Hello all; this is actually a repost, but considering how infrequently i post to the list, it might as well be a first-fic. It also would probably be more accurately tagged "Ryouga," rather than "Ranma," but oh well... Anyway, any comments, criticisms, rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth rants, or anything else that you might have to say about this would be very appreciated. Thanks...
~Eimii
P.S.: The second chapter of this should be showing up on the list in a couple days, which is why i'm reposting now...
<tap_tap_tap_tap_tap_tap...>
*I can feel the rain...*
<tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap...>
*I can feel the rain on my cheeks. It's getting stronger...*
<tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap`tap...>
*Strange... I can feel the raindrops falling on my cheeks, but I don't
feel wet.*
<tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap...>
*And the raindrops... somehow, they don't seem really... raindrop-like.
More like...*
<taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap...>
*More like- I don't know. Just not like raindrops... And it's always
one cheek, then the other, over and over again. Rain isn't usually like
that, is it?*
<Tptptptptptptptptptpt-..........................>
*That's funny, it stopped... I wonder what's going on. I wish there was
some way to find out...*
"haah, hah- <wheeze> -hah. Ouchie... Wow, how can his face be so
hard...?"
A sound; somebody's voice. An unfamiliar voice. Somebody was speaking
to him? Movement; something light, almost a breeze, shifting on his
chest. *What's going on here? Who's voice is that?*
"I hope he wakes up soon. My hand is really starting to hurt...<sigh>"
<tap_tap_tap_tap_tap_tap...>
*Now that I think about it, it doesn't really sound like rain either.
More like... like somebody slapping someone, repeatedly... Maybe I'd
better take a look.* Slowly, as if they were just now remembering how
to do so, eyelids cracked open. Blinding light. Shadow. Blinding light.
Shadow.
<tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap,tap...>
Things started to come into focus. Somewhat more bearable light.
Shadow. A... a hand? Bearable light. Hand blocks the light <Tap>. Hand
pulls away. Light. Hand falls again, on the other side <Tap>. Hand
pulls away. Blink.
"Huh...?" He mumbled groggily, now remembering where his hands were, as
he brought them up to ward off another slap. "Wha-... whaas goin'
on...?"
The hand stopped in mid-motion, pulling away one final time, to be
replaced by a face. Small and roundish; short red-orange hair. Anger
flared within him in a moment, though he couldn't quite understand why.
Yellow eyes. *Something funny about those eyes, and not just the
color...* Soft features; a girl, probably. *Kawaii...* Something
different flared within him, but was pushed aside by a strange, general
feeling of wrongness. *There's something just... odd about this face,
this person. I can't quite figure it out, but I'm _sure_ there's
something wrong with this picture...*
"Oh good, you're awake! Finally!" The face cracked into a wide, ear-to-
ear grin. Something bothered him about that smile too. "Sorry about
hitting you, but you just wouldn't wake up! I hope you're not too
mad..." The person- he was definitely sure it was a girl now. Maybe;
you could never _really_ tell... -she flashed him an apologetic look
and clambered off of his chest. He now came to realize that he was flat
on his back, and just moments ago he had had what was probably a cute
girl straddling him, slapping him in the face repeatedly. Several oft-
used clusters of neurons buzzed to life noisily, but in the end decided
amongst themselves that potentially incapacitating embarrassment could
wait at least until full consciousness was regained.
"No, no. I'm... I'm fine. Thanks for waking me up, I guess..." He
blinked a few times and shakily sat up, rubbing the sleep from his
eyes. A glance at his companion provided corroborating evidence in
favor of the assumption that she was indeed a girl. The short green T-
shirt and loose black shorts that she was wearing revealed enough of
her figure to satisfy his suspicions. Plain white socks and a pair
dirty, beaten-up gray and white sneakers completed the picture of a
cute teenaged girl; maybe fourteen or fifteen, probably about ten
centimeters shorter than he was, when standing. Her hair was fiery
orange-red and straight, cut just above the shoulders with spiky,
irregular bangs. It looked rather tousled, but for some reason that
seemed to suit her. Her skin was tanned, but he could still make out a
light sprinkling of freckles dotting her cheeks.
There was something else too. Something about the girl's face somehow
struck him as terribly unsettling, but he still couldn't quite wrap his
mind around it well enough to say what it was. Reluctantly letting it
drop for the moment, he got into a kneeling position and took a look
around at his surroundings. It appeared that they were in a small
grassy valley, nestled between two low, rounded hills. About dozen
yards away in one direction he could see the beginnings of a thin sort
of forest, while a glance the other way revealed a picturesque vista of
rolling, grassy hills extending off towards the horizon. The sky was
clear and blue, with just the occasional wispy cloud gracing its cobalt
vastness, and the air was silent but for the occasional whisper of the
gentle wind.
