expression on her face. “Eights?” The pink-haired girl handed over a card and her first non-game related words of the trip. “Why do you care?” she asked acidly.

“’Cause I think I have a right to know why a girl just kissed my fiancée!” Ranma replied, a little more insistently than he meant to. “Sixes?” he asked, switching from the conversation to the game in a rush to cover up his error.

“Go fish.” Ryouga answered coldly.

Ranma winced inwardly at the tone. “Hey, look, I’m sorry, man…”

He was just cut off with a flat, “Kings.”

Ranma shook his head.

Ryouga drew a card, examined it briefly, and placed it in the middle of her fan of cards. “Did you say that because you’re upset because she’s your fiancée or because I was the girl who kissed her?” she asked in the same flat tone, not even a tinged with anger. That was more disquieting than if she’d screamed it in his old fury, Ranma thought. “Well?”

Ranma looked down, examining his cards. “I… I don’t know. But why’d you do it anyway? You were never that forward before.” Almost as an afterthought, he asked, “Jacks?”

Ryouga handed over a card. “I had to find out before I left. I don’t know if I’m going to go back…”

Ranma flinched. I deserved that… “What… what did you find out?” he asked, not needing to ask what the question was but half-afraid of the answer.

“She doesn’t love me,” was the answer, finally said with a bit of emotion, a deep sadness.

“Sorry…” Ranma sympathized, and was surprised to find that he actually meant it. Of course, he had known that she didn’t for a while… or at least assumed it, since Akane hadn’t even known how Ryouga had felt until recently and probably hadn’t even considered it before then. “But you haven’t tried, have you? I mean, maybe…” he trailed off, feeling stupid. “Um… queens?” he asked, somewhat sheepishly.

“No,” he was informed coldly. “Go fish.”

“Anyway, what did you have in mind for training?” he asked, trying to keep some sort of a conversation going.

“Fives?” Ryouga asked before answering, but Ranma shook his head negative. “I was thinking of some speed exercises. I need to learn how to dodge the hits; I can’t take them anymore…”

Ranma nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinkin’ too. At least, that’s what works for me…” He considered his cards for a moment. “Um… fours?”

“Go fish. Yeah, I was actually expecting of basing my training off of yours, since our forms seem to be so similar. Nines?” she tried, at a loss for what else to say.

“Hmm…” Ranma relinquished the card absently, seemingly caught in thought. “Well, beehives worked well enough, but I wouldn’t recommend it… kinda painful…”

“Beehives?” she asked, mildly curious. Ryouga slipped the card into her hand and lifted one elbow unto the small table between their seats to rest her head in her free hand. I don’t remember the last time I talked like this to anyone… much less Ranma! It seems weird… but it’s not too bad, talking and not having to worry about guarding my words…

“Yeah, while you were doing your Bakusai Tenketsu training,” Ranma continued, not noticing Ryouga’s train of thought. “Pop would throw beehives at me to increase my speed. He didn’t stop ‘till I could knock out all the bees without being stung.”

Ryouga winced sympathetically. “That sounds as bad as being smashed against boulders for hours on end. And at least the ghoul knew what she was doing – your old man must have made that up on the spot because it would’ve killed you easy if you had had an allergy to bee poison, or if the training had given you one.” Such a simple – and obvious – idea, yet, from the surprised expression Ranma was giving her, one he hadn’t considered.

“And getting smashed against boulder after boulder couldn’t’ve killed *you*?”

Ryouga’s expression was serious as she answered, and from her words she was obviously putting some thought into it. “That was different. It was a test of how bad of a beating I could take, and I was tough enough to survive and get stronger from it. Besides, Cologne didn’t want me dead – she wanted me alive, so I could beat you,” she reasoned. “Even if I failed to learn the breaking point I would’ve gained enough from the training to have a better chance than without it. Genma had no control over the bees the way Cologne did the boulders. If you’d been allergic, the first hive would’ve killed you. That wasn’t a matter of toughness or skill, it was sheer luck.”

Ranma laughed humorlessly. “Remember you’re talking about the same father who taught me the n…n…neko-ken.” He was smiling, but it wasn’t funny at all the way his fear made him unable to say the word correctly.

Ryouga just shook her head at the thought of that horrible idea. “Yeah…” she mused, more to herself than to Ranma. Suddenly she shook her head, and assumed a more attentive expression. “Threes?”

“Huh?” Ranma’s mind took a few seconds to remember the game. “Oh, right… no. Go fish.”

Ryouga did so, frowned, and put her cards down for a moment. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“It’s your turn.”

“Oh… yeah…” He tried to remember what he had done the past couple of turns, but his mind kept wandering away from the game, and to what Ryouga had said about the beehives. It was such a simple thought, one that he should have realized at the time… but he hadn’t. Why did I let the old panda do that? I knew about allergies like that… but I just kept training… why?

Ryouga waited as Ranma stared blankly at his cards, but before his annoyance with the lengthy pause prompted him to ask again the train started to rumble, slowing down. The intercom buzzed to life and announced a name, making Ranma look up, startled, at the intrusion of foreign sound.

