Ranma 1/2: The tiger.
An unusual self insertion that cronicles the life of a man and his
unusual daughter in the world of Ranma 1/2.
Part 1: The beggining of the tail. The year 1999...
This part will have very little Ranma in it, it must be read to
understand the rest.
It was a dark and stormy night. It usually is in a story like this, but
this tale begins twenty thousand feet above the ground. Inside one of the
middle class seats of a major commercial jet, a boy named Ryo Kagome sat
gripping the chair. Normally he enjoyed flying, he had done so on many
occasions, but this was his first overseas trip, and the squal was a big
one. It was enough to unnerve even the most seasoned travelers.
The boy looked rediculous sitting his his chair like a frightened
rabbit, but then so did everybody else. He was three months into his
sixteenth year, and had medium length brown hair and blue eyes; he wasn't
unusuall, but I won't say average because, sadly, most people only wish
that it was. He was very fit, but not to the point of being large, and he
had a rather energetic personality. Kempo kept him this way, it was a
hobby to him, he never really took it seriously; but he did have quite a
few years of training and he was quite good; as quite a few years of
training will do that to a person.
Of course, as with all leads in a story like this; Ryo liked Manga and
Anime, and could speak Japanese. In fact that's where he was headed; to a
major Anime festeval in Japan. It would be the first time in the country
for him. Unfortunately he never made it; He was sitting on the wing of
the plane and was glaring out the window in a sort of morbid fasination;
that's when he saw the lightening hit the wing, but it was strange;
almost in slow motion to him. He saw it shoot towards him allong the wing
and vaugely noticed no one else was screaming. Apparently they didn't
know they were about to die yet. The world went completely white and that
was all, no pain, no watching himself burn or feeling of falling. It just
stopped and he was lying in a beach the air was calm and serene and birds
floated by in the air; it was quite peaceful really.
"So this is what death is like." he muttered as he looked up into the
sun.
"Hey, he's awake!" cried a voice in English, it sounded like a man.
"Are you all right?" asked another voice; a female this time, this one
seemed to be straining to get the words out.
"Where are we? Who are you?" asked the Ryo.
"We are on mainland China, about four hundred miles from Hong Kong, not
that it matters any more." said the first voice. The boy looked up and
saw a man of about thirty years old standing over him looking tired and
worn. He was dressed in the remains of a suit that had been drug through
the ocean for several hours. He was covered in dirt and bleeding in
several places. The other voice belonged to a woman, she was a flight
attendant and lying on her back her legs and arm were all bandaged up and
she looked far worse than the man. Possibly even dying.
"What happened?" asked the boy as he sat up and looked himself over
feeling the pains of being thrown around roughly all over his body.
"Plane crashed, we were about a thousand miles off course. Only the
three of us made it, we started with seven. You were lucky to sleep
through the first seven hours. Sharks got most of the others." said the
woman as she turned her head away.
"I thought almost the whole coast of China was covered by city." said
the boy as he glanced around and saw thick forest around them.
"So did I, but unfortunately I was wrong. I can't even see a sign of
civilization anywhere. That could be a blessing since we are in a
communist country." said the man glumly.
"It's not that bad, I've been here before." said the woman a little
angrily.
"Yea, I bet you had valid papers with you too. We got no ID, no visa,
nothing. They could string us alive if they wanted and no one would ever
know; write us up as casualties on that plane." said the man coldly.
The woman curled up slightly and said nothing.
"I didn't get your name kid." said the man as he turned to the boy.
"Ryo, Ryo Kagome." said the now fully awake and surprisingly whole boy.
"That's an unusual name for a white guy; You came out lucky kid, barely
a scratch on you! I don't see how though; you were right next to the
exsplosion." said the man a little more cheerfully.
"Yea, I think I passed out. I saw the lightening hit us." said Ryo
shakeily.
"You got family over in Japan kid?" asked the woman as she swallowed
hard in an obvious attempt to hide her pain.