All taken into account, it was probably the most beautiful, peaceful
setting that he could ever remember being in. Now, if only he could
remember how it was that he gotten there. Lifting his arms and twining
his fingers above his head, he began to work the kinks out of his
limbs. As he stretched, he turned to regard the girl. "Um, excuse me...
I was just wondering if you-" Wait a minute here. *Hmmm... That didn't
feel quite right...* He shifted his arms slightly. "-if you could tell
me..." A truly peculiar sensation, a muscle twinge that he shouldn't
have felt, alerted him to the fact that there was something terribly
amiss with his body. With his back, to be specific. He flexed again,
just to make sure. Yup, something definitely wrong there. *Uh oh...*
Slowly, deliberately he turned his head to the side, hoping against
hope that he would not see what his body had already told him that he
should. "No way..." Suddenly, it was as though a dam broke within his
skull. A chaotic flood of images and sensations, of memories, rushed
into his head, seeping into all of the fuzzy, indistinct hollows of his
mind. He reeled for a moment, stunned beyond thought, as the waters
settled, until finally comprehension began to dawn on him. Now he
understood; now he knew where he was, and how he had gotten there. He
still didn't understand what was bothering him so much about this girl,
but that could come later.
Reaching up with both hands, Ryouga tentatively fingered one of the
large, feathery wings that extended from about where his shoulder
blades would be. "Funny, I thought angel's wings were supposed to be
white, not black." He mused dreamily, his emotions still numbed in
shock. "And I'm not even Christian, either..."
Fun with Nyanniichuan Productions Presents...
>From the slightly unbalanced mind of Eimii...
Yet _another_ piece of Ranma 1/2 fanfiction...
Fairy Tails...
Chapter, The Firste...
In which the Hero meets an untimely demise, takes a short nap, and then
steps out for a bit, to see the world...
The girl just sat back a bit and favored him with a slightly curious
look. "Ne, what're you talking about? Are you sure you're okay?" She
crawled over on her hands and knees and peered at him more closely.
"Maybe I shouldn't have hit you so much, if you can't even remember
what color your own wings are..." She then cocked her head to the side
slightly, a puzzled expression crossing her face. "Ano... what's a
'christian,' anyway...?"
It was now Ryouga's turn to look puzzled, as his brain desperately
tried to jump-start enough neurons to effectively deal with this line
of questioning. "Uh... uhmm..." It wasn't having too much luck.
"Well... this is Heaven, right?" The girl just stared at him blankly.
"It's not Heaven? Then is it Hell? If it is, then it's certainly a lot
nicer than I pictured it would be..." A frown of consternation settled
on his features for a moment, as he thought of the implications. The
beginning of a frantic edge appeared in his voice as he continued. "I
_am_ dead, aren't I?"
The girl blinked once, twice, not saying anything. Then she began to
stare at him even more intensely, an expression of confusion on her
face. "Ara, you think you're _dead?_" She scratched the back of her
head for a moment, and looked him up and down. "You don't _look_
dead..." She poked him in the arm once, watching how he moved. "You
don't _feel_ dead..." She grabbed his hand and brought it up to her
nose, sniffing it. "You don't _smell_ dead..." She dropped his hand and
crossed her arms, staring at him again. "And you don't _sound_ dead, to
me." She nodded once to herself, a playful smile forming on her lips.
"So, why d'ya think you're dead? I mean, _I_ don't think you're dead."
She sat back again, still smiling. Her left ear twitched a bit, perking
up slightly.
"Well, I-" Hold it! Ryouga's mind was really putting on the wear and
tear today, with all of this stop-and-go thinking. Now then, back up a
bit; did we see that right? Replay. Yup... "-I, uh... umm... I'm sorry,
but are you- I mean, do you have... that is , are- are those... _cat_
ears??" He choked out, weakly. He looked again, this time taking in her
eyes, and the curve of her lips. "And cat's eyes, and fangs," he looked
around behind her back, attempting to see if his imagination was really
going all out with this, "and a _tail_??"
The girl nodded happily to him, seemingly oblivious to his rising
distress. "Uh-huh! I'm a cat spirit! Neat, ne?" With that, she hopped
to her feet, twirling once to give Ryouga a good look at all of her
assets, and plopped back down again next to him. "Myaan! Nice to meet
you!" she sang cheerfully, offering Ryouga her hand.
Not knowing what else to do, Ryouga took the hand and shook it, though
somewhat unsteadily. "Um... Hi, I'm Hibiki Ryouga. Nice to meet you,
uhm... I didn't quite catch your name..."
"I just told you!" she scolded jokingly, "It's Myaan!" she shook his
hand vigorously, a silly smile still plastered on her face.
Ryouga scratched the back of his head, still almost completely lost in
the labyrinth of his own thoughts. *Her name is Myaan? I just thought
that she was making some sort of cat noise...* He did have the presence
of mind not to voice this thought though, as Myaan might take offense.