“That’s our stop,” he announced simply, and began gathering the cards together.

“Right.”

***

They were the only passengers to get off at the tiny little town that was far enough outside of Tokyo to be pretty isolated. It seemed vaguely familiar to Ryouga – although most of Japan was vaguely familiar to the former lost boy – but no one recognized her, of course. She said nothing as they passed through, and Ranma was too occupied with getting them started off in the right direction to start up another conversation, and not inclined to anyway. The short conversation had bothered him more than he really liked. Such a stupid training idea… I guess I did it to win… I had to win… but why? Akane was the prize… but I didn’t want her… am I that prideful that it makes me stupid? I never really thought about it before… wonder why?

He was distracted by a clap of thunder and sudden heavy rain. “Damnit!” she muttered to herself, not so much because the rain or the transformation but because of her stirring discontent with that train of thought. She didn’t care for the way her thoughts were turning… luckily, the rain was enough of a distraction to snap her out of her introspective mood, which felt alien and uncomfortable, fitting her poorly and chafing at the corners. It just wasn’t in Ranma Saotome’s nature to doubt himself… or herself, such as it was.

The two nearly identical girls continued on, heading towards a sizable forest that would provide some shelter and a place to train for a couple days until they moved on towards Horisan. Ranma adjusted the straps on her pack to allow for her shrunken height. Ryouga’s taller than me now, she thought, somewhat annoyed that the girl had the advantage of several inches on her in a similar situation. But they could still be mistaken for sisters. Ryouga had cut her hair short again the week that had passed, but though it was in the same style, even to the point of having the familiar bandannas holding the bangs away from her forehead, it still seemed different… limper, maybe. It was currently darkened from what rain had landed on it before she opened her umbrella, from its usual bright fuchsia into a deep near-purple that almost matched the soaked maroon of Ranma’s. She extended the umbrella to share the cover a little too late to prevent Ranma from getting drenched, and continued on with an even more determined forcefulness to her step as if attempting to erase the feeling of the water falling from the sky.

They didn’t talk as they walked. The occasional crash of thunder was just enough to hinder conversation, and neither really felt like it anyway. Rain was not something that gave either particularly fond memories.

The thunderstorm proved to be violent but short, and had tapered off into a mild drizzle by the time they reached the forest, just in time to show off some of the beautiful shades of red and orange of the sunset. Ryouga heated up some hot water for Ranma on the little hot plate that she still carried around and they set up camp and started a fire to ward off the growing chill of the evening.

Ranma looked over the choices of what they could cook for dinner. Hmmm… “Hey Ryouga, is stew okay for dinner?” he called.

There was a short pause before she answered that made Ranma realize that those had been the first words spoken since they had gotten off the train.

“Sure,” was called back.

“Ok.” He started to prepare the dehydrated mix. It didn’t look very appetizing, then trail food rarely did. At least there was enough of it, actually more than enough. And somehow there was more in Ryouga’s pack than his; Ranma didn’t quite understand how, as they were of the same size, but supposed that she had learned how pack efficiently from always wandering, never knowing when she’d be able to resupply, or whether she’d end up someplace with ready game. It was bit of a depressing thought to have while he cooked.

Ryouga came back from setting up her tent and they ate the meal together in silence. The night started to grow truly dark then, the only light was from the smallish fire, the stars, and the sliver of what was left at the moon. Ranma looked up at the stars, at a loss for anything else to do, and noticed with surprise that there was a small meteor shower. Several very small specks streaked by as he watched and then suddenly there was a larger one, so bright that dimmed the real stars at it shot past them. Ranma thought briefly that he should probably make a wish on it, but it was gone before he could. Ryouga would probably wish that he was cured, he thought, and glanced over at the pink-haired girl. But she hadn’t seen the star; she was staring intently at the fire as if it contained all the answers of the universe. Ranma looked back up at the sky and tracked the last few shooting stars and then just the placid sea of stationary ones. He preferred that peace to the chaotic energy of the fire.

“Do you know the constellations?”

Huh? He turned to look at his friend, who had shifted her gaze from the fire to him but then flicked her eyes to the sky when he noticed her attention. “No, not really. Never bothered with that sorta stuff.”

“Oh. I tried to learn them, once. I heard that they could help you navigate.” There was a pause. “It didn’t help, so I forgot most of it. But sometimes I would look at them anyway, and make up my own.”

“…” To be honest, Ranma was a bit freaked by Ryouga’s behavior. She was acting so calm… and, well, un-Ryougaish. Then again, every other time I talked to him he either wanted to defeat me, date Akane, or get a cure… and out of all the three he was nicest with the third. So he’s acting like this ‘cause I can help him get cured and he’s so pissed at Herb he’s puttin’ off beating me. Satisfied with this rationale, Ranma looked back up at the stars and soon felt himself dozing off.

If only the person who stayed awake, watching the fire die down to only glowing embers before finally sleeping herself, had such a clear-cut explanation.

***

~Mordain

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