"No, I was on vacation. I am about an eighth Japanese though, it's where
I get my name from; You can't really tell by lookin'" replied Ryo as he
stood and wavered a moment.
"Slow down kid, you'll pass out on us again." said the man with a small
chuckle. "What's the rest of you?"
"Mostly Irish and Italian." replied Ryo as he sat down and tried to
clear his head a little; he realised that the man was talking to him to
keep him awake.
"Good combination." said the man slyly as he punched him in the arm
playfully. He seemed estatic that Ryo had pulled through, that was a
small comfort to the boy.
"We'd better get moving. I think we should find an American embassy as
soon as we can." said the girl as she stood shakily and staggered under
the pain of her legs. One of the bandages turned red imediately.
"Sit down dammit! We need to live first, I for one don't intend to go
near a city until I'm fit and ready to run if I need to. So you can just
wander off and die or stay here and maybe get some rest while me and the
kid go look for some food." said the man angrily as he stood and took Ryo
by the shoulder.
"Shouldn't one of us stay and guard? I mean an injured woman alone in
the jungle?" said Ryo warrily as he stood.
"I know, but I've got a dead boar that I killed about a quarter mile
from here while you were out. I can't carry it alone and I don't intend
to drag her allong screaming and attracting all sorts of attention. We
don't really know what's in these woods kid." reasoned the man.
"Precisely what I mean." muttered Ryo as he turned to see the woman
motioning for him to follow.
"How long was I out?" asked Ryo as he rubbed at a particularly sore spot
on his head tenderly.
"Two days, on and off; to be honest I didn't think you where gonna make
it kid, you had one hell of a fever." said the man as he staggered
through the woods. "Most of the time you where out was in the water, the
only thing you missed was the other survivors getting eaten by sharks
occasionally." said the man more than a little distastefully. It was
obviously a painful memory for him.
The bush around them was thick and Ryo did his best to keep up with the
man as he crashed through the brush noisily. "It's a wonder he managed to
kill anything!" The jungle itself was lush and green, strange insects
crawled across the vegitation ignoring the pair of noisy exslporers as
they trekked forward. Ryo snorted as he felt a particularly large crunch
at his feet as an unknown incect made it's way in his path. "I hope most
of these things aren't poisonous."
"I didn't get your name." said Ryo solomnly as he followed through the
brush after a few moments of silence. Ryo was getting nervous by just how
quiet it was in this area.
"Rob-" started the man but it turned into a high pitched scream
immediately. A blur of motion and the man was on the ground struggling at
his throat as a hute mass of fur bolted from the bushes and forced him
onto the ground; the man tried to stand up and force the thing back; It
was far to late though; a snapping sound came and his struggles stopped.
Ryo watched in terror a few feet away as the enormous Bengal tiger drug
the man away into the brush with out giving him a second glance. Ryo
choked and began to sob uncontrolably as he took in what had just occured
before him. A few yards away he saw the body of the pig the man had
hunted with a crude spear sticking from it's side. It was at least a day
old and already mostly gone by various scavengers within the woods.
Whoever that man was, he had died for nothing. The tiger had been
attracted by the dead meat and found nothing of use, so it took the
injured looking creature who had arrived later; The law of the Jungle in
it's most literal form.
About a half hour later a strangely calm Ryo emerged from the jungle. He
saw what he had halfway exspected to see; The woman was dead, she had
bled to death on the beach; That was why she was so eager to be alone.
Now she was sprawled across the sand with a look of pure pain on her
face; it had not been an easy death. Her eyes stared vacantly off into
the distance towards the east, towards home. Ryo stood for a moment
crying softly, the reality of the situation had hit him hard. He was in a
country he new nothing about, possibly a hostile one at that; He was
alone, he had no food or shelter, and he was surrounded by death. Not a
good place to be in his weakened state, especially with large preditors
like that tiger roaming around. He turned and headed towards the waiting
jungle. His foot knocked something and he looked to the ground to see a
brief case sitting there. It was opened and had a few papers strewn about
it. Probably belonging to the man, he reached down and closed it noting
the combination that was set on the locks. It wouldn't be of much use to
him but he might be able to start a fire or find some menial survival
tools in it. Some matches or a lighter at best. After that moment he
walked into what would become hell for him. A bitter test of his survival
that would make him take his life and that which he took for granted
seriously. It would be almost a year before he realized he wasn't in his
own world any longer...