"So... Myaan, If I'm not dead, then why do I have wings?" He asked,
experimentally unfurling said appendages.
Myaan's smile fell slightly, as the confused look returned. After
examining him for a few more moments, she replied, "Um... you have
wings `cause you're a Bii`bi, I think..." She crossed her arms and
peered at him again, seeming to be looking at something just behind his
right ear.
"What's a Bii`bi?" Ryouga asked, reflexively lifting his hand to feel
behind his ear. Or, at least he tried to feel behind his ear. Ryouga
felt something brush up against his right ear, so he twitched it out of
the way... <Blink><Blink> Tentatively, Ryouga reached up and touched
his ear, which had apparently become rather pointy, furry, and mobile
since the last time he had examined it; a lot like Myaan's ears,
actually, except Ryouga's ears felt as though they were a good bit
longer than hers.
Meanwhile, Myaan had apparently missed Ryouga's little bout of self
examination, and had gone on talking. "You don't know what a Bii`bi is?
Well, then you're probably not one of them, ne?" Myaan giggled a bit,
and continued. "A Bii`bi is a kind of Chinese fox spirit, sort of like
a Kitsune, `cept they have wings, `an they're a lot nicer, tho maybe
they're not quite as smart. Or at least they're not as sneaky." She
crossed her legs and put her hands on her ankles, beginning to rock
back and forth anxiously.
"Somebody once told me that one day, a long time ago, a nine-tailed
Bii`bi decided that she wanted to see what was on the other side of the
moon, so she turned six of her tails into wings, `an flew away, `an
that's how the Bii`bi got wings." Myaan got another confused look on
her face, and scratched her chin in puzzlement. "But I still don't
understand why she would turn her tails into wings. A nine-tailed fox
can fly really, really fast already. It doesn't make any sense, ne?"
Sighing, she turned back to Ryouga. "But anyway, I was sooo sure that
you were a Bii`bi, `cause you've got the ears of a fox `an the tail of
a fox, `an you've got wings too! `An you seem nice enough, but not very
smart!" She grinned widely at him, shutting her eyes and nodding to
herself.
"Hey!! Who's not very smart?!" Ryouga growled, his feathers bristling.
Myaan, who seemed to be genuinely startled by Ryouga's reaction, jumped
and scooted a few feet away. "Maybe I'm one of these Bii`bi, and maybe
I'm not, but that still doesn't explain _why_ I have wings."
Myaan fixed him with a questioning gaze. "Why doesn't it explain why
you have wings?"
"Well, I..." Ryouga stopped, his mind balking at this continued abuse.
"That is, I mean, I didn't have any wings before, but I have them now,
and..." Ryouga's anger quickly drained away into frustration, as he
struggled to articulate his thoughts. "And... aargh! Are you _sure_
I'm not dead?" Ryouga looked pleadingly at Myaan.
"Ano... Why d'ya keep asking if you're dead? Why would you be dead?"
Myaan peered quizzically at the lost boy, the beginnings of worry
evident on her face.
"Because- because...," pausing, Ryouga looked down into his lap, his
expression darkening considerably, "because I _should_ be dead...
Because...," taking another deep breath, Ryouga looked up at Myaan
again, a frightened, haunted look in his eyes, "because I can
_remember_ dying..."
(~)
Stumbling to his feet again, Ryouga wiped a trickle of blood from his
lips. He hastily assumed a defensive stance, casting a wary gaze at his
opponent. From across the rooftop, Ranma stared back at him, his hands
still cupped in the final motions of a Moukou Takabisha. Then, with
almost infuriating nonchalance, the pigtailed boy assumed a casual
stance. An evil grin appeared on his face as he turned to regard Ryouga
out of the corner of his eye. "Too slow, P-chan." the words trickled
contemptuously from his lips, as his lifted his hand to brush his long
bangs away from his eyes, the tiny pair of horns on his head becoming
all the more evident from the motion.
*DAMMIT! He's just too goddamn fast! And he fights dirty, too!" Ryouga
winced as a painful twinge in his groin reminded him of an earlier
lapse of judgment on his part. *How the hell am I supposed to hit him
in the head if he won't stop moving around like that?! Hmm... maybe one
of the wards might work...* A hasty glance revealed that several of the
wards were still littered about the rooftops and in the street below.
The small wooden box that he and Ranma had tried to trap the oni in was
there too, and it looked like it wasn't too badly damaged either. *Only
one way to find out!*
Using his foot to kick the box into the air, Ryouga rolled to the side,
snatching several of the wards off of the ground. Dabbing his little
finger against his split lip, Ryouga drew in the final stroke on each
of the wards in his own blood, catching the box again just as he was
finished. "Alright Saotome, no more playing around!" Roaring a battle
cry, Ryouga flicked right wrist, focusing some his Ki into the wards,
stiffening them to the consistency of steel. At the same moment, he
began focusing for the ShiShi Houkoudan. Splitting his concentration
like that was incredibly trying, but vital to his hastily contrived
plan.
