The Manga
Part 5
The vision of future battle!!!
Ryu woke early and stood up groggily from his mat, the morning was crisp
outside and he smiled to himself as he glanced around his room; it was
exactly as it had been in his own world, strangely enough he didn't miss
his home much. His swords hung over his head on the wall right next to
the secret compartment that housed his fire arms collection. It was a
large case with thirty pieces ranging from automatic to a revolver. He
snorted as he brushed his finger across the lacquer wood finish on his
western style dresser. It was flawlessly clean as normal, half awake he
stumbled over to his closet to choose his clothing for the day, he had a
strange feeling that he would get some extra satisfaction out of this
day.
Duke Hibiki woke with an aching pain in his lower back, he struggled to
open his eyes and groaned loudly as he sat up. He was alone on a
billiards table with his clothes strewn about the room, unfortunately for
him his companion had not only left after he had fallen asleep, but also
neglected to remove the balls from the table before they started; he
realized it was as much his fault as hers and smiled when he noticed an
appreciative note with a number and a lipstick mark on it lying beside
him. "Ahhh, life is good." it was Saturday morning and he was feeling
good despite his physical pain.
Hibiki found himself in a small shopping center after several minutes of
walking once he left his home; The house had no food so he was forced to
go out if he wanted to eat this morning. After a quick trip into a
convenience store he had enough food to last until they could get some
real shopping done. "I'd better get home before that idiot starts
spouting that I ran away in fear of him." he passed by a small
entertainment store and froze in place as he glanced into the window.
"What the?...NO WAY!!!" instantly he found himself plastered to the
window with his groceries strewn about on the ground.
Ryu emerged from his room and sighed as he walked into the hallway, it
had been almost an hour and a half since he had woke and he looked much
better now. He frowned slightly when he brushed his shoulder off lightly
to remove a loose thread. "Where is that lazy fool? I bet he's still
sleeping in the billiards room half naked after a night with that
harlot."
"I'll have you know I was up an hour before the lazy bastard in front of
me! How long does it take you to get dressed anyway? I went shopping."
Duke passed by the man with a large box and a small bag of groceries,
mostly consisting of instant food.
"Shopping?! Bah, it is woman's work." Ryu brushed his hair back
arrogantly and glared at his companion.
"You don't see any women around here do you? I bet you think breakfast
just appears on your plate by magic too, come on it's on me this
morning." the other boy walked by cheerfully.
"What's that box?" Ryu noticed a strange package in his rival's arms.
"A video game."
"A game?! I thought better of you than that."
"Yea yea, instant snob again eh Ryu? I'm sixteen years old so yes I play
video games on occasion, but that's not why I bought this." Duke had a
smug looking smile on his face.
"Why then? I take it this thing is the latest model is it not?" Ryu
looked a little confused and it seemed slightly over his head.
"I bought it because we have our own video game." Duke flashed a CD and
grinned as a picture of their older selves stood proudly on the cover.
"Actually we have around ten of them, but this is the newest of them; The
best part is that you and I have staring rolls in all of them."
"Me?" Ryu looked confused for a moment. "Well I suppose that is
obvious."
"Shut up, I looked it up and you play the evil boss in five of them."
Duke walked towards the living area with the packages leaving an angry
Samurai behind him.
Duke and Ryu sat in front of the television screen looking bewildered.
"This is the most recent game?" asked the Japanese boy looking confused
as he stared at the forty something portraits on the character select
screen.
"Yea, If my experience is correct the video game shouldn't reveal
anything important about us, they sort of exist outside of Anime stories
so they shouldn't tell much we shouldn't find out about."
"I take it this one is me." Ryu pressed the button and selected himself
and the announcer called his name.
"Ryu Kago!"
Duke realized he had to choose someone. "I recognize some of these
people, there's Phil, and me, and Robert...Who the hell is this babe?" he
pressed the button.
"Katria Kurume!" cried the announcer in an over excited voice; Ryu and
Duke froze in place as a bouncy well figured woman appeared on screen in
a tight mini skirt and leather jacket, she winked and a heart appeared
over her head at the same time she gave a little 'V' sign with her
fingers.
"Ka-ka-ka..." Duke stammered and stared in shocked disbelief.
"Katria? Hmmm, well I always thought she would be an attractive young
woman when she got older, who could have known she'd dress like a tramp?"
"No wonder that Gosunkugi guy was trying to get to our world, the poor
shmuck; besides I thought it was weird a twiggy little girl like her had
her own fan club!" Duke laughed crudely and slapped his knee.
"Idiot did you think she would stay thirteen forever?" Ryu shrugged his
shoulders and gave up on him; after a moment they realized that the match
had already started, after a few moments of pounding on one another Ryu
lost miserably.