Part 2: Surviving, Nine months later.....
It sat before him growling menacingly. It was an ugly beast now, covered
in scars and missing an eye and it's tail. The most vicious and
relentless persuer in the junge stood before Ryo.
He was crouched low to the ground facing the beast and glaring intently
at the prize behind him. The small pig that he had managed to catch in
the undergrowth. He was in central China now, although he did not know
it. About a hundred miles from the border to the Quinghai provence.
The beast had tracked him all this way. It was a bitter hatred of him
that had driven the animal to this. At first it saw him as an easy meal
that kept escaping at the last moment. Then he became a convinent way to
steal food. The boy had barely eaten for almost a month when that
started. Each time he escaped death, each time he grew bolder and more
dangerous to the beast. The monster itself was growing smarter as well,
it had killed quite a few Chinese in it's frustration to catch the boy;
It was an obsession for it now.
It knew true hatred for the boy that had cost it so much; A clever but
early and poorly thought out boulder trap had cost the beast it's tail;
Later, it lost it's eye when it managed to tackle him. It was missing a
large segment of ear and had several long scars from when the boy
exsperimented with spears and sharpened sticks; It even had a few burn
scars remaining.
The boy had scars as well, his torso and legs were covered in long claw
marks that would never completely fade, and his face had four distinct
lines slashed across his right eye that almost reached his nose. He was
tired and haggard looking ,clothed in the furs of the animals he had
killed and unshaven or bathed. The few villages he had turned to for help
early on had turned him away in disgust or tried to kill him. Now though,
he found a strange exhilliration in the battle for survival. He had no
desire to go back to the mundane life he had once led. As strange as it
sounds, he was actually living now instead of just existing as a newly
recruted mass member. If he managed to make it back to his own country;
or even just out of China, he would never be the same.
He felt he had earned his place in the food chain here. The scars were
proof of that; but they were all cosmetic though, nothing debilitating on
either of the two sworn enemies.
Today was different. The beast had gained respect for the boy, now he
considered him his equal, his rival instead of just prey. Today the beast
realized that the boy was a tiger as well; He even smelled like one now.
The pair faced off, Ryo was looking for a way to get in and steal the
prize away and escape before the battle started. He had long ago given up
running from the beast. He was not aware that the monster saw him not as
a boy; but as a man now. Just as he had become. It lept at him in it's
most furious snarl and Ryo grabbed it out of the air and slammed it into
the ground hard. He kicked the animal in the jaw sending it's head back
and was slashed on the arm by the massive paws of the twelve foot long
animal.
The force was enough to send him crashing into a nearby bolder and crush
the stone into a pile of rubble. He stood quickly and charged the animal
again this time punching it in the side sending it through a tree. The
beast recovered instantly and turned as the timber fell down beside it
without flinching once. It rammed it's head into Ryo's chest and sent him
into a nearby thicket of bushes. It pounced on his chest to deliver the
killing blow and was lifted into the air by a kick that caught it in the
chest. Ryo stood and charged the animal as it landed and struck the
ground as it rolled away; The crater created by the impact was easily
four feet in diameter.
The tiger changed directions after the missed blow and swiped at Ryo
catching him in the face but missing with it's claws. Ryo returned the
blow at the same moment and the pair flew away from each other. The fight
stopped, sitting and glaring at each other hatefully, the pair struggled
for breath and watched each other. Ryo stood first and staggered over to
the remains of the animal he had killed. With a final tug he ripped it in
half and set part of it on the ground before walking into the woods. The
tiger snarled and struggled over to eat the meat. With a final glare at
it's opponent it slumped to the ground in exhastion and passed out.
