Here's the revision of Chapter 4. Spoiler warning!
Chapter 5 to follow.
***Interlude: Juuban***
Standing at the memorial to their fallen friend, Umi and Fuu
shared silent tears of grief. "I still can't believe..." Umi said.
Fuu nodded, reaching over to squeeze her friend's hand. "Hikaru-
chan was a unique girl. We were lucky to have known her."
Suddenly, both felt a flash of *something*, and gasped.
"What--what was that?" Umi asked.
Fuu frowned. "I'm not sure. It didn't feel like the call to return
to Cephiro..."
Umi shook her head. "No, it didn't. I don't understand...something
is odd here."
Chapter 4: Hikaru-chan's Tragedy
"Aiyah...Ranma, is you alright?"
The girl standing before them blinked in confusion. Cologne sighed.
"Shampoo...pay attention. This..." she pointed at Hikaru, "Is not
Ranma."
Shampoo frowned. "Shampoo no understand. That Ranma. But why Ranma
eyes red all of sudden?"
Ukyou groaned. "Stupid bimbo. She's trying to tell you that this
person just LOOKS like Ranma."
"Who you call stupid bimbo, spatula girl?"
"Ladies?"
"You stay out this, stupid pig boy."
"Hey! Watch it, you...!"
"Excuse me...."
The argument which almost turned nasty abruptly ground to a halt
as the confused pigtailed girl spoke. "Can someone please tell me
what's going on here?"
Cologne frowned. "That, child, is a very good question." Gesturing
for everyone to sit down, Cologne asked, "Who's hungry? I can whip up
some ramen."
Murmurs of assent rippled around the table, including from their
"new" guest. "Thank you, thank you! I can't remember the last time I
ate and I'm starving!"
A few moments later, the entire group, plus Tofuu-sensei, Genma,
Soun, and Nabiki, sat around a cluster of pushed-together tables in
the now closed for business Nekohanten, each slurping noodles
somberly. Everyone had been cautioned that Ranma was...not quite
himself.
"So, child...Hikaru, you said?" The girl nodded, and Cologne
continued. "Can you tell us who you are?"
Hikaru looked nervous. "I'm...well, I used to be just a schoolgirl
from Tokyo...a lot of terrible things have happened to me..."
Nabiki was typing furiously on a laptop, when suddenly she stopped,
looked up at Hikaru, and frowned. "You said your name is...Shido
Hikaru?"
Hikaru nodded. "Hai, that's right."
Nabiki frowned, and typed a bit more, then announced, "You're
deceased."
Everyone blinked. "Huh?" Hikaru said.
"According to this," she said, tapping her laptop, "You died two
years ago on this very day. At Tokyo Tower."
Akane looked up. "Hey! I remember something about that..."
Soun nodded. "So do I. There was some kind of occurence there.
Everyone saw a bright light, and when it was over there were two
girls standing on the observation deck crying."
"And," added Nabiki, "One of the girls from one of the three
schools that had been on a field trip to the Tower that day...
disappeared. She was never found, and after several months she was
presumed dead." Looking up, Nabiki finished, "That girl...was you.
Shido Hikaru."
Hikaru's crimson eyes widened. "You said...two other girls were
there, crying? After the flash of light?"
Nabiki nodded, looking back down at her screen. "Yes. Umm...
Ryuuzaki Umi, and Hououji Fuu."
Hikaru gasped. "They're...they made it back...they did it..."
Everyone was looking at her strangely. She sighed. "But...they
think I'm dead."
Cologne frowned. "I hate to say this, dear child, but if my
suspicions are right...you are."
Everyone looked at the elder Amazon. She looked at Hikaru, and
said, "Why don't you tell us everything, starting with the bright
light at Tokyo Tower."
Hikaru swallowed nervously, taking a sip of her tea, and began:
"Well, my junior high school and two others were on field trip to
the Tower that day. There was this light, and then the three of us...
me, Fuu, and Umi, all from different schools, were falling, and we
landed on this fish..."
Things were going well for the three young Magic Knights. They'd
gotten the Escudo, and Umi had received her Mashin, Selece. They'd
been on their way to the mountain in the sky, home of the Mashin
Windam, when suddenly, Zagato himself appeared in the sky before them.