"BAH! My Katana Wave Slash attack would have felled her in a single
blow! I could not bring myself to harm a woman even in a game!" He
frowned and noticed Duke was giggling to himself.
"You got beat by a girl!" he almost bowled over in laughter.
"Silence! I demand another fight!" Ryu's thumb slipped and his icon
moved over Katria and selected her before he could react. "NOOO! I cannot
fight as a woman!"
"Yea right, you just wanted to see her in that mini skirt again." Duke
elbowed the boy in his side and leaned in as he selected himself. "Let's
see how this goes."
Katria appeared on screen in a wedding dress with a bouquet in her
hands, she tossed it off to reveal a martial arts dogi that bounced when
she did; the Duke on screen looked bewildered and stepped back before
taking up his stance. "What the heck was that about?" Duke looked
confused and quickly dismissed the matter.
Ryu just stared in silent horror as he realized exactly what that meant
for his opponents future. "C-could it be? Hibiki and Kurume? Much can
change with the passage of just a few years; I knew she had her heart set
on him in her youth, but I never thought it would last long. Perhaps he
stops thinking so lightly of her advances when she grows up?" he wasn't
sure if he should laugh or not. "Or perhaps his indifference towards her
now only fuels her intentions in the future? In any case, it won't matter
if we remain here anyway." He looked up from his thoughts and found that
he had been beaten again. "Arrggghhh!"
The next fight Ryu smiled as he once again chose himself. Duke looked at
one of the boxes closely, "Hey, that looks like me now!" he smiled to
himself and picked the character expecting it to be a younger version of
himself or a secret character he had unwittingly unlocked.
"Kintaro Hibiki!" cried the announcer.
Duke and Ryu both almost choked in shock. "My kid brother? He doesn't
even like martial arts!" the character was not on the screen when the
match started, a quick animation showed him arriving on the back of a
military truck, he was also heavily armed and sporting grenades and a
large machine gun.
"He looks just like you." noted Ryu calmly as he played around with the
buttons. "How did I do my Katana Wave Slash?"
Duke merely shook his head and looked at his controller. "Man, this is
weird."
Ryu came storming out of the room a half our later with a completely red
face. "Insolence! That fool could never best me in battle! It is an
insult to even fabricate such a thing for a game!"
Duke was in tears with laughter. "You got beat by Phil!!! Nerd boy?!! He
couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag!!!"
"Enough! I will not stand for this, I am going out!" Ryu stormed out of
the building angrily slamming the door behind him.
"Perhaps I laid it on a little thick? Oh well, I've got to visit Ranma
today anyway." Duke wandered outside lazily whistling a tune to himself
as he walked.
Duke Hibiki smiled as he walked down the street and saw what he was
looking for; Happosai was bounding across the rooftops with an evil
cackle as he twirled a pair of panties on his finger.
"Happosai! I have a proposition for you." Duke smiled as the old man
stopped and stared at him angrily.
"What do you want? I'm a busy man." the boy smiled and pulled a small
pair of purple panties from his shirt.
"These are something you're interested in yes?" the old man appeared
next to him and Duke placed them back in his shirt.
"Gimmie!" the old man seemed gleeful and almost childish.
"First I want something from you, something specific." Duke smiled and
got down on his knees as he looked the old man in his eyes. "If you give
it to me, I'll let you have them."
The Tendo home was unusually quiet, Duke knocked on the door and frowned
when something blew by his feet, he bend down and picked up the small
paper that had 'Happy gram' written across it's top; he unfolded it and
smiled to himself. "So, it's that time is it?"
Akane met him at the door and frowned before looking back over her
shoulder. "Ranma isn't feeling well."
"Moxibustion? I suppose he's lost all of his strength?" he walked passed
her into the home and glanced around. "Where is he?"
"Upstairs, you can't..." he moved passed her and smiled at Kasumi
warmly.
"I know how to cure him." said the boy, Akane promptly stopped and
followed quietly.
Ranma was sulking against the wall and watching the outside world sadly.
He turned as the door opened and quickly moved back as he saw Duke
smiling at him. "Come to laugh at the weakling?"
"No Ranma, I have better things to do with my time than make fun of you.
I came to help you." he sat down next to the boy and smiled.
"You know a cure?" Ranma looked hopeful and grabbed his friend's hands.
"Yes, but I'm not going to give it to you." Duke stood up and backed
away from the shocked look on Ranma's face.
"What? But..." the pigtailed boy frowned and backed away.
"You must learn something first, I can't teach it to you, after you have
learned it I'll cure you." he sat down on the small mat across from Ranma
and smiled.
"What? Tell me what it is!!" Ranma bowed down to him and tears formed in
his eyes.
