I was right, there is another mouse in my room. Do you still hate
me from last time? Let me make it up to you with...
---------------
The Leper
Part 6
"Package from Mom"
by Nikholas "NomaD" F. Toledo
Ranma 1/2 is the property of Kitty, VIZ and the omnipotent Rumiko
Takahashi. I am a property of Switch (so you know who to sue).
I am NomaD... I am coming... I am near...
Don't expect any summaries...
Names and spellings have been explained in part 1...
-----------
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
Wisdom at the cost of knowledge (got this from 'Diablo').
-----------
Before everyone saw the great white light, the last thing they saw
was Kiiroi being enveloped by the same brightness. Then it seemed that
the entire world exploded. But the odd thing was there was no sound. Or
perhaps the sound was so loud it was deafening. That would probably
explain the ringing in their ears after they regained consciousness.
When people started remembering where they were and what they were
doing there, they immediately looked in the direction football field. Or
what used to be the football field.
Everybody froze in horror as they stared at a crater in place of
where the field used to be. The crater was about a mile across and
sloped down to a depth of 50 feet.
Then, everybody saw a girl descend the crater followed by a couple.
"Oh god, Kii... where the hell are you..."
Ukyou didn't even notice that Ranma and Akane were following her.
Both of them were concerned for Ukyou and Kii (or what was left of him).
When Ukyou got to the center, she began digging with her hands.
But there was nothing but dirt. Her fingers started bleeding and the
blood mixed with her tears. Ranma and Akane could only watch her agony.
"Damn you, Kii! Where the hell are you?!?"
Akane was about to pull Ukyou up when she felt a nudge.
"What?"
"Did you see that? That was the 'Breaking Point Technique'!"
"I know what it is, Ranma... but I have to admit, it was pretty
powerful..."
"Are you kiddin' me?!? That thing blew whale, truck, crowd and
everything sky-high! I'd bet Ryouga would be weeping his heart out if he
saw this..."
"But where are they? Kii and Tsubasa's gone. Do you think
they're..."
Ukyou snapped her head back and glared at Akane before she could
finish her sentence. Akane tried to avoid her gaze as if her gaze would
turn her into stone. Angered as she was, Ukyou did wonder...
<Where the hell are you...>
"INCOMING!!!" "WATCH OUT!!!" "TAKE COVER!!!"
At the shout from the crowd, the three instinctively looked up.
As if by reflex, Ranma grabbed Ukyou by the collar and Akane by the
waist, then began leaping for his life. The crowd also ducked for their
lives as huge chunks of whale meat fell from the sky. There were also
the remnants of a monster truck, a vending machine, a trash bin, and two
very unconscious teen-agers. Ukyou saw this and got out Ranma's grasp.
She jumped straight up and caught Kiiroi in her arms. Ranma also saw
Tsubasa falling but hesitated for a moment. In the end, he decided to
rescue hi- *THUD!!!*
"Whoops! Too late..."
Ranma and Akane walked passed the body that stuck headfirst on the
ground. When they got to Ukyou, they saw her cradling Kiiroi in her
arms. Ukyou was trying to rouse him, to no avail.
She stared up at the two. Her eyes pleaded for Kiiroi but there
was nothing any of them could do but wait.
Ukyou's tears fell upon the pale skin of Kiiroi.
Kiiroi stirred at the stream of tears flowing on his cheeks. Ukyou
held her breath and watched with anticipation as Kiiroi began opening his
eyes. Ukyou was about to hug him but turned back at the idea. She just
stroked him on the cheek instead.
Kiiroi raised his hand to touch Ukyou but jerked it back forgetting
that his arm was dislocated. Ukyou hushed him and held his other hand.
Kiiroi could die right now if the heavens permitted it but he was far
from death. Ukyou smiled at her friend, her very best friend.
"Guess what... you won..."
Kiiroi took in breath to respond. It hurt his lungs to inhale but
he tried not to show this.
"Really?" Pause. "How's my hair?"
Ukyou laughed beyond her tears. Ranma and Akane just smiled at
each other. It was a long day, everybody just wanted to go home.