"My mistake has been allowing you to remain in this world," the
High Priest intoned. "So, now I must remove you from it."
The Knights exchanged nervous glances, not sure if they were ready
to handle Zagato himself. Then, defiantly, Hikaru stood and shouted,
"We will not be defeated! We will rescue Princess Emeraude!"
Zagato laughed. "Fools."
Hikaru prepared her spell, and released it. "Scarlet Lightning!"
Zagato barely raised his shield spell in time. He scowled as the
blast dissipated. "Foolish girl. You've sealed your fate. You shall
be the first to go..."
With that, a black mist began swirling around Hikaru. She shrieked,
unable to clear it from her skin. Fuu tried a Winds of Reprimand
spell, but it couldn't penetrate the mist. Umi attacked Zagato, to no
avail.
In her imprisonment, Emeraude sensed what Zagato was doing.
"Beloved...no," she whispered, and concentrated on changing the
effect of the dark spell he'd cast...
"Die, foolish Knight!" Zagato sneered. The black mist completely
engulfed Hikaru, and a blast of lightning erupted from it. When the
mist finally subsided, Hikaru was nowhere to be found.
Zagato laughed triumphantly. "Without her, you'll never win. Give
up now." With that, he disappeared.
Umi and Fuu stared in horror at the spot where Hikaru had been
slain. "Hikaru-san...no..." Fuu breathed. Umi gave a strangled cry of
anguish, and screamed into the sky, "HIKARU-CHAN!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"But...I didn't die. Zagato's spell didn't kill me," Hikaru
finished. Sipping the broth from her ramen, she continued, "Instead,
it sent me...someplace else."
Everyone stared at her, in varying degrees of incredulity. Nabiki,
for her part, looked like she was watching a shoujo anime that didn't
interest her very much. Akane's eyes were misting slightly. Shampoo
looked confused. Ryouga seemed to be paying rapt attention to the
story. Ukyou appeared to be shocked. Tofuu-sensei had a thoughtful
expression on his face. Genma was just staring at Hikaru. Soun
appeared stern and stoic, as he often did when listening to such
tales. Cologne's expression was unreadable. "So," Cologne said after
a moment, "Where did you end up?"
Hikaru looked down into her bowl, and her eyes shimmered. "Hell."
Hikaru looked around, blinking. Her armor was gone, as was her
sword. She still felt her magic, but it felt somewhat weaker.
She was surrounded by tall mountains. The air smelled sharp and
clean. Bird chirped in the sky, and small animals romped through the
grass nearby. Normal animals, the kind she was familiar with.
"I'm...I'm not in Cephiro anymore," she mused. Brow furrowing, she
sighed, "I hope Umi-chan and Fuu-chan are alright. That Zagato...
there's no telling what he's done to them." Looking around, she
became thoughtful. "I wonder where I am?"
A group of people passed on a trail near her. She walked near them,
and shouted, "Excuse me! I'm lost, can you tell me where I am?"
A couple of them looked strangely at her. Then, they turned away
and resumed their journey. Hikaru sighed. "That wasn't nice," she
decided.
She figured following the group might help. Eventually, the road
led to a large palace, with many servants and performers and people
milling around in the courtyard. Some kind of festival was happening.
Taking a closer look, she happened to overhear a conversation
going on near her. She didn't understand the language but she did
recognize it. <Chinese? Am I in China?>
A strange, handsome man in silver armor, with a golden dragon
emblazoned on the breastplate, descended from the palace. His blue-
white hair shone in the afternoon sunlight. Hikaru watched for a bit,
occassionally stopping the odd passerby, trying to find someone who
understood Japanese.
"Excuse me...anou...can you help me?"
After a while of this, two young men in animal hides approached
her. :You must leave. You do not belong here and you are disturbing
the citizens of the Musk Dynasty. Leave peacefully or we will remove
you.:
Hikaru frowned. "I'm sorry...I'm afraid I don't understand you...
"
The two young men exchanged a glance, and grasped her by the arms.
:You're coming with us.:
"Hey! Ouch! That hurts! Let me go!"
:Stop babbling in that foreign tongue.:
:This is a young one. Do you think his Highness will let us...you
know?: asked the one dressed like a wolf.
