Chapter Two

The sudden shock of being immersed in cold water woke him up. He came to the surface of the koi pond, sputtering and furiously blinking the stinging water out of his eyes. “You didn’t have to do *that*!” he protested, the voice coming out in the high tone characteristic of his cursed form.

It didn’t usually come from about a foot to his left, though. 

Slowly, so as to lessen the trauma of what he would see, he turned and looked at the source of the voice. He wasn’t entirely unprepared to see a robot girl, a mocking replica of his girl form, standing there, but it still nearly made him faint again. He pulled himself out of the pond, never taking his eyes off his ‘double’. It did the same, but when he sat heavily on the ground to think it wandered independently back to the table and started eating. It talked to the others as if it actually were Ranma – and none of them seemed to notice the difference. He looked at himself. Soaked with cold water. Male. Of course.

Ranma did a double take, looking back at the family. They all looked like ghosts, as insubstantial as the shade of Ryouga that he had seen standing behind his cursed doppelganger. 

Wait. 

The form of Ryouga was the only person that looked solid this time, other than the robots that Ranma didn’t count. Other than his listless movements to mimic the motions of his cursed form, though, he didn’t seem alive. But he was opaque. Ranma examined himself again – yes, he was opaque, and solid as least to himself. It was only slightly reassuring. 

Uneasily he walked closer to the happily dining family, and tentatively reached one hand out to try to touch the nearest phantasmal Tendo, who happened to be Nabiki. His hand passed right through her back without the slightest resistance. She gave no sign that she had noticed him. There wasn’t anything other than the visual clue to indicate that anything was there other than air, not even some supernatural temperature or aura. Ranma didn’t even feel strangely nervous when he came near to them, like he had before – they were nothing. Existing merely for eyes and ears, nothing more. He could hear them talk, but although there was no difference in what their voices sounded like, they were as insubstantial as the people looked.

Emboldened by his lack of fear of the translucent people, he walked around them, over to where the solid figure of Ryouga stood. Ryouga showed no reaction to his presence. Carefully he reached out one hand.

His hand came to rest on the lost boy’s shoulder. Ranma was actually more startled by this than anything else. But Ryouga was obviously human – Ranma could feel the roughness of his clothing, the heat of his body; he even had a mild, pleasant odor. 

“Ryouga? What’s going on?”

There was no answer.

“Ryouga? Talk to me!”

Still, no response.

“Damnit, Ryouga, I know you’re real, stop messing around!”

Frustrated by the continuing lack of response, Ranma grabbed the boy by both shoulders and shook him violently. “I’m talking to you, you stupid pig!”

“Gah!!!”

Ryouga yelled in protest to the treatment and fell over with a loud thump. But he had spoken this time, at least, and now made some independent motions to stand up. Anger flashed in his eyes. 

“What was that for, Ranma?!”

His eyes weren’t blank, and he was moving naturally. Ranma almost hugged him. “Thank god! You’re normal again… you had me worried there for a while, I’ll admit…”

Some of the anger was replaced by confusion. “What are you talking about?” Then he noticed the condition of all the other people in the room. He yelped and backed away in what could have been a humorous manner, but Ranma hardly felt like laughing. “What… what happened to them? Did you do this?”

“How ‘n th’ hell would I do *this*, Ryouga? I’m a martial artist, not a magician. Besides, look.” He pointed at his android doppelganger, who was currently arguing with Akane, acting eerily similar to how Ranma himself usually did. 

Ranma slapped the other boy when, after a few seconds of staring blankly, Ryouga’s eyes started to roll up in his head. It stopped him from fainting, at least. 

“Wait a second.” Ryouga spoke slowly. “The last thing I remember, I was P-chan, and Akane was feeding me… does that mean…”

Ranma nodded. “Yep. I wouldn’t look if I were you, unless you want to be hit again.”

Ryouga looked sick. “No thanks.”

There was silence, other than the distant chattering of the family, for a while. Then Ranma noticed Kasumi bringing in a kettle of hot water and heading towards the android Ranma-chan with it. He spoke quickly. “If I disappear when she changes me back, I’ll leave here as fast as I can. Follow me and we’ll talk again, oka-” he was cut off by abruptly vanishing.

Ryouga watched with an odd cold feeling in the pit of his stomach as, just a split second after Ranma’s abrupt disappearance, the solid android Ranma-chan turned into a phantasmal image of Ranma with the application of hot water.

***

~Mordain

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