Ryoga ½
by George Masologites
http://www.serve.com/guilds/ranma/
guilds@mail.serve.com [Hunter Kid]
© 08/03/1997  All Rights Reserved    
11
The Ageless Wanderer

    A warm summer breeze fluttered through the thick mountainside forest,
stirring the green leaves of the trees and giving off a pleasant rustling
sound.  The breeze didn't pick up, but it didn't die down, either - all in
all, the wind made for a nice day, which otherwise would have been too hot.
    In the forest, a small hare was running, its small, frightened eyes
darting one way, then another, trying to escape from an unseen predator.
The hare's only warning was a small rusting sound from the underbrush, then
a reddish brown blur rushed over it, and a sharp pain ripped through its
throat.  It struggled for a moment before its eyes went blank and it hung
limp from the wolf's jaws.
    The wolf seemed to grin slightly as it carried the hare off in the
vague direction of a campfire.

    A twig snapped.
    Ryoga looked up and caught sight of a red-brown wolf entering the
circle of light that the small campfire gave off, grinning slightly with a
rabbit in its mouth.
    "I don't guess you want to cook that?"  Ryoga asked dryly, picking up a
small pen and going back to what he had been doing.
    The wolf looked indignant and tossed the dead animal at his feet.
"Yeah, I'll cook it," Ryoga assented to the unspoken request with a grunt.
"There's a small flask of hot water in the tent, and it should be
unstoppered.  You can manage, I hope?"
    Ryoga continued to write on a small piece of white paper and the wolf
nodded in acknowledgment and padded silently into the tent, its eyes bright.  
    A moment later, a young girl with reddish-brown hair tied back into a
loose ponytail emerged from the tent, clad in a pair of dark green trousers
and a sleeveless white undershirt that hung loosely from her small frame.
    "Writing a story, Ryoga?"  The pretty girl asked, looking with interest
at the writing on the piece of paper, composed in neatly formed kanji.
"Ah, a letter.  I see."
    Ryoga frowned up at her.  "You shouldn't read other people's mail,
Ryako," he said disapprovingly, preparing to tuck away the letter.
    The slender girl, Ryako, only gave him a cute, yet somewhat wolfish,
grin.  "Aw, you're no fun, Ryoga," she said, hitting him on the shoulder
playfully.  "Here we are, so close, and you won't let me read what you're
writing?"  She snuggled up against him, smirking to herself.
    Ryoga apparently didn't notice that she was only kidding, because his
face glowed a bright red and he nervously inched away from her.  "C-close?"
 He stammered.  "I...well...you see..."
    Ryako laughed, showing off a pair of small, wolflike fangs.  "Come on,
Ryoga, I was just joking with you."  She pinched his cheek.  "You're so
naive sometimes," she remarked in a jesting tone, smiling charmingly at
him, which didn't help his already blushing face.  
    The nervous Ryoga tried to inconspiciously put the letter away, but
Ryako snatched it out of his hands and began to look over it with interest.
 He sputtered a bit in protest, flailing around as he tried to grab the
letter back, but she nimbly kept it out of his grasp, grinning at him all
the while.
    "I won't tell anyone what it says," she told him, patting him on the
shoulder.  He seemed to calm down slightly as he sat down with a loud
hurrumph, folding his arms across his chest and pointedly looking away.
    She focused her gaze on the letter, and nodded slightly as she read
over it quickly.  
    "Dear...hm..."  She narrowed her thin brows.  "Ryoga, the second word
here is kind of splotched out.  What is it supposed to say?"
    "Nothing," Ryoga responded, attempting to look nonchalant.
    Ryako shrugged and read on, silently this time.  After a few moments,
she set it down and nodded.  "So tell me, Ryoga," she said, smirking.
"Who's the girl you're in love with?  The letter's got some heartfelt
phrases in it, but you're never specific as to who you're talking about."
    Ryoga flushed angrily.  "I was talking about Akane, of course!"  He
blustered, pulling the letter from the girl's hands and tucking it into his
traveling pack, which rested nearby.  An image of a brown-haired girl with
a spatula flitted through his mind, which he forced out irritatedly.
    "Of course," Ryako stated, grinning wolfishly.  
    Ryoga looked at her suspiciously, and her eyes glinted mysteriously.
He shook his head, sighing.  It was like there was two different Ryako's -
the harsh, tough trainer that existed during most of the day, and the
friendly, joking girl that laughed with him in the evenings by the campfire.  
    He grinned back at her.  At least, he could enjoy this half's company
while it was there.