The one wearing tiger skins looked at her and grinned. :Maybe.:
"They threw me in this cold, wet cell. They fed me badly, and what
little they did feed me, I ended up sharing with the rats. I was
occassionally beaten. They left me there for several weeks. Then, one
day..."
Hikaru cried. She'd been crying a lot lately. She'd never dreamed
human beings could be this cruel. She was starving, and she stank,
and she felt somewhat ill.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise, a lot of shouting. She thought
she heard the clashing of weapons.
Then, suddenly, one wall of her cell became a pile of rubble. She
looked up, and a young woman with long, dark pink hair stepped
through, holding a pair of large spherical maces. "You, foreign girl.
I come set you free. You come with me to village Niichieju."
As the two made their way hurriedly from the palace, Hikaru said,
"Thank you. Thank you for saving me from that horrible place."
"You is welcome. Womans should not be locked up in cells. That for
men and animals."
"Who...who are you? And where are we going?"
"My name Xiar Min. We go now Niichieju, village of warrior womans.
"
"My name is Hikaru."
Cologne's eyes widened. "So you're the girl from the legend..."
Hikaru blinked. "Excuse me?"
Everyone else blinked as well. "Great-grandmother, what you
talking?"
Cologne closed her eyes. "For many centuries, the Niichieju and
the Musk Dynasty were enemies. Many skirmishes were fought, and sadly
to say, the Musk were gaining the upper hand. Hikaru...the people who
held you prisoner were the Musk."
Hikaru nodded. "Hai, that's right. I found that out when I got to
the village..."
Cologne held up a hand. "And the elders found out about your magic,
and you helped the Niichieju battle the Musk. You were very upset,
and you eliminated many of the best soldiers in the Musk army.
Hikaru sighed, bowing her head. "I don't want to think about that.
It hurt to do that. It still hurts." Looking up with tears in her
eyes, she said, "I had to live with that from the day of the battle
on..."
Hikaru's gauntlet had been returned to her, discovered many months
after her arrival at Niichieju.
"Hikaru." This was the village elder, Tso Pu. "Have you decided?"
Hikaru sighed. "I don't know. I mean, I can fight, but...I don't
like hurting people."
Tso Pu sighed. "Then how many more like yourself, innocents, in a
strange land, will be subjected to the cruelty of the Musk?"
Hikaru blinked. "I...alright. I'll do it."
"HONOU NO YAAAA!" Hikaru scattered another wave of Musk troops
with her magic, and charged in, cutting down the stragglers.
:It's that girl! The one we caught a long time ago!:
Hikaru knew the voice, if not the language. She turned, and saw
the two men who had grabbed her and thrown her in that awful dungeon.
Something snapped in her. She felt her rage building. With no
preamble--they wouldn't have understood her anyway--she prepared her
spell. The two warriors stared at her in fear.
"SCARLET LIGHTNING!"
The tiger man had the sense to dive out of the way. His partner
wasn't as lucky. Both were burned, although the tiger man fared
better. One entire side of the other's body was blackened.
"I...I couldn't deal with what I'd done. So, I ran."
Hikaru looked around. She was in a valley, with many springs,
surrounded by the mountains. She decided it was time to stop for a
rest--she'd been running for what seemed like forever. She curled up
in a narrow crevice, and cried herself to sleep.
:Well, look at what we have here. It's the little fire bitch.:
:I think we deserve our revenge.:
When Hikaru woke up, something was wrong. Her sword and her armor
were gone--along with the rest of her clothes. She couldn't move. She
looked around, and discovered she'd been tied up at one end of the
valley. She saw two figures lying in front of a makeshift tent nearby.
She made a brief struggle against her bonds.
One of the two men looked up, and saw that she had awakened. :Well
well, the little bitch is awake. I hope you're happy with yourself,
little whore. I hope you got off on frying us. Because it's the last
time you're gonna do anything to anyone ever again.:
And with that, he removed his trousers...
Hikaru closed her eyes. "Gomen...I...I can't..."
Cologne placed a withered hand on her shoulder. "It's alright,
child. It's alright."
Genma looked solemn, while Soun bawled. Tofuu wore an
uncharacterstic scowl. Akane looked outraged, while Ukyou looked at
the girl with deep sadness. Shampoo was crying softly. Ryouga looked
like he was on the verge of smashing something. "Those...bastards!"
he snarled. "How could they do something like that...?"