Advancing rapidly, Ryouga released three of the five wards he had
charged, sending them whistling through the air in a deadly, erratic
arc towards Ranma's head. Only Ranma wasn't there anymore; he had just
stepped arrogantly to the side, cleanly bypassing Ryouga's attack, just
like the lost boy had expected him to. The fourth ward, which Ryouga
had released a split second later, buzzed down towards the roof tile
that Ranma was standing on, splitting it in half and causing the
pigtailed boy to dance hastily away, just as Ryouga closed on him.
Bringing the last ward to bear as quickly as possible Ryouga locked his
free arm with that of the possessed martial artist. A momentary look of
surprise flashed across Ranma's face, before it was replaced once again
by that smug, arrogant smile. Ranma's arms blurred, moving faster than
Ryouga had ever seen, and suddenly the lost boy felt a tremendous pain
in his chest. Looking down, the ward fluttered fruitlessly from
Ryouga's numbed fingers as he tried to process the fact that Ranma's
forearm was protruding from his chest. *Claws... The demon could make
claws... I forgot about those...*
With a sickening, wet noise, Ranma jerked his arm back. Holding it up
before the shocked lost boy's face, Ranma licked the blood from one of
the six centimeter long claws that tipped all of his fingers, not
seeming to notice how that same thick, red fluid was running down the
length of his forearm, staining his skin crimson. Or perhaps he
noticed, and simply didn't care. "Too bad pig boy. You lose, again..."
Smiling again, Ranma began to laugh.
"...N- not... yet..." The gloating expression on the demon Ranma's face
shattered into one of confusion and disbelief, as Ryouga's arms sprang
up, almost with a life of their own, and clamped around his shoulders.
"WHAT?! NO!! YOU CAN'T-"
"DIEEE!" With a thunderous crash, Ryouga's forehead collided with
Ranma's, the pigtailed boy's head snapping back violently from the
force of the blow. A dazed, unfocused looked entered Ranma's eyes, as a
black haze began to stream from his body. *NOW!* Gripping Ranma's body
to his own, bloodied chest, Ryouga cast his eyes skyward, screaming at
the heavens. "SHISHI HOUKOUDAN!!!"
A livid column of green light engulfed the boys, it's expanse shot
through with writhing tendrils of curling black and red mist. Rising
high into the sky, it paused almost a kilometer above the city, hanging
before the setting sun like some sort of surreal fireworks display,
pulsing with wild, malevolent waves of light and shadow. And then it
began to fall.
Down on the ground, Ryouga watched its approach with glazed, unseeing
eyes. Dimly aware of Ranma's breath on his neck, the lost boy pushed
the unconscious martial artist away. Then, like a broken puppet with
its strings cut, he collapsed to his knees, pitching forward limply;
the shattered roofing tiles cut deeply into his cheek. His labored,
gurgling breath began to slow, as a warm wetness spread from the rent
in his chest, running down the gentle slope of the roof and dripping
onto the ground below. His sight rapidly began to darken around the
edges, as fleeting spots of non-color danced across his field of
vision. As the pool of red began to encroach upon the vivid white of
the demon ward that rested beside his head, a final spark of need alit
within the lost boy's dimming consciousness.
*I... I have to finish it... before...*
Almost without a thought, his right hand crept forward, rescuing the
ward from the rapidly spreading pool of blood, before moving out to the
side. His left arm, still clutching the wooden box, copied this action,
moving to the side and bracing against the slick surface of the tiles.
*Have to finish it, before... before anyone else...*
With a strangled grunt of effort, Ryouga tensed, oxygen deprived
muscles screaming in agony as his arms and back straightened. One final
spray of crimson erupted from his chest, unnoticed, as Ryouga tilted he
head back to regard the sky above his head. It was close; the green and
black sphere of light filled his field of vision, looming like the sun
before his failing eyes. With unsteady, blood stained hands, Ryouga
opened the box, holding it in both hands as he lifted his arms above
his head, waiting.
*Goodbye... Akane...*
After half a second's eternity, the wayward star finally succumbed to
the relentless draw of one man's unending sorrow, striking the house
with earth shaking force. The walls of the building blew outward as the
roof collapsed, a blinding could of dust rising from the wreckage to
fill the vacuum left in the wake of the blast. Upon the impact warped
floor of the building, within the sphere of light, the form of a man
stood untouched. Above his head he held a box, into which rushed a
roaring stream of darkness, swirling around him within the verdant
inferno. As the last tail of shadow was sucked into the box, the man
within the sphere of light snapped the lid shut, affixing a tattered,
bloodstained piece of paper over the clasp. Then, with a final motion
of surrender, the form of a man folded in upon itself.