That night, Ryo sat by the small fire he had made and frowned as he
finished up the last of the pig meat, a small amount of wild rice boiled
in an old metal pot he had found finished off the meal. There where a few
small villages around where he was, he ignored them and their crops
though. He had no need to steal from the peasants of the communist
govornment. He frowned as he remembered old friends he had once known a
few months ago at his home. "Why am I still here?" he asked himself out
loud. Despite the earlier confrontation he had seen less and less of the
beast over the past few months, he frowned as he realized that the
monster had grown quite a bit larger since it started facing him. "It's
strong, fast and powerful, I can't just leave it here, alone." he
muttered as he kicked the dirt he had been aimlessly doodleing into.
"I'll have to kill it, who knows what it will do if I'm gone, to the
people around here." he frowned as he thought, the people of China had
not been very helpful to him.
It was almost two weeks until he met the beast again, and it was a shock
when he did. It was lying on the ground in a bed of leaves staring wide
eyed into the forest with a strange stare as it ignored Ryo intruding
into it's lair. Ryo had been hunting for food at the time when he came
across the monster in it's bed of leaves. He had been attracted to the
strange noise that it was making. The creature was breathing heavily and
just lying there. Ryo approached cautiously as he neared the beast
exspecting it to jump up at him; it never did, it let out a final grunt
and lay still, the rapid movements of it's chest stopped cold. Ryo gasped
as he approached the tiger more boldly, this time he moved up without
attempting to move silently. The monster's eyes rolled to face him and
stared directly into his own, they stayed there never moving agian.
Ryo frowned as he finally built up the courage to touch the fallen
beast. "What happened?" he frowned as a small scurrying could be heard
just behind the body. He stood and made his way over to the other side of
the great tiger's body. He sighed deeply at what he found, a slimy mess
of dead baby tigers lie there not moving. He realized what had happened
with a terrible feeling in his stomach. The tigress had ingnored her
pregnancy to hunt him down, because of this she had a miscarrage and died
in labor. The beasts obsession had been it's own undoing. "So this is how
it ends?" Ryo smiled slightly, he wasn't happy about it, but he felt
strangly relieved that this part of his life was over. He stepped back
over the body and glanced again at the beast before moving off into the
jungle again. "I'd much rather have killed you myself, you deserved an
honorable death at least, not this."
Something forced him to stop and turn back however, something he had
seen. Ryo gasped as he burst from the bushes and saw a small bloody
creature suckling at the dead mother's tit, one of the tiger cubs had
survived. He lifted the small creature up in his hands and placed his
thumb in it's mouth glancing around unsure of what to do; the cub was
quite large, it was probably born on time he realized after a few
moments. "Maybe it wasn't a miscarage after all."
"I should kill it, that would be the most humane thing to do." he
muttered quietly. Something deep in his heart told him not to, he knew
the cub would die without it's mother in a matter of hours. He glanced at
the tiger and frowned, "I'll do what I can for your child; I swear it."
With that he turned towards the jungle and vanished.
Within an hour he found himself in a completely new area that was alien
to him, this was not unusual; he had constantly been persued by the
creature and was forced to move around for his entire stay in the
wilderness of China. He moved about through a thick bamboo forest and
frowned as he noticed a chill in the air and the lack of animal noise in
the area. That usually meant he was near a settlement of some sort.
"Maybe I can steal a female goat and get some milk for you?" he wondered
out loud as he glanced at the small shivering creature in his arms. He
was not exspecting what he found, a great valley with a thousand natural
springs, he gazed into the valley with awe, bamboo shoots grew in
scattered patches through out the valley. "Amazing." he muttered.
He walked around the various pools towards the smoke pillar that rose
into the sky on the other side of the valley, he moved easily around the
pools of water and smiled as he saw a single shack standing on the edge
of the valley. A small round chinese man stood on the porch of the home
smoking a pipe lazily, he grinned at Ryo as he approached.
"Hello sir, you need guide?" asked the man with a gleam in his eye that
Ryo found slightly disturbing.