    "Well, well." Khu Lon's withered, brittle voice sounded amused.  "After
a good seventy years, we meet again, Jeikar."
    Jeikar grinned.  "It -has- been awhile, hasn't it?"
    Kai had, true to his word, brought Jeikar to see the old woman.
Jeikar, upon hearing that Khu Lon was still alive and in town, had jumped
at the chance to see her again.  Kai had left after bringing Jeikar to the
Nekohanten, though, saying that he had someone to talk to.  
    "I'm curious," the ancient woman said slowly, "your friend, Kai.  He
said you told him of Sungchuan - you've kept the more important parts a
secret, though, I trust?"
    The Chinese boy shrugged.  "I think so.  They didn't seem to suspect
anything, anyway; well, except Kai.  He knows that I didn't leave my
village as I told the others, 'when we were both children.'  After all,
when I left I was...fifty years old, maybe?"  He paused thoughtfully.
"Perhaps a little younger.  So Kai would know, since I wasn't in the
village when he was a child, that I'm hiding something, but maybe he just
thinks that I'm from another village."
    Khu Lon smiled.  "That could be.  You're lucky to have such a good
friend that would lie for you like that, Jeikar.  Especially one that seems
so...well, no one would suspect him of lying, in any case."
    Jeikar furrowed his brow.  "I don't really know Kai that well," he
admitted with a grunt.  "Not as good as I would like to, anyway.  And I'm
not going to pretend that I can see past that damn iron barrier he keeps in
front of his emotions all the time."
    The old woman nodded.  "Definitely the truth.  That boy is a very good
one at hiding his feelings.  For the most part," she added as an
afterthought, chuckling dryly to herself.
    "He's shown more of his emotions since he's arrived in Japan than I've
ever seen him display before, you know."  Jeikar bit his lip thoughtfully.
"Like when he thought he had finally caught up with his fiance-to-be."
    "Fiance-to-be?"
    The Chinese boy laughed.  "There is some very interesting people in
this area," he stated, grinning.  "I've even met one with a Jusenkyo curse."
    Khu Lon gave him an unreadable glance.  "Ranma."
    "Yes."  Jeikar nodded.  "That's his name.  He has a most interesting
condition.  It's not the most rare curse by any means, but I was surprised
to find any curses at all here in Japan."  He let out a breath.  "I've
actually made friends with Ranma, truth be told.  He's not a bad guy - just
a little frustrated at times, and he sure can fight.  I'd have a shattered
jawbone right now if not for the First Gift."
    "True, he's very good," Khu Lon agreed.  "One of the most remarkable
fighters I've met in a couple hundred years.  He learned the kachuu tenshin
amaguriken in the timespan of about a week."
    "The amaguriken?"  Jeikar grinned.  "He used that on me.  He handles it
better than I do - of course, I tried coupling it with staff thrusts, which
slows it down some."  His eyes unfocused as he leaned back with a sigh.  "I
still remember the day I learned that technique.  I was traveling with Kai
at the time, you know, and-"
    "I was wondering," the ancient woman interjected, "how -did- you and
that Kai boy meet?"
    "It was about sixty years after I first met you," Jeikar responded.
"He was about fifteen at the time, I think.  Wanted to see the world or
something like that, so I agreed to let him accompany me in my travels."
    "That would have made you about...what, one-hundred thirty years old at
the time?"  She smirked.  "Quite an age gap, don't you think, Jeikar?"
    Jeikar nodded.  "Quite.  Kai didn't suspect anything, though.  I found
out a way to restore youth temporarily, you know."  He gave her a knowing
grin.  "Perhaps you'd be interested in that, hm, Elder?"
    She tried to mask her eagerness, not completely succeeding, seeing as
Jeikar gave a short laugh.  "It's fairly simple, actually," he told her,
nodding slightly.  "You've heard of 'ling yao-tsau,' I trust?"
    "Ling yao-tsau?"  Khu Lon asked curiously.  "Magical healing herbs?
I've heard tales of them..."
    Jeikar grinned broadly.  "And what you've heard about them is all
wrong, I would guess.  The term isn't precisely correct, in that they
'heal,' but, since whoever first discovered that they existed named them as
such, it has been assumed that they heal wounds."  He rolled his eyes.
"They are magical, though, and very rare.  I stumbled across a patch of
them as I was nearing seventy at the time, and had been wandering for a
mere twenty years.  I really was feeling like a decrepit old man, you know."