Within a crater of his own creation, the body of Hibiki Ryouga knelt.
Within his lifeless arms was clutched a small wooden box, held tightly
to his chest, a final protective impulse preventing it from falling to
the ground. For a moment, a tiny pinpoint of green fire danced behind
his dull eyes, before fading into darkness.
(~)
"...The last thing I remember is sealing up the oni, and then...,"
Ryouga trailed off, staring aimlessly into the distance, "and then I
was here." Trembling a bit, Ryouga hugged himself tightly, as if trying
to prevent the warmth from escaping his grasp once again. Eventually,
his eyes began to refocus a bit, and he turned to regard his audience,
a puzzled look replacing the previous pallor. "Say, where are we,
anyway?"
"Huh?!" Myaan blinked and shook her head a bit, as if just waking up
from a dream. "Ara... ehehe. That was a really, really good story
Ryouga! `An you told it _sooo_ well, too! You should be a bard or a
poet or something... ah, are you okay?" Myaan peered curiously at
Ryouga, who was currently holding his head in his hands and weeping.
Taking a moment to compose himself, Ryouga straightened, a tired look
on his face. "Yeah... I'm fine, don't worry about it." Sighing, the
lost boy began to scrutinize the ground in front of him, casually
picking up a small red stone and turning it over in his hand.
"So what's Earth like?" The cat-girl queried, leaning towards him.
The small red stone crumbled into a palm full of red dust as Ryouga
twitched convulsively, almost falling over backwards. "Huh? What?"
Flailing his arms and other various appendages about, Ryouga managed to
right himself.
"Wha`dya mean, 'what?' I asked first!" Pausing, Myaan momentarily
assumed a contemplative stance. "Actually, you asked first. But you're
much better at stories than me!" Smiling again, she bounced forward in
a crouch, forcing Ryouga to lean backwards as she invaded his space.
"Ne, ne, So what's it like? Are there lots of people `an animals `an
trees `an stuff? What color is the sky? Is it blue? Is it red? Is it
green? How `bout the ocean? I've never seen the ocean! `Course, I've
never been to Earth, but I've never seen the ocean here either. Is it
plaid? I'll bet it's plaid! That'd be funny! Do humans still run around
wearing armor `an swinging swords `an slaying dragons `an stuff? How
d`ya say 'I have a dozen eggs in my pants' in human? Do humans really
live in hollowed out stumps and eat boiled rutabaga every day? I don't
like rutabaga very much. I like clouds tho! Are there clouds on earth?
What do they look like? Huh? Tell me tell me tell me!"
Forced back by this onslaught, Ryouga toppled over again, falling
backwards into the soft grass. This time, he decided to stay there for
a while. Laying sprawled at the base of the gentle slope of the hill,
he gazed up at the sky. "I... I thought you didn't believe me when I
said I was a human..." Suddenly, Ryouga found that he had a small,
hyperactive cat-girl sitting in his lap, staring down at him.
"I never said that!" Resting her elbows on his chest, she perched her
face in her hands and blew out a sigh. "I just said it was a good
story. But I guess was a sad story, ne? You didn't look happy when you
were telling it. I though maybe that was part of the story, but I guess
not, `cuz you don't look happy now either. I s'pose dying isn't
something that you like to think about. `S not something I like to
think about either. But it was such a good story! And I wanna know more
about Earth, too! But maybe you don't wanna talk about Earth, ne? I'm
sorry. Maybe you don't wanna talk to me anymore. But you asked me a
question before! What did`ja wanna talk about? Please tell me! I
promise I won't bring up Earth or dying or the ocean or rutabaga or
Ross Perot anymore! Pretty please! I'll be good!" Leaning forward until
their noses were only millimeters apart, Myaan put on the most
pathetically cute, dewy-eyed, pleading look that Ryouga had ever seen.
Her ears drooped and her lower lip began to tremble, a tiny hint of
fang peeking through.
Ryouga could only stare back at her, his jaw working wordlessly as he
tried to formulate a coherent response. On the one hand, he fully
realized that he now had a cute... female person, pressed up against
him, and that they were situated in a very... interesting position. In
fact, he seemed to remember being in a similar position with this same
person at some point in the recent past. Conditioned responses roared
to life, preparing to defend Ryouga's delicate sensibilities against
this renewed threat.
On the other hand, however, Ryouga was suddenly overcome with urge to
pet the pretty kitty in his lap, and maybe scratch it behind the ears
and snuggle for a while. This posed a rather confusing problem for
Ryouga's mental defenses, as they couldn't quite decide whether to
treat this new factor as a person or an animal. All thought processes
ground to a screeching halt as more and more resources were devoted to
this dilemma, but in the end, no conclusion could be reached. Ryouga's
eyes rolled back in his head as the system froze and crashed,
effectively rendering the decision a moot point. Comforting darkness
descended once again.
