SIGNPOST
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Jan Story
Standard disclaimer: Ryouga isn't mine (*sigh*) and neither is the song.


Lost was, of course, Ryouga Hibiki�s normal state of existence, but this
time he�d outdone himself. He had been in this forest for days, with no sign
of a way out. The trails he followed evaporated into underbrush. The tiny
streams he hoped would lead him to a larger watercourse trickled away to
nothing instead. He had resorted to blazing trees to keep himself from going
in circles, but he wasn�t going in circles. There was just no end to this
weird woods!

The forest was strangely empty of life as well. No birds sang in the
web-hung trees. No insects buzzed, except flies. There were no tufts of fur
on bushes, no gnawed bark, no little piles of fur and bone where some
predator had caught its dinner. There were, however, spiders, or maybe
something more like caterpillars. He hadn�t seen any, but there were webs in
the trees. Disturbing dreams had plagued his sleep, dreams he couldn�t
remember clearly, only there was something singing to him, and a feeling
like... it had been indescribable, wonderful... and absolutely terrifying.
Then when he woke up he found a large web over his bedroll. Something had
spun it over him as he slept!

He was starting to get scared.

Just as worrisome was the shortage of water and the apparent absence of
edible plants. It was early summer, and he should have been able to add a
number of tasty and nutritious shoots and berries to his dwindling supply of
instant ramen. But the plants he saw were unfamiliar, the berries
foul-smelling and probably poisonous for all their bright colors, and
instinct warned him not to try any of the small, bright-spotted mushrooms.
As for water, he had not found any springs since yesterday, and the water in
that one had smelled musty. He had boiled a little for his ramen, but it had
made the noodles taste so foul he had thrown the mess away. Akane�s worst
effort would have been delicious by comparison.

/*Oh kami, please let me get out of this place and back to Akane-san. I�ll
never think bad things about her food, I�ll eat her cooking forever, if only
I can see her again...*/

Besides, the summer rains were coming, and he really needed to find
civilization and shelter. As bad as it was, being lost in this wilderness as
a man, it would probably be a hundred times worse to be lost here as a pig.

			//Hitotsu, hitoyo no koi naraba...//

It sounded like someone playing a shakuhachi. Or had he heard words? Either
way, it meant someone he could ask for directions out of this nightmare
forest.

			//Futatsu, futari de jigoku e to...//

The voice had a flute�s impossible purity, but those were definitely words.
Someone was singing. Off to his right, down the slope...

			//Mittsu, mina o koroshitemo...//

...into a stand of dark trees, festooned with webs, and dark sacklike things
that hung in the branches. It was a place that should have set off
danger-warnings in his mind, but the haunting beauty of the song, the
impossible loveliness of that voice, entranced him. It promised more than
directions out, it promised beauty and acceptance and peace, an end to all
his self-loathing and self-doubt, such wonder and delight as he had never
known... except in those disturbing dreams...

			//Yottsu, yomi e no michi-shirube,//
			//Yottsu, yomi e no michi-shirube.//

The trees grew closer together here, the webs in their branches thicker. No
breeze stirred the heavy, still air. There was not even the droning of flies
here, only his footsteps and that song.


			//Itsutsu, ikusa no chi no ame no...//


Then, with no thinning of the forest, it suddenly ended. He came out into a
clearing. Emerald grass, smooth as moss, sloped to the edge of a little
pool.

			//Muttsu, mukuro to kawarya senu...//

She was standing with her back to him, knee-deep in the water. Her smooth
hair flowed down her back to her knees, black, shimmering with highlights
that were the green of the grass, the blue of the sky reflected in the
water. He could see the sleeves of her flowing robe, green also, with
traceries of blue and rose.

			//Nanatsu, namida mo kare hate te,//
			//Yattsu, yamiyo ga tokate yuku,//
			//Yattsu, yamiyo ga tokate yuku.//

�Excuse me,� he began, blushing, hand to his head in embarrassment. �Can you
tell me how to get to the nearest town?

�Wouldn�t you rather stay with me, sweet boy?� Her voice was as sweet
speaking as it had been singing; it promised everything and more, he wanted
to go to her, kneel before her in the cool water of the pool, surrender
himself to... he scarcely dared imagine. His nose felt hot and tight; in a
moment it would explode. Only the knowledge that if he gave in to that
desire, if he went into that crystal water, he would change into a hideous
black *pig* and she would scream and thrust him away, kept him from moving
forward.

