Part Two, Chapter 4: Backtracking and Making Forward Progress

“Ryouga? You awake?”=

The words intruded on her consciousness, followed too quickly by a sudden beam of bright sunlight that stabbed her eyes even through closed lids.

“Go ’way…” she mumbled, turning away from the sound and the light and cuddling deeper into the warm softness of her blankets.

“C’mon, you have to get up eventually.”

Ryouga scowled through the haze that was sleepiness. “No I don’…” Despite her attempts, though, she could feel herself coming awake. It was almost painful.

Ranma sighed. “It’s after noon, Ryouga… we’ve gotta get moving.”

Awake now – somewhat, anyway, and heartily wishing she wasn’t at all – Ryouga sat up, and cracked her eyes open in the direction the voice was coming from. “Go. Away.” She said clearly, holding the blankets around her against the cold that seemed to exist with their absence.

“I promised I would do everything I could to help you, and I count this as helping.” With only that warning, he snatched the blanket out of her grip to quickly for her to stop him. 

“Ranma you-” she was cut off when suddenly the blanket was tossed back in her face. “Hey! What was that for?” she yelled, voice muffled. She could hear the sound of Ranma frantically backing out of her tent, hurriedly closing the entrance behind him. “Jerk…” She pulled the blanket off her head and scowled uselessly at his incoherent answer. Then she noticed something on the blanket, and looked down with a sinking feeling in her heart. Sure enough, a bright crimson stain had appeared overnight, spotting her blankets and ruining the pants that she had slept in. “Oh, shit…” she moaned, burying her head in her hands.

***

Her face was still flushed with embarrassment when she finally stepped out of her tent nearly an hour later, having changed and washed with a bucket of cold river water they’d brought up the previous day. Ranma at first didn’t turn to greet her; he seemed occupied with stirring something in a bowl, probably lunch. 

She sat down on a stone near the almost-dead fire, eyes downcast.

Suddenly something landed in her lap. It was a clear plastic bottle, full of some sort of faintly tinted liquid. She looked up. “What’s this?”

“A kind of medicine,” he explained quietly, not quite looking at her.

“Medicine…?” then realization dawned. “Oh.” She drank it. It tasted bitter, not at all pleasant, but she managed to get it all down. “Where’d you get the recipe?”

Ranma sat down next to her. “A little village in China,” he answered, still speaking softly. “The weather had been really damp, and I’d been stuck as a girl for – long enough. I hadn’t had the curse very long, though; at least, not long enough to have accepted it yet…” He paused, smiling ever so slightly for some unknown reason. “But long enough… well, let’s just say that pop wasn’t in the greatest of shape at that time… Anyway, a little old lady at the village took pity on me, for being stuck with only my father… she took that as the reason for why I didn’t know how to be a girl very well, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I really wasn’t. She gave me the medicine, and taught me how to prepare it,” he finished slowly, trailing off rather than actually ending the story. 

“…” Unwillingly, a the corners of Ryouga’s mouth curved upwards ever so slightly. She felt relaxed… she’d never realized how pleasant Ranma’s voice could be, when he was just talking for the sake of speaking and she was just listening, uncritically for a change. 

They sat together in silence for a little while. Ryouga could feel the medicine begin to work. Her mood was lightened considerably; she’d been embarrassed, but of course Ranma had understood; he was one of the few people who could, she reminded herself… 

Unbeknownst to her, the medicine, which consisted of a mixture of powered herbs dissolved in water, was also a rather powerful antidepressant, something she’d been in dire need of for a while. She could feel her head clear, as if the sun had finally broken through the clouds of gloom that were perpetually hovering over her head. She ate a bit of leftover breakfast that Ranma offered her, and the cure was complete; she was finally feeling normal, healthy again. She stood abruptly. 

“We should get going.” She announced more loudly than was really necessary for Ranma – who was, after all, sitting not two feet away – to hear, but it felt important to make the statement clearly, as if it were not merely an option, or a suggestion, but rather a definite course of action. 

Ranma smiled to himself, being careful that Ryouga didn’t see. “Right,” he agreed, standing as well. “Where should we go, then? The town we passed through earlier, or the one just a few miles ahead?” 