"Defeat Happosai and you will be cured, but you can't do that in your
present condition." the boy's eyes flared up and Duke waved a hand for
him to calm down.
"Ranma, if I gave you the cure now, you would not learn something very
important that you will need later on. I'm sorry but that's just the way
it is. Once you have this knowledge I can tell you how to cure yourself."
"So why bother telling him about it at all?" Akane was clearly angry
with the boy.
"Because I have something I want from him." he turned back and looked at
Ranma smugly. "I need to be alone with him Akane, it's important." The
girl glared at him hatefully and walked out of the room. When he was
certain they where alone Duke turned towards Ranma, "Take me with you
when you go to train."
Ranma looked at him in surprise. "How did..."
"You know how I know, I want to be there. If I have to face down Metalia
here I'm going to need something that I don't have on my world to beat
him; Ranma it's becoming more and more obvious that he's probably here
with us." Ranma looked at him in shock and nodded his head.
"All right, you can come, but don't tell Akane about this." the boy
looked confused for a moment. "Won't this change the way things are in
your world too? I mean, if you learn something that you aren't supposed
to know..."
Duke smiled and shook his head. "No, physics work differently on my
world; things like this aren't possible where I'm from."
Ranma sighed and looked out the window again. "Me an pop are going
tonight, Ukyo is going to meet us and Cologne says she has a spot where
no one will bother us."
"Don't worry Ranma, what she has in store for you is really something
special!" the boy winked at his friend and leaned back against the wall
for a moment. "I'll see you tonight Ranma, I'm going to bother Akane for
a little while and get some sleep before we leave."
The pigtailed boy didn't react to his words and leaned against the wall,
"Cheer up Ranma, everything turns out all right in the end! Trust me!"
Duke smiled as he passed by Akane in the hallway, she frowned at him and
put her nose into the air. "Bye Akane, I'll see you in a few days," he
said with a smirk.
"Are you going somewhere?" he frowned when she sounded a little hopeful.
"Yes, and you're going to meet me there," said the boy with a confident
smirk.
"I wouldn't follow you anywhere," Akane narrowed her eyes at him and
rushed forward in a side kick that should have sent him into orbit,
"You've got some nerve hitting on me after what you pulled!!"
Duke side stepped and caught her ankle easily, "Who said anything about
following me? I'll see you there Akane Tendo," he laughed and walked down
the stairs.
Akane was using her eyes as if she had lasers in them, she absolutely
hated the boy now. Nabiki poked her head out of her room and smiled as he
walked by and waved to her silently. "Of all the arrogant stuck up..."
muttered Akane.
"You are so gullible Akane, he just enjoys getting a rise out of you.
You didn't really think he was hitting on you did you?" Nabiki was
obviously enjoying his little mind game.
"Why wouldn't he? The pervert," the girl crossed her arms and glared at
her sister.
"Having a sex life doesn't make someone a pervert Akane, besides he
doesn't like you either, he only hangs around because of Ranma." The girl
went back into her room and closed the door on her younger sister's
shocked face.
Akane watched him exit the home after conversing with Kasumi for a few
moments, she walked down the stairs and noticed Kasumi was blushing at
the table sipping a cup of tea. "He's such a nice young man," she
muttered to herself.
Akane was appalled, "He wouldn't dare!" she turned back to her sister
and frowned as she giggled to herself for a moment. "I'll kill him!" she
dashed out the door and looked around only to find he was gone.
Duke walked back towards his home to pick up Ryu calmly, "Jeez, who
could of known Akane had such an extreme personality, she's either really
nice or a certifiable bitch; What a psycho, to think I used to like her."
He passed a comic book store and frowned at a few posters of himself on
the walls. "I'm getting a little sick of this." After a brief stop at a
soda machine Duke caught a news cast and frowned.
A pretty newscaster smiled and shuffled a few pages with a caption
appearing on the screen that said "Tokyo gangland murders increase." She
turned to face the camera and started her report, "The mysterious murders
that have plagued the Tokyo area are unusual indeed, victims are often
burned or cut and identification reveal that the bodies are those of some
very prominent members of Tokyo business, most with suspected links to
Yakusa factions. Police are unable to comment on the possible connection
at this time, although investigations do continue."
"So, is it possible the recluse is finally rearing his ugly head? I was
wondering when things would start moving, perhaps I should inform Ryu?"
He thought for a moment and then pushed it aside, it would be best to
wait until he was certain for that.
TBC...
I'm teasing the hell out of you people with this whole Dr.Metalia thing,
I love it.
At any rate, Duke appears to have a few things going now, but don't
expect everything to go as planned or be exactly what it seems.
Next time Ranma begins to learn the Hiryu Shoten Ha and Duke finally
meets the other Hibiki, what will the lost boy think of him; especially
since Akane seems to have a grudge against him.