(~)
"Ugh..." Groaning a bit, Ryouga drifted into wakefulness, his eyes
fluttering open furtively, then closing again to block out the too-
bright light. "Wha... what happened...?" Plumbing the murky depths of
memory, a string of bizarre, disjointed images began to surface.
"Man... what a weird dream." Lifting one arm to rub his eyes, Ryouga
stared up at the hazy, red-violet sky above. *I wonder what time it
is...*
Grunting quietly, Ryouga began to sit up, only to notice that there
seemed to be something sitting on top of him. Tilting his head forward,
Ryouga nearly swallowed his own tongue when he found a head of messy,
red-orange hair resting on his chest. As Ryouga moved, something
sticking out from one side of the head twitched, and the form laying on
top of him shifted a bit. The head turned to reveal the sleep-clouded
face of Myaan; her eyes cracked open slightly as her ears flicked back
and forth in irritation.
"Huh?!" Ryouga blinked and rubbed his eyes again, as if trying to
dispel the image before him. When it didn't work, Ryouga just continued
to stare, while Myaan seemed to fall back to sleep, once again curling
up into a ball, her head resting on his chest. "But, but you're..."
Trailing off, Ryouga uncertainly began to roll his shoulders, while a
questing hand began to feel the ground at his side. *... there... there
they are...* Brushing against a carpet of soft feathers, Ryouga's hand
traveled back to his face, covering his eyes as he slumped to the
ground. "It... it wasn't a dream, then... but that means..." Tilting
his head to the side and opening his eyes, Ryouga turned to face the
light. The hills around them were lit in a warm, ruddy orange glow, as
the sun dipped further below the horizon.
Turning once again to his slumbering companion, Ryouga debated what to
do next. Strangely enough, he wasn't so bothered by her proximity
anymore; lying there, curled up on his chest in the fading light,
Myaan's sleeping form didn't strike Ryouga as suggestive so much as
trusting and vulnerable. But still, despite the comfortable, warm
feeling that such innocent contact elicited, it remained evident to
Ryouga that something had to be done. Lifting one hand, Ryouga began to
gently shake Myaan's shoulder. "Psst, Myaan... Wake up. C'mon..."
Un-curling a bit at his touch, Myaan turned a pair of lidded eyes
towards the urgently whispering lost boy. "Ara... ah, Ryouga. You're
awake again..." Rubbing her eyes, Myaan stretched her legs and rolled
over onto her stomach, regarding her pillow sleepily. "Wha'sup?"
Blushing badly, but somehow managing to maintain his composure, Ryouga
took a deep, calming breath. "Um... why are you l-lying on top of me?"
Averting his eyes to the side, Ryouga hoped that his flushed face would
be obscured by the darkening shadows.
"Oh. You decided to take a nap, I guess. I didn't want to wake you up
again, `cuz my hand still hurts, so I decided to wait." Crossing her
arms on Ryouga's chest, Myaan laid her head down and looked off towards
the setting sun. "I waited a long, long time, but you didn't wake up.
Then got bored, so I decided to take a nap too." Lifting her head
again, Myaan turned towards Ryouga, a happy smile on her face. "I like
naps a lot! I think you do too, `cuz you seem to take a lot of them."
Scratching the back of his head, Ryouga nervously looked up at the sky.
"Uh... yeah, I guess I do, don't I. But... er... I mean, why'd you
decide to take your nap, um... on me...?" Idly, Ryouga began to tug on
his bandanna.
"`Cuz you're warm." Myaan replied playfully, snuggling a little closer.
"`S nice to sleep on something warm..."
"Ehehehe..." Ryouga hastily stifled his rising panic, though it was
intensely difficult, what with all the blood in his body suddenly
rushing to his head. "Y-yeah... but, but... um... don't you think we
should g-go somewhere else, or something... It's g-getting dark,
y'know..." The broad wings under his back flexed and twisted
uncomfortably as the 'fight or flight' instinct tried to take control.
"`S okay. We're safe here, I think. I never heard of anything bad
happening out here, `an I come here a lot." Turning an ear to the side,
Myaan glanced over to see what the rustling noise was. "Ah! Oops!
Sorree!" Straightening suddenly, Myaan moved back a bit, so that Ryouga
could sit up. "That looks like it hurts!"
Finding that propping himself up on his elbows was difficult, because
of the wings, Ryouga eventually managed to get himself upright. Resting
his weight on his hands, the lost boy opened his wings to their fullest
extension, fanning them out in the cooling air. Lowering them, Ryouga
found that he couldn't quite close them again while in a sitting
position, so he settled for wrapping them around his shoulders like a
long cloak.