Everybody except for two people.
"You have ruined me for the last time... I WILL get my revenge.
Death would be an easier alternative after I'm through with you..."
Nabiki's stride was ghostly and silent. Everybody crept away from
her as if she was releasing some sort of invisible battle aura. Those
who met her gaze trembled in fear upon seeing the fire of vengeance in
her dark eyes.
----------
It was close to sunset and the whole school had been vacated. Yet
one soul still lingered. He stood frozen on the rooftop, gripping the
fencing. His tears had long dried out but he still stared at the field
as if the fight was still happening.
The memory of the fight could not be erased from his mind. Then he
fell to his knees as if weakened, but not from exhaustion.
He thought of her.
Ryouga cried. He wept for himself.
----------
*KRAK!*
"YEEOOW!!!"
*CRACK! SNAP!*
"GODDAMNIT!!!"
*POP!*
"SHIIIII... Oh, that feels better..."
Ukyou held Kiiroi's hand as the good doctor replaced the dislocated
arm. Kiiroi lain on the bed on his side. His ribs were broken in four
places and his bare back was still red and swelling from the burns. But
he had a cast on his torso now and he could see again.
Dr. Tofu dipped a washcloth in a clear liquid then he slowly turned
Kiiroi flat belly on the bed.
"Now, Kii, this is gonna hurt a bit..."
"What is it?"
"Alcohol..."
With that, Dr. Tofu placed the cloth on Kiiroi's back.
Kiiroi screamed in pain and felt as if he was going to faint.
Ukyou struggled to hold his hand. His grip was so strong it made her
whimper but she tried not to show this.
Dr. Tofu poked Kiiroi's legs. "Can you feel it now?"
"No, nothing still..."
"Well, your spinal cord's not broken or anything... nothing a
little rest won't cure. If you still can't feel anything by tomorrow,
come back and we'll see what we can do. I've got a pair of crutches I
can loan you..."
Ranma walked over the bed and turned his back on Kiiroi.
"Up you go, champ."
Kiiroi got hold of Ranma's arms and he got onto Ranma's back. Dr.
Tofu handed the crutches to Ukyou. Everybody said their good-byes
afterwards.
----------
"How come you never told me about that? After going through all
that trouble training you."
"Sorry, Ranma, but it is our family's secret and we only use it
when we're really desperate."
"But how did Cologne know?"
"Don't you remember? That's how my ancestors survived the wrath of
the Amazons. We gave them the technique and they used it for mining.
Truth is, what we showed them was just the tip of the iceberg."
Ranma stopped walking, but not because he was tired. Akane felt
Ranma's chill.
"Do you mean that the 'Breaking Point Technique' has other
varieties?"
"Yes, Akane: all things have breaking points, what we taught the
Amazons was only the technique for non-living things."
Ranma thought about this and he realized that Ryouga never used the
breaking point on trees or other plants.
"Kii, what other things have breaking points?"
"Well, let's see... air, water, life..."
"WHAAAAT?!?"
Everybody stared at Kiiroi, fearing him for the first time.
"You mean you could've killed Tsubasa?"
"No, of course not. I haven't learned the technique yet, or
rather, I've been trying without any success."
"Whew! But what's with the bandages on your fingers?"
"Oh, I had a knack for accidentally touching the breaking point of
things when I was a kid. I actually leveled our first house. As long as
I wear these bandages, I'll never be able to use the technique."
"How come the bandages don't break?"
"I don't know, the bandages were given to us by the Amazons. It's
some sort of silk or animal skin, they said that it'll never tear."
The four eventually reached 'Okonomiyaki Ucchan's'. As Ukyou
worked on the lock, Akane saw something on the ground just beyond the
light to see.
"Hey, what's this? It's a package!"
Ranma and Kiiroi turned to her while Ukyou opened the door for
them.
"Well, bring it in..."
Ranma plopped Kiiroi down and Akane followed behind with two
packages. They were the size of television sets and one was made of wood
and had holes on it. Ukyou heated the grill to cook themselves dinner.
Akane read the labels and her face brightened.