    Khu Lon only looked at him impassively, and he continued.  "Anyway, I
came across a small patch of the ling yao-tsau in the eastern Kunlun
Mountains, near the border of Sinkiang and Tibet.  Wouldn't have given them
much thought, except for the fact that I had fallen off a rock the previous
day and had a rather large gash on my right arm."  He grimaced, looking at
his right forearm as if he expected blood to be flowing any minute.  "I
recognized them from my studies as a child, and decided to test my luck."
He bellowed a laugh.  "Imagine my surprise when I found that I had been
transformed back into a youth of sixteen!  Still had my cut, though," he
noted sourly.
    "I...er..."  Khu Lon hesitated.  "I don't suppose you would have any of
those herbs still with you, would you?"
    Jeikar shook his head and sighed.  "Nope.  I only picked a few, because
there wasn't that many of them, and I would probably have had conscience
trouble had I plucked them all."  He made a face.  "I got enough for
myself, anyway.  Every time I would reach about thirty, I'd eat one and -
poof!  I was young and spry again.  I ran out around my one-hundred and
thirtieth age, almost exactly the same time I met Kai.
    "Kai, as I said before, wanted to see the world beyond his village, so
I let him travel with me for awhile.  He's a skilled fighter, you know.
Better than me, even though I'd had an extra hundred or so years to train."
 He grinned.  "I was worried that I had run out of ling yao-tsau, though,
and redoubled my efforts to find Sungchuan.  Kai would often ask me why I
was wandering and what I was searching for, but I just gave him vague
answers.  After roughly a year of traveling in his company, we were split
up by a night attack by bandits.  He led the bandits off, actually, and I
never saw him after that, until he showed up in Japan about a month ago.  I
thought he was dead."  Jeikar gave a wry smile.  "I should have known
better.  I think that guy's stubborness would keep him alive, if nothing
else."
    "And then you found Sungchuan?"  Khu Lon questioned, an eyebrow raised.
    Jeikar nodded.  "Yup.  I had finally gotten enough guts to search
around the Jusenkyo area for it, and it just showed up in front of me.  Or
rather, a large cloud of mist showed up in front of me and I fell into a
hole.  Which happened to be Sungchuan.  Fortunate incident, wouldn't you say?"
    "Fortunate wish, too, seeing that it keeps you young indefinitely," the
old woman grunted.  "But what made you so reluctant to enter the Jusenkyo
valley?  Nothing is wrong there, except for the cursed springs."
    The Chinese boy gave a heaving sigh.  "Ill luck."  He looked
despondently at the old crone before him.  "That's the problem with that
place, ill luck.  If there's one thing I learned over the course of my
wanderings, it was to stay away from Jusenkyo.  Most people think of it as
a legend, nothing more.  The ones that are knowledgable about it, though,
are aware of it's bad luck effect on people.  Or perhaps a charm?"
    Khu Lon gave him a wary look.  "Charm?  What do you mean?"  She asked
slowly.
    "Like a moth to a flame," he said thoughtfully.  "That pretty much
describes the effect those pools have on people.  I think it's magic," he
added, shuddering.  "But once you enter that valley, the spirits that
inhabit it don't want you to leave without taking a cursed form with you.
Sort of a 'valley of enticement,' you might say.  Makes people forget their
horror of the pools."  He sighed and grumbled slightly.  "Alters your
mindstate slightly, so that you give yourself idiotic excuses to allow
yourself to submerge into a spring.  'What could possibly happen?'  That's
a perfect example of this sort of thing."
    "Very interesting," the old woman commented.  "I think I may have
experienced this myself, when I entered the valley, though I am not cursed.
 Not me, but another..."  Her face darkened for a moment, then cleared.
"You seem to know a great deal about Jusenkyo.  What else do you know?"
    "Like I said, not to go near it," Jeikar grunted.  The old woman glared
at him slightly, and he coughed with a nervous grin on his face.
"Ah...well, if you want to know about specifics..."  He cleared his throat.
 "I spoke to an old hermit in Tibet about it once.  He knew more than I
could ever hope to.  He knew more than the Jusenkyo Guide does, I think.
He brought it up to me while I was taking refuge from a snowstorm at his
place, after I had asked about places to avoid in the Takla Makan."  Seeing
her startled look, he added, "Ah...well, I was looking for new experiences;
new places to travel and such."  He coughed.  "Well, the old guy told me
that the Takla Makan was a place to avoid altogether, and I took his
advice, then he began to tell me about Jusenkyo."
    "Well?  What'd he say?"