Ryouga, who had already started to dismantle her tent, paused for a moment to consider the question. “The one we’ve already been to,” she decided. “We know where that one is. We don’t want to get lost.”

“Right.” She’s a lot better now, Ranma considered, as he began to pack his own belongings. He offered a silent thanks to the old woman, directing his gratitude upwards. He hadn’t mentioned it, because it hadn’t been necessary, but she had died during the week that he had stayed at the village. He suddenly wished that he was more religious. 

Ryouga, having taken the time to bury the ruined things, took longer than Ranma to get ready, but soon they were back on the familiar road, walking it in reverse this time. It was a pleasant day, and Ryouga actually enjoyed herself. She chatted with Ranma this time; not any important topics, just whatever came to mind as something worth saying aloud. And in the numerous long pauses, she thought. Her thoughts were rather leisurely, not rushing in useless circles like they had the night before. 

She looked up at Ranma, who didn’t notice the attention. I never really knew him as well as I thought after all… I guess the rivalry thing never let us actually be friends, although we were, sort of. So I guess it’s only natural that I would begin to *like* him… I mean, he’s acting pretty nice, and he is one of the few people who can really know what I’m going through… she turned her gaze, moving her eyes to the horizon in the other direction instead. Her eyes didn’t quite focus on it, though. It doesn’t mean anything; I don’t think that’s I’m really attracted to him, at least… I hope not, though he is actually kind of cute… if I don’t manage to get the cure, he wouldn’t be the worst choice I could make to… She shook her head violently. There was no way that she would ever… even if she *was* a girl – woman, eventually, her mind reminded her – for the rest of her life. Besides, she thought with an involuntary hint of sadness, he’s already taken by far to many others for another one to be more than just a problem, if anyone even took me seriously. Which they wouldn’t. 

***

“Horisan?” the shopkeeper scratched his head. “Sorry, can’t say as I’ve ever heard of it…” 

“Thanks anyway…” They said it in unison, having practiced the routine with most of the rest of the population of the little town. Ryouga picked up the small bag of items they had bought and tossed it into the top of her backpack as the walked out, crumpling up the little sketch they had made of Herb and her companions as well. No one had recognized it, probably because the two of them were pretty terrible artists. No one had even recognized the name of their destination, either; well, everyone except for that one old man who, besides being mostly deaf, had also seemed largely senile.

Ryouga pulled the map of the region that they had bought out and opened it as they found a bench and sat down. They looked over it for a few minutes. After a little bit of thinking, Ranma pointed to a ridge of unnamed hills to the west and north of them. “I think that that’s the general location that the map let us to,” he said, sounding a little uncertain. “I think…” 

Ryouga looked at where he was pointing. “That seems about right,” she agreed. “It’s a pretty large area, though…”

Ranma pointed to a nearly invisible dot and pair of kanji that marked and named a spot near the picture of the hills. “There’s a little farming village there,” he explained. “It wasn’t on the other map, I guess ‘cause it’s new, and it’s a little out of our way, but it’s right next to the hills. If there’s anything resembling a mountain there, they should know about it.”

“I guess…” Ryouga sighed, and began to close the map. She folded it all wrong, of course.

Ranma plucked it away from her, and arranged it so that only their current location and their destination were visible at each corner of the front square of the map that he created. 

“Showoff.” 

Ranma just smirked in response.

Ryouga rolled her eyes at that and yawned independently of it. It wasn’t late, really, just late afternoon, but they’d been working straight for the last few hours… suddenly she spotted a sign, and grinned.

Ranma followed her gaze, and his own fell a little. “Oh no, we’re not…”

“Please?”

Ranma hesitated, then tried another approach. “We hardly have any money left…” 

“So?”

Ranma looked back and forth between the sign and Ryouga. Between the lure of the establishment she had pointed out and her unintentionally cute, pleading expression, he felt his resolve crumble.

“Okay…”

She just grinned, and practically dragged him to the public bathhouse. 

“You are such a pervert…” Ranma whispered to her as the paid at the counter. 

She just made a face at him. “It’s not like I have much choice in the matter,” she retorted, heading off to the girl’s side with her bucket tucked under one arm and a towel slung over her shoulder. Oddly enough, she felt like whistling.

***

~Mordain

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