�Uh, sorry to bother you,� he muttered and began to back away.

�You looked so sweet, sleeping,� she went on. �And your dreams... Is the
rest of you as delicious?� And she turned, and he saw...

Her face was a skull�s face, with huge multifaceted insect eyes, and an
insect�s mandibles and sucking proboscis. Her humanoid body was indeed
female, nude, but skeletally gaunt, her thin arms jointed oddly. And what he
thought was a robe was instead her wings, vast and colorful. She leaped
toward him on insectoid legs. At the last second, he leaped away, lashing
out with a powerful kick.

She landed sprawling from a kick that could have snapped a tree, but she
sprang up immediately and a stream of sticky gray stuff shot toward him. He
dodged among the trees, wondering what to do. It would take too long to
gather ki for a shishi hokoudan. If he could find a rock maybe he could
blast holes in its wings with a bakusai tenketsu. But at all costs he had to
stay away from that web-stuff and out of range of those claws and mandibles.
He wished he could think moves ahead, could improvise tactics the way Ranma
could... the way Ranma always managed to sucker him into the path of a
bucket of water or something... that�s it! He pulled his umbrella free of
the straps...

His only chance was the open space of the clearing. He didn�t like it; there
was water in there and if he changed it would be all over. He didn�t stand a
chance as a pig. But it was the only thing he could come up with... he
sprinted toward the clearing and leaped onto one of the rocks by the pool,
opening his umbrella as he moved.

She glided out of the trees. �You�re mine now, sweet boy,� she sang. And he
threw his umbrella in a spinning arc. It curved away from her and she
laughed, her laugh chimed like bells, it was an abomination that anything so
hideous and evil could sound so beautiful.

�Then come get me!� he yelled, and took off across the clearing. She
followed...

...straight into the path of his circling umbrella. Her laugh became a brief
second of screaming, then silence as its razor edge sliced off her head.

Her body dropped to the ground, covered by its brilliant wings, and then the
whole thing dissolved into a puddle of stinking goo that sank into the earth
without a trace.

Ryouga dropped to his knees, his already-empty stomach trying to empty
itself even further.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Colors were just beginning to be visible in the early sunlight as Ryouga
shouldered his pack. The pool drained into a little stream, and he followed
it under the web-hung trees. In the growing light, the webs looked old and
tattered, no longer threatening. As he followed the water, he heard insects
buzzing, and slapped at a mosquito. Somewhere up ahead a bird sang.

Before long the tiny stream joined a larger one. Cattails lined its banks.
He picked one, peeled the stem and munched as he walked. Somewhere
downstream would be roads, towns, people he could ask for directions, and a
way back to Akane.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the forest he had left, high in a tree, something broke through the end
of a silk-wrapped bundle and fell to the ground. Wet and crumpled wings
expanded, straightened, waved back and forth, drying, straightening,
hardening. And something sang with the haunting purity of a bamboo flute.

			//Hitotsu, hitoyo no koi naraba...//

Last revised 1/98

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NOTES, EXPLANATIONS ETC.

I couldn't get the song out of my head, so I wrote a story around it.  It's
not supposed to be a crossover or anything, the monster is actually a
composite between the insect-winged youma in Curse of the Undead, assorted
succubus-types culled from a lifetime of reading Andre Norton, the
Blackworlder female in Wicked City (I wish I could have thought of a way to
show her teeth, but this *is* Ryouga...)

I imagine that getting lost as much as he does, Ryouga probably knows a fair
bit about wilderness survival, edible wild plants etc.

The song is from Curse of the Undead: Yoma (I think it was re-released
recently as Blood Reign, but we have the older tape).  It's in the form of a
traditional counting song, and the words (translated in the tape subtitles)
mean:

One, a love in one generation,
Two, we both go to hell,
Three, even if we kill everyone,
Four, signpost to the Land of the Dead (x2).

Five, a rain of blood because of the war,
Six, just like a dead body,
Seven, my tears run out,
Eight, a dark night starts to melt (x2).

There is a final couplet, but it's not on the tape and I haven't tracked
down a CD version of the song yet.

Forgive the awkward fight scene; it was the first time I ever tried to write
such a thing and it gave me no end of trouble.

Some day I may write more strange adventures of Ryouga Hibiki.