Gary Kleppe wrote:
THE GHOST PRISON
A chilling wind blows.across Jusenkyo.
What a peculiar typo.
Bamboo poles vibrate back and forth like the tines of a tuning fork. The waters of the Jusenkyo pool in front of me swirl, casting ripples outward from the poles. The glassteel barriers around the
springs shake and tremble with the sound of ghosts rattling their chains. I try to remember how long it's been since the walls went up. Twenty years already? Thirty?
Heh. I think it'll be more than thirty years before anything deserving
the name "glassteel" can be invented.
I sit, staring at the pools in front of me. I wonder whether you understand. The thought that you don't is a massive weight that pushes down on me.
"Presses" is a better word choice, I think.
Burned indelibly into my memory, the last look on
your face hovers before me; your eyes gaping with utter confusion, with a single, unspoken question. Why?
I know you and I were never the closest of friends. I'd always meant to sit down with you someday and just talk -- about everything that I've been going through all these years, especially in the
early days when we met each other for the second time. About what you meant to me, and what I wanted you to mean to me. I guess someday never comes. Or if it does, it comes too late.
The wind kicks up again; it stabs through my tired, old body, penetrating my tunic as if it were nothing. I should've worn something warmer. So many years ago, when I was young, I dressed like this
all year round. Only a few weeks ago, a breeze like this would've been a welcome respite from the heat. I should've worn a sweater. Summer is gone, no matter how much I want to pretend it isn't.
I know you can't hear me anymore, but do you understand, Ran-chan? Understand why I killed you?
______
It all started with the dream.
I was young again. Ryoga and I were together, back at the cave. The ghosts swarmed over us like flies on horse droppings, forcing the two of us apart. You and Akane, engrossed in one of your usual
arguments, didn't even seem to notice what was happening to us as the two of you walked out.
I'd gotten the two of you to go to the cave in hopes of breaking you up, you see. But it didn't exactly work out that way. The ghosts went for Ryoga and me instead, thinking that we were lovers. "No,
you idiots! Get THEM!" we shouted, but it fell on dead ears.
But in the dream, something was different. I heard your voice shouting over the moans of the spirits. "Akane!"
I turned to look in your direction.
"Ucchan!" you said to me. "Akane can't get out!"
Suddenly, there were no more ghosts. Akane was embedded in the cave wall, a piece of fruit in a jello mold.
"I can't leave without her, Ucchan!"
I moved to help, to try to pull Akane out of the wall. But she wasn't in the direction I looked. The cave spun like a kaleidoscope, and I tried to hang on.
Then I woke up. The dingy brown of the cave faded into my bedroom's familiar, muted whites and yellows.
That comma isn't necessary.
Yawning, I stretched my arms as high as they would go. The supple, youthful body I'd had in the dream was gone, replaced by wrinkles and sags. I closed my eyes, trying to bring the dream back for just
a few moments, but it was gone. My shoulder joints ached, as if someone were trying to pry my arm off with a chisel.
It was funny. As a girl, I'd hidden my feminine curves under breast bindings and boys' clothes. Now they were gone, and I had the scrawny, unfeminine body that I'd only pretended to have back then.
Youth, as they say. is wasted on the young.
"Youth, as they say, is wasted on the young."
I looked across the room. Shan Pu sat cross-legged on the floor, quietly meditating, smiling slightly as her eyes met mine. She'd gone to sleep on my floor the night before. Sadly, I remembered why
she'd come to town -- for your funeral, Ran-chan.
Yes, that's right. You died.
"Just in case you don't remember."
Less than a month after Akane passed away, you followed. If anyone had told me that I'd outlive the two of you -- not to mention Ryoga, Kuno, even my own husband -- I'd
have called them crazy.
Could you please not use that plural-for-singular-of-unknown-gender
form? It makes my teeth hurt.
Maybe okonomiyaki is the secret to long life, eh, Ran-chan? Your death was natural causes, by the way. Heart failure. Oh, I know I said that I killed you. But that was later.
Not this time.
<mini-snip>
"Mornin', sugar." I slipped out of bed, grabbing the robe from the bedpost. "Ready for some breakfast?"
She stood. "Don't you need to get to work?"
"I'm giving myself the day off." I smirked. "My staff is better at dealing with yuppies than I am anyhow."
Sure, that's the way to deal with yuppies. Hit 'em with a stick.
After the recession hit, I'd had to move my restaurant downtown, where the businessmen ate who could afford to pay what I needed to charge to keep myself going.
And live in the house that Jack built.
The sentence needs some work.
It broke my heart to leave Nerima --
especially seeing how you and Akane just kept running your little martial arts school year after year,
"Little" sounds rather patronising. Next she'll be saying it's
"quaint."
somehow always making ends meet, even helping me out when I needed it the most. I felt like I was
abandoning you.
But that's life, I suppose. Time keeps rolling forward, and nothing will stop it. I've heard people talk > about the 'stream of time,' but that's not what it is at all. It's a raging river with huge
waterfalls and rapids. We hang on to anything that floats as the current pulls us downstream, trying > desperately to avoid drowning or being smashed against a rock, all the while trying to enjoy the
scenery because we know we'll never see it again.