    "He told me how the springs work, basically."  He looked up to see her
reaction, and getting none, he continued.  "When you fall in a spring, the
magic works to change your form to whatever drowned in that particular pool
of water.  For the sake of a specific discussion, I'll use that Ranma
fellow's curse.  Now, when he fell into the spring, he took the form of the
young girl that had drowned there however many years ago it was.
Fifteen-hundred?"  He shook his head.  "Makes no difference.   Anyway, all
the springs work like that.  You change into whatever drowned there, save
for the hairstyle and other such minor details, like in Ranma's case."
    "This's pretty common knowledge, boy," Khu Lon stated disapprovingly.
"What makes you think I didn't know all this?"
    Jeikar grinned slightly.  "There's more.  That's for the -first- time
you fall in a spring.  The second time, if it's a different spring, nothing
happens.  Jusenkyo's magic doesn't double up like that, except in very
specific circumstances."
    "Which are...?"
    "Age, for one.  If you're originally cursed before roughly age five,
you can add on to the curse.  For example, if a three year old was plunged
into the spring of drowned girl, he would change into a little girl, age
three.  The little girl would be whatever the original victim looked like
at age three," he added as an afterthought, then continued.  "Then, say, at
age ten, he accidentally fell into the spring of drowned fox.  Now, the
curses would interact with each other violently, and with random effects.
For example, he might come out as a girl with a fox tail."  He smirked at
the thought of that.  
    "Now, if you don't fall in a spring before age five, there's an
entirely different set of rules for the springs."  He sighed thoughtfully.
"I think it has to do with the curse adapting to your body, but no matter.
However it works, if a ten year old or an eighty year old man falls into
the spring of drowned girl, they would become the original sixteen year old
girl that drowned there."  Jeikar held up his hand before Khu Lon could say
anything.  "There's still more.  While in most cases you can't be doubly
cursed, there's two exceptions.  Age, as I said above.  The second would be
if someone - let's use Ranma as an example again - fell into the same
spring as before."
    "They would freeze in their cursed form, I presume?"
    Jeikar shook his head.  "Close, but not quite.  The magic
reacts...rather oddly to something like that happening.  They would
actually lose the original curse and take on an entirely new one.  In
Ranma's case, he would no longer look like the girl that drowned there
centuries ago - his image would now be molded to his personality.  However,
upon falling in the spring a second time, he -would- be stuck in his new
cursed form."
    Khu Lon smirked.  "Now isn't -that- interesting.  I wonder how that
works."
    "It's something like this.  Even the old hermit didn't know for
certain," he admitted, "because there's almost no one that's fallen in the
same spring twice.  But from what I'm aware of, it works like this.  If you
have a beautiful personality, it would change you into a beautiful young
girl.  Ugly personality, ugly girl.  Hair color is important, too."  He
stopped to watch the surprised expression flit across Khu Lon's withered
features.  "Odd, isn't it?  I think the spring is using everything it can
to reflect the emotions and personality of the victim, and hair is one of
the easier things to 'grab,' so to speak.  So is eye coloration, which
works the same way."
    "It's like a color coordination code, then?"
    "Sort of."  The Chinese boy seemed to be trying to grasp something from
his memories.  "I don't quite remember all that ther hermit told me; it's
been awhile, after all."  He paused.  "Hm...take red, for example.  If
after falling in the spring of drowned girl twice, Ranma's hair was still
red, that would indicate a powerful, fiery personality.  Black or
blue-black would point towards depression, and blue, or maybe white, for
peacefulness.  You get the idea.  And, for other springs, the same thing
applies.  Spring of drowned fox, to use the same one that I mentioned
before.  Red fur for a fiery personality and all that."
    Khu Lon nodded slowly.  "I think I understand.  That, Jeikar, -is- a
rather unusual store of knowledge that you have attained.  
    "Now, I have a question for you, young man.  I know how the Third Gift
works, and how it also works against you, in a way, but I need a favor
done.  Do not fear to refuse."  She drew a breath, then went on.  "I would
like you to use the Third Gift of Healing to Heal my old age."
    Jeikar looked puzzled.  "Heal your old age?"  He looked thoughtful.  "I
suppose that would probably work," he admitted.  "However, I'd be absorbing
your three hundred some years into myself, not simply making them
disappear, as you know.  Even with the First Gift of Regeneration, it would
take me weeks to return to my normal state."
    She only sat, watching him impassively, waiting for an answer.
    He let out a deep breath, and ran his usually cheerful brown eyes over
her withered form, pity for her old age practically tangible in his gaze.
"Yes, I suppose I'll help you," he said at last.  "After all, you helped me
to find Sungchuan.  It's the least I can do."