"It's for you, Kii! It's from somebody named Ming Tsu Niwatori."
"Mom! Oh boy! It's my stuff!"
"But the name sounds..."
"Chinese? Of course, where would my dad find a Japanese in China,
anyway? I still don't know how that old goat got my mom to marry him,
they're more than a decade apart."
Kiiroi began ripping away the packaging and Akane helped him with
it. Kiiroi opened the box and his face lit up with wonder from the
contents. Inside the box were clothes, two pairs of glasses, some bags
of tea and an envelope containing a hefty amount of yen. The rest stared
in disbelief at the wad of cash Kiiroi held in his hand.
"You gotta love my mom, her timing's impeccable. And look, spare
glasses."
Ukyou almost forgot about her grill until she leaned her hands on
it while trying to see how much Kiiroi held. Her shout brought everybody
else to their senses. As Ukyou washed her hands, Ranma began undoing the
rope that held the other crate. Peering inside, Ranma saw a lump of fur
in the middle of cushion.
"Hey, what the hell is..."
"Mew!"
"GYAAAAAH!!! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"
But the cat hung onto Ranma's arm for its dear life. Kiiroi
quickly snagged the feline from Ranma and stroked its furry little head,
he then scowled at Ranma. Ranma didn't notice this though, for he was
cringing at the far corner of the restaurant.
"Did the bad man hurt you, my baby? Oh, you poor thing..."
Kiiroi let his hand slide familiarly on the cat's furry back. The
cat seemed to like this and stretched its body along Kiiroi's arm. Akane
was struck with awe at the beautiful cat.
"Oh, what a cute kitty! He's your cat?"
"Yes, SHE'S my widdle kiddy-widdy! Yes you are, yes you are..."
He seemed to pause, not at all taking care of a blush. "Uhurm, yes this
is my cat, Ishi. Look, Ishi, it's Auntie Ukyou."
The cat crawled down Kiiroi's arm and went over to Ukyou. Ukyou
swiped it off before it reached the grill. Ukyou cradled the little ball
of fur in remembrance.
Kiiroi stared longingly at his fianc�e. This was probably the only
way he could see Ukyou's affection. The cat never liked just anybody, it
knows who it could trust. Ukyou cradled the cat and held it near her
breast. How Kiiroi wished that he was a cat.
Akane put out a finger and the cat tried to catch the wiggling
appendage in its paws.
*giggle* "She's just so cute! Why is she named 'Ishi'?"
"Actually, that's her mother's name. Her mother was resting on top
of a huge boulder that my late grandfather picked for me to break. I
caught the mother just in time before she hit the ground. She gave birth
to Ishi just a year ago. Oh, that's how I got Ishi... you know, rock."
Akane looked inside the box and saw Kiiroi's clothes.
"Don't you have anything else to wear? What's with the black
attire."
"It gives me that mysterious, cool dude image... or rather it used
to."
Touching the clothing, Akane felt something hard under them.
"Hey, what's this?"
Akane brought out something black and shiny. Everybody immediately
knew what it was. Kiiroi was particularly swelling up with excitement.
"It's my camera!"
"That's so nice. Hey, what's this? There's a bunch of photos in
here."
Akane brought out a bunch of pictures and showed it to everybody.
It was mostly of buildings and trees and people doing something. Akane
showed it to everybody and tossed one to Ranma every time she finished
one. But towards the end of the stack, the pictures became familiar. It
was of Ukyou, and Kii, and them together. Akane felt warmed up. The two
of them looked so happy. How she wished that Ranma...
"Wait, was this before or aft..."
"Uhm, before."
Kiiroi cleared his throat as he answered. Ukyou was unusually
quiet. Akane pitied Ukyou for she herself knew exactly how Ukyou felt.
For whatever brief moment she and Ranma spent together before she knew he
was a boy was special in its own way. But since Kii and Ukyou were
friends for a longer period, the impact of the announcement was a bit
lessened.
"Hey, why don't you snap a few pictures?"
"Love to, Akane, but... no film."
"Oh, that's okay."
Ukyou finally finished the two okonomiyakis and served it to her
guests. She glanced in the corner and saw that Ranma had maintained his
position.