"Where am I?" was the only question he posed.
"Ah, sir you very lucky, you find ancient training ground of cursed
spring; Jusenkyo! You like tour?" asked the man quietly.
"What? How the hell?" wondered the weary man. His mind desperately
grasped for an exsplanation on how he managed to find something that
doesn't exist.
"You alright sir?" asked the guide looking a bit worried.
Ryo pulled out a worn and old leather wallet and removed a few hundred
yen. "You take Japanese?" he asked with his eyebrows raised.
"Money is money." said the man.
"Good I want to see the spring you call 'Spring of drowned girl.'" said
Ryo with a firm stare at the pudgy guide.
"Is strange request but OK." said the guide with a shrug.
"I hope this works." said the man as he glanced at the tiger cub, It's
movements where getting more and more sluggish as it weakened.
They moved to the edge of the springs near the path that lead to the
shack and Ryo frowned as the guide simply pointed at the spring. "Here is
spring of drowned girl, is very tragic legend of young girl who drown
here...sir what you doing?" the guide seemed a bit nervous around the
rather large form of Ryo as he dipped the young tiger into the spring and
came out with a small baby girl. The child immediately started to scream
as he raised it from the water.
"Keeping my promise; tell me is there Spring of Drowned Mother around
here or is this the only spring around here like this?" Ryo glared at the
guide as he asked this.
"Yes sir, but why you want...?" the guide's question was cut off as Ryo
lifted him off the ground.
"I will keep my promise at any cost little man! Tell me where this
spring is or I'll beat it out of you! Hurry, I don't have much time!"
The guide glanced at the child and all of a sudden it all made sense to
him. "I understand Mr. Traveler! I will help you find spring! Is right
over ridge!"
Ryo glared into the pool for a moment and frowned, he was not sure if
the pool would change his personality and his body. He glanced at the
child again and set it down by the side of the pool; he disrobed and
stepped slowly into the pool and submerged himself under the water; the
guide turned away as Ryo emmerged from the water after only a few seconds
under.
"It...worked?" said Ryo calmly as she stepped from the pool. Her hair
was a long flowing green tint and dark golden colored eyes; she looked
into the pool's reflection almost sadly. She looked to be around
seventeen years old, so her age did not change. She was a very beautiful
girl; the only thing that remained of Ryo's apperance was the smaller
more delecate scars over her right eye and the others that covered her
body. She smiled slightly and placed her fur garments back on slowly, she
lifted the still screaming child to her breast and frowned as it started
to suckle. As she had exspected the body from the spring was producing
milk. She didn't feel any different, as a matter of fact she wasn't quite
sure what the difference between this spring and the spring of drowned
young girl was. She did feel a sadness when she saw yet another spring
nearby.
"Guide? What spring is that?" she asked quietly.
"That is spring where drowned mother's child lies. Is probably most
tragic story in all Jusenkyo." The short man puffed at his long bamboo
carved pipe as he gazed into the springs with a sort of thoughtful look
about him. "He was born in Jusenkyo, but still born so no curse was put
on pool; she so upset about losing child because husband died in wars; so
she drown self in pool drown mother. Very tragic no?"
"Yes, I suppose it is." said Ryo as she walked off into the jungle. She
took a crude knife from her robes and walked back towards the jungle
where she had found the mother. "I only have one more thing to do child,
then we can go."
A few weeks later Ryo moved through the forest and came upon a large
village, she was in the form of the mother at the time and dressed in a
tiger skin cloak, the head of the monster covered her hair and it's teeth
hung down over her eyes. She moved quite easily through the village
because most of the people where dressed similarly to her. Her dark cloak
kept her well hidden as the over sized fur wraped completely around her;
the child was safely tucked away in her arms beneath the robes."What's
going on?" she wondered as the townspeople moved about busily to prepair
for some sort of festival. Very quickly she realized that she should have
kept her mouth shut because four armed guards surrounded her quickly,
they were all dressed dressed in bear skins and had very large and
dangerous looking spears.