    The old woman smiled at him.  "I am indebted to you eternally, Jeikar
Tsiang."  She gave a small bow, and he looked nervous for a moment, then
bowed back.
    "Now stay still," he told her, inhaling deeply.  "Don't move.  This
won't be painless, I warn you.  For you...or for me."  He sighed
regretfully and began to let his powerful life-force flow into the old
woman's shriveled husk of a body.
    And he shuddered in pain as the age and feebleness entered his own
youthful form.

    Ranma gave a tired yawn as he flipped nonchalantly through the
channels.  It was only early evening, but lazing around all day had the
effect of making one sleepier than they would have been otherwise, and
Ranma was beginning to appreciate this as he looked through heavy-lidded
eyes at the television set.
    "Nothing," he grunted sourly, looking with an odd combination of
boredness and frustration at the television.  "Oh, well."  He sighed.  It
wasn't as if the television could do anything about it, he told himself as
he entertained thoughts of throwing a chi blast at it.
    "And with regards to the failed robbery attempt on the Kunou estate..."
 the newsman was saying in a lifeless monotone, threatening to send Ranma
to sleep, when Ranma suddenly realized what he had just said.  Kunou had
gotten robbed?  Now -this- was interesting.  "...and the robbers were
apparently dressed as ninja, and tried to mingle with the Kunou family's
own guard ninja.  It failed, however, when the robbers set off an alarm and
the police arrived at the scene.  Most of the thieves gave themselves up
and will be facing five years in prison for breaking and entering, however,
there was unexpected resistance amongst the robbers, and three of the
honored police force met untimely deaths at the hands of the robbers."
    Someone killed a policeman?  Ranma whistled slightly.  Must be some
real nutcases here in Nerima that I never knew about, he noted.  No one
-he- knew was likely to do anything rash like that.  Not even Ryoga...well,
okay, so maybe Ryoga might.  But probably not.
    "...have identified the murderer of officer Tanaka Karazaki as a high
school student named Hiroshi Samata, who purportedly stabbed him in the
back after he was caught trying to flee the mansion..."
    Ranma was listening disinterestedly, then his jaw went slack as he
heard the name of the killer.  "T-that can't be right," he muttered with a
short oath.  "Hiroshi wouldn't kill anyone."  Would he?  Ranma grimaced.
    "...Hiroshi, along with accomplice Jun Mitaka, managed to escape under
cover of darkness, and, despite the best efforts of the police force, have
not been sighted for the past few days.  If you should catch sight of
either of these two, call the local..."
    Hiroshi was a murderer.  Ranma shook his head in amazement.  His friend
seemed so...harmless.  How could he have killed somebody?  And what was he
doing trying to rob the Kunou estate, anyway?
    "...the two officers whose names have not been released publicy yet.
However, it is known that their killer's name is Rayne Shikama, along with
accomplice Daisuke Koruto..."
    Ranma thought he was going to faint.  Daisuke -and- Hiroshi?  Those two
were murderers and robbers?  It just wasn't feasible.
    "...but when Shikama and Koruto, in a stolen automobile, were
confronted by the police at Nagasaki, the two crazed teenagers drove off
the edge of a nearby cliff, which the drop is approximately..."
    Drove off a cliff?  Daisuke was...?
    "...assumed dead.  The stolen automobile was recovered from the sea,
but no sign was seen of either of the two murderer's corpses.  The police
assume that they were both knocked out by the violent impact of the car
with the ocean, and drowned, but it is not known for certain..."
    Ranma shook his head, completely amazed.  Daisuke and Hiroshi, two of
his best friends.  Gone or dead.  How could this have happened?  He cleared
his thoughts and shuddered slightly, deciding that now would be a really
good time to get some sleep.
----------------------------------
And thus ends book one of Ryoga 1/2.  Sorry to leave you all hanging like
that, but got to keep up the suspense, you know... ;)

The first part of book two will focus on a completely new set of
characters, many of whom I've worked hard to create, so I hope you enjoy
them.  They aren't from Ranma 1/2, though - they're my own creations.
(Most of them are, anyway.)  The new character who will be the focus of the
story for awhile wasn't exactly created by me, but her character wasn't a
reality it Ranma 1/2.  Rather, she was an entity created to trick another
person.  

Well, enough babble!  I'm sure you'd rather be reading book two, anyway.
So I'm going to cut short the comments and get to work.  As usual, all C&C
should be sent to guilds@mail.serve.com.  I really do want comments, by the
way.  For now...

Zai jian!