"Geez, Ranma, get a grip! If you don't come here, we'll finish
your share."
Ranma started turning his head but he hesitated and stayed in the
corner.
"Make the c-c-cat go away f-first."
"You are such a ninny."
Akane grabbed Ishi and placed her down the floor. She got a piece
of okonomiyaki and fed it to the kitty to keep her busy.
"C'mon, Ranma, the cat's gone..."
Ranma crept to the far end of the counter. Ukyou got a plate and
slid Ranma a slice of okonomiyaki. Akane continued her conversation with
Kiiroi.
"So, Kii, tell me more about the 'Bakusai Tenketsu'."
"I'll do better than that..."
Kiiroi got on the crutches and went behind the counter, looking for
something in his backpack. He got out a leather-bound pocketbook. Akane
saw that the book was much of an antique from the yellowish quality of
the paper. Kiiroi sat beside her and showed her its contents. Ranma
started moving closer to take a peek but he slid back to his stool when
he heard the cat meow.
"On the first page, the heirs to the Niwatori School of Martial
Arts are described. All of us were to have the following qualities:
light body structure, low strength, high agility and endurance, and most
important of all, long slender fingers."
"Why? What's so important about the fingers?"
"Well, if you examine my fingers more closely, they're very, very
pointed at the tip. This gives us the advantage of being able to touch
the breaking point of a target even if we're blindfolded. Here, this is
the first technique. This one is used for non-living things. Which
means that with this, one can break even dead things. It seems that
living things have built natural immunities against the breaking point
technique. That's why my ancestors developed the later techniques to
counter this. The next technique goes something like this..."
Kiiroi dug into his pocket and got out two 5-yen pieces.
"These are your weapons..."
Kiiroi laid a coin in each of Akane's palms. Akane just stared at
the coins, not knowing what to do. Kiiroi took off his index finger
bandage and then, without warning, he jabbed the coin on Akane's left
hand with his index. It was a light jab but it was enough shatter the
coin. In a blink of an eye, the coin turned into a pile of dust. Akane
searched Kiiroi for an answer.
"You just lost one of your weapons..."
And now Akane understood - before Kiiroi could land another strike
at the other coin, Akane closed her hand into a fist and turned it over.
Kiiroi just smiled at her. Apparently, Akane lost the other coin by
doing what she did.
Instead of jabbing, Kiiroi tapped Akane's closed fist with his
index and middle finger. Akane felt a shallow burst from inside her
hand. She turned her fist sideways and slowly began opening it. To
everyone's surprise (except Kiiroi's), powdered metal poured out of
Akane's opening fist.
Kiiroi continued. "Very useful when bearing grudges. Back then,
those who wished revenge used us to sabotage their enemies. The
technique could destroy important papers, gold, jewelry and other stuff
hidden in safes and vaults."
Akane felt Ranma's gaze. They were both thinking of the same
thing.
"Shampoo used that technique once..."
"Yeah, it was during the 'Anything Goes Martial Arts Take-Out
Race'. She eliminated all of the competition save for Akane and me."
"Pity..."
"Huh? Why, Kii?"
"They only specialized it on restaurant delivery boxes. They
haven't tapped its potential."
Ranma thought about this.
"You know what, Kii, I think... we all think it's best if those
Amazons don't know about this. They're pretty dangerous enough as it
is."
Akane and Ukyou both nodded in agreement. The three of them paused
for a moment. All of them were trying to imagine the sort of devious
plot the Amazon witches were planning right now. A chilling breeze
entered the restaurant shivering them up to their spines. This seemed to
answer their questions.
"Whoa, that was eerie... shall we go on?"
Kiiroi turned the brittle page and showed them the illustration.
Ranma just stared at the drawing. It was a hand that was executing the
technique. But the finger was jabbing at nothing.
"I don't get it, it's just striking thin air..."
"Precisely!"
The spectators' eyes began to widen. Their shock revealed their
ignorance. All of them unaware that even the very air they were
breathing was fragile enough to be shattered.
"So... how's it work?"