I imagine you're pretty proud of that extended metaphor, but it strikes
me as overblown. I'm currently resisting the urge to parody it. Plus,
it doesn't sound like Ukyou, IMO.
"It's strange." Shan Pu stared wistfully out the window. "Life without Ranma. I thought he'd go on > forever."
Sounds like Shampoo's grasp of Japanese has improved. I guess she
didn't spend all her time in China.
"Me too," I said. "I guess he couldn't bear being away from Akane. It really hit him hard when she passed > away."
"Yes, I know." Her voice dropped to a mumble. "Can't leave without her."
I stared at her. "What did you say?"
______
A quick conference, and we came to the conclusion that we'd had similar dreams. It had to mean something. > But what? Nothing that we'd be able to figure out by ourselves.
So we went for help. Fortunately, one of the perks of being an Amazon matriarch is instant access to > transport.
It is? How so?
Before the day was over, we were at Jusenkyo -- or Zhouquanshan, as the locals called
it. I don't know whether you'd had a chance to go see the cursed springs lately, Ran-chan. It's not at all > the way you'd remember.
<mini-snip>
Past the gate, the lines were much, much longer, bending back and forth in paths marked off by makeshift > rope barriers. TV monitors showed clips from old cartoons, liberally interspersed with
advertisements for other Warner-Disney attractions around the world. Plaques identified the particular > pools: Spring of Drowned Man, and so forth.
Warner-Disney? They're both OOC. Happousai and Nodoka would be more
likely to get together than those two.
Of course, none of them were actual Jusenkyo springs; Pu Langmu had dug holes, coated the bottoms with > polyshield to prevent any seepage from below, and filled them with the single-use instant waters.
The real springs were sectioned off behind glassteel barriers, so that the visitors could only stare at > the signs. Spring of Drowned Werewolf. Spring of Drowned Tragic Lovers. Spring of Drowned Mime.
I'm pretty sure that Pu Langmu had made some of these up, substituting for things like Spring of Drowned > Frog which were just not as impressive.
To be honest, it really doesn't sound like a very interesting park.
I suppose the walls were a good thing; we certainly didn't need any more Ashuras or Pantyhoses flying around. But still it bothered me somehow, to see people let themselves be herded around like
sheep, going where they're allowed and never even wondering what they might find at the other places.
"It also bothered me when people stayed in my restaurant and didn't go
pawing through my underwear drawer."
Safety, all in all, is a good thing, but too much of it and a person might as well be dead.
A hovercar met us at the edge of the park, and moments later we were in the office of Pu Langmu.
"Sorry to bother you, sugar, but you're about the smartest person either of us knows when it comes to the supernatural. We were hoping you'd be able to figure out why...."
"Actually," she interrupted, "I already have."
"Also, you can leave off 'when it comes to the supernatural' next time."
Shan Pu and I stared at her, waiting for her to spill it.
"When you told me the dreams you'd had, I suspected, and a quick check confirmed it. Do you remember one of the pools here that was created when I was young? The Akaneniquan?"
We both nodded.
"Well." She leaned over her desk. "When a pool is created, it does so by binding a portion of the creature's spirit to the land. That's what Ranma was telling you in the dream. Akane's spirit is
anchored to Jusenkyo by that spring. She can't get out. And his own refuses to go on to where it's supposed to without her."
<bigger snip>
______
Shan Pu and I wandered outside. The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky, stabbing its harsh glare into my eyes.
"Think she's telling us the truth?" I asked.
"Yes," Shan Pu answered without hesitation. "I've known Pu Langmu since childhood. Sometimes she... fails to mention things, but I've never known her to lie."
"For example, there was the time she failed to mention she was sleeping
with my ... well, never mind."
"So there's no way we can help Ran-chan?"
<mini-snip>
Even though she was my oldest friend -- both figuratively and literally -- I wasn't completely sure that I
should trust her on this. I like Shan Pu, really I do, but I know as well as anyone how
vindictive she can be when she doesn't get her own way. I hate to admit it, but that's something she and I > had in common.
Why would she admit this at all?
Was she planning to make things worse for you, Ran-chan, just out of spite
because you decided that you loved Akane better than her? Yes, I know that that was a long time ago, and > like me, she'd already loved and married someone else. But you're the kind of guy a girl never
really gets over.
Still, there was nothing else to do but follow.
______
Shan Pu went inside the Amazon Council Chamber to speak with the other Elders.
They made me wait outside, which didn't make a lot of sense considering that they shouted at each other > loud enough for me to hear them quite clearly anyway. Pro forma, I guess. Sadly, the Council
aren't much more than figureheads anymore, not since the overseas companies came in and set up their > factories. The Elders are still in charge, but it's pretty much understood that that's only as long
as they follow the dictates of the companies. So I suppose pushing around a little old chef like me made > them feel important, and I really couldn't find it in my heart to begrudge them that.
Nothing for them to be ashamed of, really. For years and years they'd survived the rest of the world's > various attempts to persuade them to end their isolation. But not even Amazons can fight against
world-wide disease epidemics, not without medicines that they lacked the know-how and equipment to make > themselves.