Myaan, still sitting in his lap, leaned into his left wing. "Hmmm...
Hehe, that's soft..." Giggling quietly, she began to play with his
feathers.
"Hey, stop! That tickles!" Ryouga shifted the wing out to the side,
only to have Myaan switch to the right wing. Moving that one as well,
Ryouga lifted a hand to ward off the laughing cat-girl. "C`mon, quit
it!"
With a devilish grin, Myaan suddenly placed a hand on either of
Ryouga's shoulders. Then, before he could protest, she vaulted up out
his lap and over his head. Landing behind his back, Myaan proceeded to
tickle both of his wings at the same time. "Nyaa, nyaa! Can't get away
now!"
"Aaa- hehe- s-stop! Eheh-" Hastily scrambling to his feet, Ryouga tried
to turn around, only to have Myaan dance nimbly around him, always
staying at his back. "C- ahaha- come back here!" Ryouga tried lifting
his wings into the air, but that only exposed more of the vulnerable
underside to Myaan's tickling. *Well, at least she's out of my lap...*
Suddenly, the tickling stopped. "Eheh, thanks... Myaan?" Lowering a
wing and turning his head to the side in puzzlement, Ryouga found that
the cat-girl in question was sitting on the ground, staring in rapt
attention at his tail, which was swishing back and forth in irritation.
Actually, now that Ryouga took a good look at it, it wasn't just one
tail, but three. Each of them was about the length of his leg, and
covered in long, thick black fur, tipped by a flash of silver that
seemed to glow like fire in the fading light. Experimentally, Ryouga
tried to sway them to the left, then to the right. Much to his
amusement, he found that Myaan's eyes remained glued to bright tuft at
the end, no matter where he put it. Occasionally she would try to bat
at it with her hands, only to have Ryouga quickly move it out of her
reach.
Smirking to himself, Ryouga closed his wings and crouched down facing
Myaan, all the while keeping the tip of his tails bouncing up and down
in front of her eyes. After a few moments of watching her, Ryouga poked
her in the arm. "Hey, what's so interesting, hmm?"
"Aa- Ara?" Blinking, as if awakening from a trance, Myaan snapped to
attention. "Oh, Ryouga. Heh... your tails are pretty. `An you've got
three of them too!" Suddenly, a wide, fang-toothed grin split the cat-
girl's face. "Five! Hehe, lucky!" Pouncing before Ryouga could so much
as blink, Myaan snagged the ends of his tails and began to tickle his
nose with them.
"Wha- aaaah- aACHOO!" Sneezing, Ryouga quickly snatched the tails away
again, hiding them behind his back, while Myaan giggled at him. "What
do you mean 'five?' Sure, five is lucky, at least where I come from,
but I only have three tails." Rubbing his nose to ward off another
sneeze, the fox-tailed boy gazed curiously at his companion.
Still giggling, Myaan bounded to her feet and ran around to Ryouga's
back, grabbing his wings again. "Hey, you weren't listening, were you?
I told you a story earlier! Did'ja forget already?" Leaning around
Ryouga's wings, Myaan peered at him appraisingly. Her lips turned down
in a small frown of disappointment, though it didn't reach her eyes.
"It wasn't as good as your story, but I though that you'd remember!
After all, you asked why you had these, ne?" Grasping them by the tips,
Myaan spread his wings a bit, nuzzling her face into the soft feathers.
Having tensed for action when Myaan had grabbed his wings, Ryouga began
to relax a bit, as it seemed evident that she wasn't going to start
tickling him again. "Yeah... I guess I did ask why I had them," he
ventured, turning to peer at Myaan over his shoulder, "but what do my
wings have to do with how many tails I've got?"
"Weeeeellll...," cocking her head to the side, Myaan assumed a
thoughtful stance, though her hands alternated between grasping
Ryouga's wings and playing with the end of his tails. "If that Bii`bi
turned six of her tails into wings, then that means that your wings are
sorta like tails... `cept that they have feathers, ne?" Having
successfully tied his tails into a french braid, much to Ryouga's
chagrin, Myaan began to count on her fingers. "Soo... if you've got
three tails, and two wings, that makes five. `An five's a lucky number,
`cuz it's one more than four. Four's a bit less than half of nine,
while five's a bit more, `an nine's a really lucky number, `cuz that's
how many lives cats have, `an how many tails foxes have, `an lots 'n
lots of other stuff! So five is lucky `an four is unlucky, but you've
got five! Lucky!" Bouncing around the lost boy, Myaan spun around to
face Ryouga, a silly grin on her face.
"I see..." Ryouga muttered absently, as he tried to un-braid his tails.
Succeeding, with some difficulty, Ryouga turned a rueful grin to match
his companion's playful one. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose. Four
is unlucky where I come from too, though not for the same reasons."