"Well, instead of one finger, you jab the air with two. A blast
will center on the martial artist's fingers. The power of the blast
depends on the speed of the jab."
There was something wrong here but Ranma's brain creaked with rust
as it tried to analyze Kiiroi's words.
"Hey, wait a minute... if the blast centers on the martial artist
then wouldn't he also be engulfed in the blast?"
A significant pause.
"Err, yeah..."
Everyone fell from their seats while Kiiroi developed a gigantic
sweat drop.
"SO WHAT'S THE POINT?"
"It's sort of a last ditch effort. It was developed accidentally
but up to now none of the family members has found a purpose for this
technique. It's probably a sort of 'hara-kiri' with style."
Kiiroi flipped the page and on this one, there were two
illustrations. Both illustrations show the same thing, a hand jabbing a
person on the chest. Below each figure is shown the proper hand and
finger technique.
"What's this?"
"These... are the two breaking points of the... heart."
Everybody took their moment to let the knowledge sink in. Ranma
and Akane looked at Kiiroi with newfound respect. They may be a family
of cowards but it's a family of powerful cowards. Ukyou just stared
blankly at Kiiroi. The fear was starting to build up inside her though
she didn't know why.
"Explain."
"The first one is used to turn a person against his own. This is
sort of a hate potion. The person will be jabbed and then will be given
a sort of post-hypnotic suggestion."
Gigantic question marks appeared on top of the listeners' heads.
"Let's say I used this on a married man, then I tell him that his
best friend is having an affair with his wife. That man will develop the
hate for those two he loves. The closer the person is to you, the
greater the hate. But after the loved ones are... eliminated, the effect
wears off."
"W-what about the other one?"
"This one... is the last. It's the breaking point of life."
Kiiroi waited a moment to check if anybody was going to say
something. Seeing that he had their undivided attention, Kiiroi went on.
"As I said, I still haven't been able to execute this technique.
My grandfather died before he could teach me this one. And since I
didn't want to go around poking humans and killing them, I tried this one
on pigs first. But I can't seem to flex my fingers in the right way.
Either that or it just works on humans. Maybe I should..."
"NOOO!"
Ranma, Akane and Ukyou stood up in alarm. All of them were
towering over Kiiroi. None of them said a word but the message was
clear, stay away from the technique.
But up on the shelves, an extra pair of ears heard all. Her
almond-shaped eyes glinted with satisfaction. She eased her way out of
the various crockery and slipped out unnoticed into the dark of night.
----------
Shampoo emerged from the shower, towel around her waist and another
on her purple locks. The steam crept out of the bathroom as the Amazon
girl walked out. Cologne went to her granddaughter while Shampoo slipped
into a pink pajama top.
"So Shampoo, how was your 'walk' outside?"
"The night was a bit chilly, grandma. But it was worth it. I got
more than I bargained for."
"Do tell, grandchild..."
----------
Shaking fingers dialed the phone as sweat trickled down his
forehead. His glasses began fogging again but he could still see the
numbers. Two rings and then a melodic answer.
"Tendo residence..."
"Um, h-hello? Can I please speak to Nabiki?"
"Just a moment..."
"Hello?"
"Hello, Nabiki? This is Mousse. I just overheard the Amazons
talking - now, listen..."
--------------
end of part 6
--------------
Sorry for boring you but I'm running out of gas. But don't worry,
the next one's gonna be a lot better. For comments and suggestions
please write to the "Nikholas F. Toledo Zu" at niftol@i-manila.com.ph,
care of NomaD.
I'd like to thank the following people:
Switch, the official Deputy Bastard Taskmaster from Hell, his birthday's
coming up. I might give him a pair of candles to fit the Hikaru
Gosunkugi image.
Nomadess, my divine inspiration. Right now she's in a place far away
where acres of virgin forests are being consumed in flames.
Elf, looks like I'm not the only one making progress. She just finished
the third chapter and is starting the fourth.
And finally, may I remind you that a tomato is a fruit not a
vegetable, a whale is a mammal not a fish, and freedom is a myth.
-NomaD-
=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)=);):)
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