I hear isolation actually works really well against world-wide disease
epidemics.
I listened to the shouting match that was resonating through the walls, and could make out a few of the > words. Shan Pu kept saying one particular phrase... "meirenyu de xinzang." Mermaid's heart? She
had mentioned an Amazon magic item by that name to me. I tried to remember what she had said about it.
"Don't eat it."
<snip>
*Stop thinking like a frightened little girl,* I told myself. *Dead people don't do things like that. > They're... well, dead.* But that wasn't completely true; if it were, we wouldn't have come here.
My flashlight stabbed forward, narrowly illuminating the cobblestone path.
"narrowly illuminating" doesn't make any sense. It's the flashlight
beam that is narrow.
I walked hesitantly ahead, shining my light at the various tombstones, until I saw the one I was looking > for.
Here lies Ranma Saotome.
Master of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts
Beloved husband of Akane
Something howled in the distance; the sound sliced through the air like a scythe. Reflexively, the giant > spatula flew into my hands, and I spun around to look. Nothing. Just some animal in the
distance, I supposed.
Where the hell is Ranma buried? This doesn't sound like Tokyo.
My heart as it pounded in my chest like a gorilla trying to escape its cage. I exhaled, then breathed
in deeply, trying to calm myself down, knowing that if that one old, fragile organ went, so did I.
Gods, I thought, I should've let Shan Pu do this by herself; I'm too old for midnight school-child
pranks. And what would I say if someone saw? *Oh yes, I've taken up grave-robbing; every old lady
needs a hobby.* True, if it were just some random passer-by, Shan Pu would be able to make them
remember that they'd been on the other side of town all evening; but one of your children would be a
different story, Ran-chan.
Shampoo: Mystical Mistress of Mind.
Okay, I told myself. Time to get this over with. The spatula swung down, digging into the dirt behind your > headstone.
This *really* does not sound like Tokyo.
______
The sun came up, spilling its light across the horizon as we arrived back at Jusenkyo.
They did all that in one night?
I found the spring that we had marked, the one that Pu Langmu had picked out for us the day before.
We had about an hour before opening time; more than long enough to finish what we needed to do.
Shan Pu laid your remains carefully down on the ground next to me. I had no idea how she'd managed to
get you here from Nerima without the Transport Authority finding you, and I didn't really want to
know.
Wasn't she with her the whole time?
Your glassy eyes stared aimlessly like dull, brown marbles. I looked away.
He's in pretty good shape for a corpse. How long has he been dead?
Unzipping her satchel, Shan Pu took out a gem. It was round, made of clear crystal, a little smaller than an okonomiyaki.
That's pretty frickin' huge for a gem.
<snip>
Stepping back, I take a last look at the two pools. I thought that telling my story would make me feel > better. It hasn't. I still feel sickened, as if something were eating my stomach from inside.
Why? Ran-chan got what he wanted. He wouldn't leave Akane imprisoned here on her own, so he's locked
up with her.
Or is he? Maybe she and he are in adjacent jail cells. Close enough to be aware of each other, but never
able to touch. Maybe Shan Pu knew that that would happen.
Her suspicions of Shampoo are shading into paranoia. Why would she put
her ass on the line for something so petty?
<snip>
Pu Langmu stands gawking, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. "What-- what have you done?"
I just shrug, and smile at her. Truth is, I have no real idea. I don't know how this will affect
Jusenkyo's destiny. Tomorrow is another day, as they say. I know it won't last, but for a few precious
moments, I feel young again.
"A woman's heart is, as they say, a deep ocean of secrets."
Not looking back, I begin to make my way toward the exit -- this time for real. Silently, I make my last
farewells to my old friends. Goodbye, Akane.
Goodbye, Ran-chan.
______
AUTHOR'S WORDS: This started out as my entry in the FFIRC One Hour Challenge. The idea came from my HaM
series, specifically the association of Jusenkyo curses with the spirits of the creatures who
seeded the pools. I thought about what this might mean for Akane considering the events of Ranma vols.
37-38, and decided that it would be better explored in a separate story. Given my current writing
speed (use of the term "snail's pace" would be highly unfair to our friendly mollusks) doing it in an
hour turned out to be far too ambitious; it actually ended up taking three weeks to write.
Thanks are due to the FFIRC crowd for their encouragement after reading the initial one-hour portion
of this. For those not in the know, FFIRC is *the* swank hang-out for fic writers and readers of
all shapes and sizes. You can join us on channel #fanfic on server irc.newberry.edu via an IRC client,
or go to http://irc.newberry.edu:8080 with a Java-capable web browser.
Liked this story? Hated it? Indifferent? Whichever it was, I'd like to know what you thought.
I liked the concept, but I thought the Ukyou narration was more a
hindrance then a help. I also thought Jusenkyo Park (insert Jeff
Goldblum muttering about Chaos Theory) was hard to swallow and didn't
pay off in any way. Likewise, the future history of the Amazon Village
was muddled and ultimately irrelevant.
-- David
Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html
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