"It's the way of the Musk, at least it used to be," Cologne sighed.
"That kind of thing doesn't happen anymore, thankfully, but that is
why the Amazons fought the Musk so viciously."
Hikaru looked up, tears streaking her face. "I...I couldn't
believe that was happening to me. I mean, I never thought anything
like that could happen. I'd always had a good life, my family loved
me, my brothers protected me, my dog loved me, and I had my friends...
then that..." She sobbed.
Everyone offered her a bit of support. When her sobs subsided,
Cologne asked, "I know this is painful, but...do you remember what
happened next?"
Hikaru thought about it, then shook her head. "The next thing I
remember was seeing..." She frowned. "Someone. It felt like a mirror,
or a dream...it was a boy. About my age, with black hair, in a
pigtail..."
"Ranma," everyone in the room said at once.
Hikaru looked around in confusion. "Who is this Ranma, anyway?
I've...I've heard that name several times..."
Suddenly, Shampoo's head snapped up. "Aiyah! Great-grandmother...
she no remember what happen, but she say many spring there...you
think she the one that drown in Nyanniichuan?"
Everyone gasped. Cologne considered this, and nodded. "It would
make sense. Everything she's described happened right around that
time...and if she is the one who drowned in that spring, then that
would explain her being here, now."
Everyone turned to Cologne, confused. Hikaru said, "Anou...what
spring? What are you talking about?"
Cologne closed her eyes. "The place where you were captured, is
called Jyusenkyou, the valley of cursed springs. Over the centuries,
each spring in Jyusenkyou has had someone or something drown in it.
When this happens, the spring becomes cursed, and whoever or whatever
falls in it next takes the body of whatever drowned there. It's a
curse which is activated by cold water, and reversed temporarily with
hot water.
"Saotome Ranma, the boy you saw when you awoke, was in China about
a year ago, with his father, Genma." She pointed at Genma. "Ranma and
his father trained at Jyusenkyou, despite the warnings of the tour
guide. Genma fell into Shonmaoniichuan, a spring in which a panda
once drowned." Cologne picked up a water glass and flung the contents
at Genma, who promptly transformed into a panda. Hikaru stared, wide-
eyed, at the large beast as it raised a sign reading "Was that really
neccessary?"
"Ranma himself fell into the spring known as Nyanniichuan, in
which a young girl drowned 1500 years earlier." Turning to Hikaru,
she said, "Being the girl from the Amazon legend of the battle in
which we defeated most of the Musk, that places you in that area, in
the year in which Nyanniichuan was formed."
Hikaru blinked, brow furrowed. "So...what you're saying is...after
they..." Swallowing a lump in her throat, she continued, "...then I
drowned? In a spring?"
Cologne nodded. "That's what I believe happened."
"But great-grandmother, if that true, then why she here now?"
"I have a theory about that," Tofuu said. "When Hikaru drowned,
she'd been in China for quite some time. That would make her about...
sixteen when she drowned?" Hikaru nodded.
Cologne rubbed her chin. "And Ranma was sixteen when he fell into
the spring."
"So if Hikaru's soul was still in the spring, possibly because of
the magic she possessed..."
Cologne nodded. "Of course! It makes sense. Somehow, Hikaru's soul
has been preserved, dormant, in that spring, for fifteen centuries.
And when Ranma, the same age as Hikaru, and close in appearance to
her, fell into the spring, not only did he take her body...he also
freed her soul from the spring."
"So what you're saying," Genma said, "Is my son's carrying around
the soul of the girl who disappeared at Tokyo Tower two years ago?"
Cologne nodded. "That's pretty much it."
Hikaru stood. "Excuse me...I need to go for a walk." Without
another word, she left the restaurant.
Akane, Ukyou, and Shampoo exchanged glances. "We should follow her,
" they decided.
Cologne shook her head. "No, it's best to give her some space for
now. She can take care of herself, and if Ranma's spirit wakes up
again, he can take care of himself as well."
Nobody was happy about that, but they decided it was best to go
along with it.
***Kyou wa dare da? Kyou wa Hikaru!***
____
------------------------------------------------------------
"If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a
duck...pour hot water on it."
Ryodachi Kouma
"The Eternal Lost Lurker"
squn29a@prodigy.com
http://pages.prodigy.com/EtLostLurker