She was brought to a large building and thrown on the floor with her
child in her arms. A large man sat on the throne, he looked tired and
aged, but he was obviously very strong. "Who are you and why do you
intrude into my village?" he asked gruffly as he stared down on Ryo.
"I appologise for intruding, but I'm not even sure where I am; I was
just passing through." said Ryo camly, she hoped for the best, but she
knew she had screwed up royaly. She was in the Musk village.
The king smiled as he noticed the small bald head protruding from the
cloak. "We celebrate the birthday of my son, perhaps because of the
festival we may be leaniant this one time, we will only put your child to
death. Then you can go out and warn others about trespassing within our
boundaries." said the man with a strange grin on his face. "What do you
think Herb?"
The king spoke to a small boy of about three years old, the child smiled
at him and nodded. Ryo snarled at the king and got an ammused glance for
his efforts. "Over my dead body."
"So be it." said the king as he waved at his guards.
Ryo threw off her robe and snarled at the advancing men as they moved
towards her casually. They backed away with looks of shock on their faces
as Ryo Jumped towards the leader of the guards and clothes lined him to
the ground, she stopped long enough to twist his neck around until it
snapped causing his body to go into convultions as his nerves reacted to
being severed. She twisted away holding the child protectively against
her chest as one of the guards regained his senses and stabbed at the
ground with a large spear. Ryo kicked both her legs out and wrapped them
around his head twisting violently and dropping another guard
permanently. A quick low sweep brought down two more of the hulking men
easily. A third was lifted over her head with her free arm and tossed
into a pillar head first shattering the marble pole and leaving a bloody
pool at the base of the support as the man's brains oozed from the
remains of his head. She dashed across the room and retrieved her cloak
as she went; running straight for a wall lined with nobles. A line of
guards formed to stop her and she braced herself for another attack.
The king stood and glared at her, "enough!" he roared, the line of
guards parted at his words and watched the girl run past them. "Stop at
once woman!" screamed the king.
Ryo snorted and dashed up the wall running at full speed, she slid out
one of the windows and stopped cold on the ledge that lead down off a
cliff. The ground was clearly thousands of feet below. Thinking quickly
and realizing that the trek through the village would be far more
dangerous, Ryo slid down the side of the castle's relatively smooth and
slightly angled wall. After a somewhat rough tumble she stopped cold two
hundred feet below on the edge of the cliff; She steeled herself and
began to climb down. The child had remained remarkably calm and tranquil
until this time, then it started to cry in a muffled voice.
"Great." she muttered in frustration.
Ryo sighed as she changed another of the small cloth diapers on the
child, she had spent the better part of the month and a half since her
meeting with the Musk as a woman. It didn't bother her much, and it made
traveling a bit easier. The Chinese still ingored her on the whole, but a
lone asian woman with a child was bothered much less than a single
foreign man walking alone, there were alot of dead bandits in her path
though.
After a little travel Ryo found herself approaching another village and
decided to set up camp for the night. It would be best to wait and see
where she was before wandering into another village unprepaired.
The child was alot of work, she had settled on a name for her though,
Torako. She was constantly finding food or keeping the baby warm, or dry,
or clean. It seemed endless at times, on the whole though she found
raising her daughter to be rather, pleasant. Torako suckled quite a bit
as well, she smiled as she lay there with her. "Ya, know Ko-neko. I think
I've gotten a bit used to this. Oh, well." with that they drifted off to
sleep.
She awoke in the darkness a few hours later; Ryo realized something was
wrong right away, she rose to her feet and clutched the child to her
chest as the silence of the night woke her. There was no sound but the
wind rustling the trees around her, she pulled her cloak around her head
and backed into a shadow where she waited silently. A voice near her
startled her suddenly. "Well, I certainly am glad I came, the girls would
have never found you on their own." Ryo was about to turn when she
blacked out, she instinctively rolled to her side to avoid falling on the
baby.
"An impressive woman," said Cologne as she jumped from the shadows and
lowered her staff. "No wonder he was so smitten with her charms."
A large group of amazons surrounded Ryo and carried her towards the
village. One of the younger women took Torako into her arms and faced
Cologne. "Grandmother, I will take the child until we decide upon her
fate."
"Are you sure child? Shampoo is enough trouble already..." said Cologne
quietly.
"Another child of the same age? It would be the same as I am doing now,
perhaps if she was older it would be a bother." said the woman calmly as
she followed the others back into their village.
"As you say child."
Ryo woke up with a start, she jumped up and stood on the bed they had
placed her in. A quick glance around told her she was in trouble again.
They had put her in some sort of holding cell within the village. A young
and pretty amazon walked into the cell flanked by two guards. "Well, I
wasn't exspecting you up until tomorrow." she said curtly.
"Where is my daughter?" asked Ryo.
"We will decide weather to tell you after your fate is desided." said
the amazon coldly.
"Where is my child?" repeated Ryo calmly as she walked up to the woman.
The amazon sneered and punched Ryo in the gut, she stood there and took
it never taking her eyes off the woman's cold stare. "I'll ask again,
where is my child?"
The woman snarled and kneed Ryo in the gut and the guards stepped in
holding spears up to her face. The amazon's eyes went wild as she stared
into the unflinching Ryo's feral eyes.
The young prisoner's hands flew faster than she could see and the two
amazon guards where holding broken spears. The three of them backed away
and got into fighting stances. "Where is my child?" snarled Ryo angrily.
"Safe, that is all you need to know right now." said Cologne from the
doorway. The three younger amazon backed away giving Ryo hateful stares.
"Not good enough, let me see her." said Ryo as mechanicaly as ever.
"That can be arranged I think, if you promise to behave." said Cologne
in a calculating voice.
Ryo growled, but sat down and watched the old woman take a seat across
from her. "What do you want?"
"Well, to the point, fine then. We want nothing from you young lady. It
is the Musk who want you, it seems you have stolen the king's heart. He
will have you at any cost, he is willing to reward anyone who will bring
you to him; and he believes you to be one of us." Cologne stared at Ryo
with cold eyes.
"So?"
"So? We are going to deliver you for the greater good of the tribe."
said Cologne simply.
"What about my daughter?"
"She will remain here as part of our tribe, you can understand the
nessesity of that due to the Musk being only males. Your daughter would
be in great danger at such a young age there." Cologne watched Ryo's cool
reaction and smiled.
"It won't happen, I'll escape and take her with me." said Ryo calmly.
"You will have to go through several of my guards to do that, I don't
advise you do, even if you win those battles young lady; you will regret
it."
"I doubt it." said Ryo with a strange smile.
It was three days before he had his chance, the Amazons where planing on
delivering him in a week when they sent Colonge and and envoy of
ambassators from the village. The young Amazon who had stared him down
and tried to beat him into submission stood guard, she was dressed in
battle armour, with a long and dangerous spear at her side. She had long
flowing blue hair that was done up in a bun at the moment and her deep
green eyes looked forward towards the rest of the village with a strange
malace, "Why did they stick me with this again?"
Ryo smiled as she climbed out the window after prying the bars away
easily; she climbed on the roof and frowned, she could easily escape now
by vanishing into the forest, but Torako was still in the village. She
could not leave without her, Ryo idily wondered if she would feel any
different about the matter if she was male. "I doubt it." she muttered as
she glanced down and saw that the Amazon was standing alone at the door
to her cell looking rather board.
It was swift and brutal, Ryo jumped down and performed a spinning back
hand, three body blows and a side kick that laid the amazon out at the
cell door. "Part one of my plan is done." she muttered. "Now it's time to
think of part two."
Over the next two hours she spent sneaking from house to house glancing
in windows searching for any sign of Torako. After about fifteen houses
she found her laying peacefully next to another child. She silently
pulled the window out of the clayhome and set it beside the small hut
looking for any sign that the other residence where awake. She gently
lifted her child into her arms and ducked away into the shadows. She
frowned when she realized that her cloak was a throw rug in the home, but
it wasn't important enough to risk another raid into the home; she
cradled the baby in her arms and smiled at it. "Ready Ko-neko?"
A voice behind her stopped her cold in her tracks. "That's far enough, I
am impressed that you'd risk your freedom to rescue your child, but it's
over I'm afraid." Ryo found she was surrounded by Amazons, they stood
with various weapons in a circle around the both of them. She growled as
Cologne stepped forward. "It's over child."
Cologne's grandaughter stepped forward from the crowd with an angry
scowl and reached for Torako. It was a mistake, Ryo lashed out at the
opportunity and kicked the unfortunate woman in the face and chest using
her as a spring board to flip onto the roof of the home, she was about to
jump over the crowd when Cologne's staff spun throught the air and
knocked her back to the ground. She hit the ground hard, rolling again to
not hit the child, it was still jarred and started to cry but Ryo managed
to keep it from serious injury.
"Impressive, give us the child and return to your cell." said the old
woman calmly.
"I would rather die!" snarled Ryo as the tiger like instincts she had
aquired burned in her soul.
"Don't be foolish child, give us..." started Cologne trying to soothe
the girl. Ryo simply lashed out and headed towards the Amazon group
behind her. The girls where nearly toppled as Ryo barreled through, but
a particularly large woman stopped her. Ryo jumped up and kicked the
brute in the face forcing her to stagger back, but the other women had
composed themselves and swarmed on her like ants. Ryo fought hard, but
the warrior women where too much, she had taken alot of blows to protect
the child as well, but there was no way she could win. After a few
minutes they stood holding her up; she was beaten to within an inch of
her life and was still clinging desperately to the child, Torako giggled
merrily without a scratch in Ryo's arms. "I won' break m promise, I
swhr..." she mummbled still struggling.
"Amazing." said Colognes Grandaughter in admiration.
"Yes, most impressive." agreed Cologne as she eyed the pair cautiously.
Ryo looked up at Cologne, "Musk won't be happy to get me, nope." she
giggled in slight delerium. Cologne noted that none of the women where
trying to reach for the child; a few of them where in tears in fact,
quite a feat for the young girl.
The girl who was posted guard at her cell burst from the crowd with an
enraged scowl. "You don't have to worry about the Musk any more." she
screamed as she grabbed Ryo's face and kissed her roughly on the cheek.
Ryo giggled and glared at her with a rage in her eyes, she reared her
head back and slammed a headbutt directly in the amazon's face. "Heh heh,
We'll see..." she snarled viciously.
"Like an untamed tiger, this one could be useful." said Cologne's
grandaughter.
"I am ahead of you, if she manages to defeat Talcum..." said Cologne
with a wistful stare. "We will have a match in three days, after they
both have a chanse to recover, if she is the survivor she will be
welcomed into the tribe." announced Cologne.
Ryo stood on her own two feet. "There will be no match hag." she snarled
with a wicked smile.
"Oh, and why is that young lady?" said Cologne.
"Because I know you set this up, it was the first time I ever had one
guard instead of three, plus you were waiting for me here." said Ryo
calmly, she looked beaten, but no longer delerious. "But even that isn't
the real reason why."
Cologne smirked "The girl is quite insane; correct, but still insane."
Her thoughts were pushed aside for the moment however by a knowing smile
Ryo had given her.
"Because I'm not this girl's mother at all...I am her father." The crowd
around Ryo backed away in shock. Talcum turned to face her with an
unreadable look on her face and Cologne glared at her coolly.
"Well, that certainly does change things a bit, doesn't it." The girl
was right about one thing, if she wasn't bluffing the King of the Musk
would not be happy to hear about it.
TBC............
Ryo finds out his fate in the Amazon village and moves on, his life
continues over the years and Torako grow's up a little more. He meets new
friends and makes a few choices that will effect him later in his life,
it's a long hard road but he makes it in the end as we move ever closer
to the start of Ranma 1/2 manga, but not quite there yet...
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