"Wow! Neat!" Twining her fingers behind her back, Myaan rocked back on
her heels, nodding. "Sounds like a lot of things on Earth are the same
as here, ne?"
"Yeah..." Scratching his head, a thought suddenly leapt to Ryouga's
attention. "Oh, that reminds me! I was going to ask you something,
before... um, before I took my... nap." Coughing to clear his throat,
as well as to get Myaan attention, Ryouga looked around, spreading his
arms wide. "Um... where exactly is 'here,' anyway?"
"`S a grassy field," Myaan replied, matter-of-factly.
"I know that, but _where_ are we?"
"Ina grassy field."
"And this field is where...?"
"Beside that forest over there."
"That's not what I mean!" Ryouga shouted, causing Myaan to jump back, a
frightened look on her face. Holding his head in his hands, Ryouga took
a deep breath, trying to calm down. "Sorry... now then, if this... this
_place_ is not Earth, then what is it called?"
"Oh..." Instantly, Myaan brightened, all traces of fear disappearing
from her expression, quickly replaced by her usual air of carefree
ease. "`S called Arcadia!"
"Arcadia?" Ryouga turned the word over in his mind, trying to remember
if he had ever heard it before.
"Or Alfheim, or Xanadu, or lotsa other things. Nobody can ever seem to
agree on what it's called." Myaan explained, shrugging expressively.
"Arcadia's easiest, `cuz people usually don't get mad when you callit
that."
"People get mad when you call it other things?" Ryouga wondered aloud,
an incredulous note entering his voice.
"Sometimes." Myaan nodded slowly. "Most don't, but somebody's always
unhappy, no matter what'cha do. I think Arcadia sound's best, tho." The
cat-girl turned an inquisitive look towards her new friend. "Why'dja
ask?"
"Hmm...?" Having been lost in his own thoughts, Ryouga started, and
turned to look at Myaan. "Oh, it's just that I was wondering about how
I got here. I mean, one moment, I'm... I'm on Earth," shivering a bit,
Ryouga continued, "and the next I'm here. It doesn't make sense..."
Trailing off, Ryouga's expression clouded, a small scowl forming on his
lips. "Um... I know that you said I'm not... dead, but just
hypothetically, let's say that I _was_ dead. Now, if someone dies, is
it common for their soul, or their ghost, or whatever to come here?"
Scratching her head, Myaan was silent for a moment. "Aah... Nope. No, I
don't think I've ever heard of someone coming here after they die. I
always thought that you went somewhere else when you died. A lot of
people say that you become someone else when you die, or something like
that, but I don't think they meant that you become a Bii`bi. I
dunno..." Myaan's puzzled look deepened, her gaze drifting to the sky
as she continued to ponder the matter.
"That's okay, never mind." Ryouga interjected, waving to get Myaan's
attention. "Since neither of us can figure out how I got here, I'm not
going to worry about it right now. It's not like this is a completely
new experience for me, anyway, thought I can't recall ever getting lost
and ending up in a place called Arcadia..." Ryouga trailed off, his
lips frozen in the final sounds of the name. Narrowing his eyes, the
lost boy got a very confused look on his face. "Arcadia. Ar... ca...
di... a..." Saying the name again, Ryouga pronounced each syllable
individually, sounding it out slowly, as if he were searching for some
hidden meaning in the word.
Looking up suddenly, Ryouga cast an intense look towards the cat-girl.
"Oi, nihongo o hanashiteiru kai? Wakatteiru?"
"Um...," Backing away a bit under Ryouga's gaze, Myaan held a placating
hand in front of his face. "I understand, I guess, but I dunno if
you're speaking... 'nihongo?,' or not..." Shrugging, Myaan wore an
apologetic smile. "I've never heard that language before..."
"Then... then how did you understand what I said?" Ryouga queried,
switching back to his previous mode of speech.
"Um... I dunno. Nobody ever seems to have any trouble understanding
each other in Arcadia." Still slightly unnerved at Ryouga's intensity,
Myaan began to play with her own tail, cocking her head to the side as
she regarded the lost boy.
"Hmmm..." Wearing a frown of consternation, Ryouga crossed his arms and
looked down at the ground. "So, if we're not speaking Japanese, then
what _are_ we speaking, and why can _I_ understand it?" Ryouga actually
knew quite a few languages reasonably well; he could say "where am I?"
in over 90 languages, and in at least 200 dialects. But, now that he
really thought about it, he couldn't recall ever having spoken in the
tongue that he used now. Despite that, it felt as natural to him as his
native Japanese; perhaps even more so. Raising an eyebrow, Ryouga
turned an inquisitive glance towards Myaan.
"Don't look at me! I dunno what it's called." Myaan shrugged yet again;
she seemed to be doing that a lot, lately. "I never really thought to
ask..." Suddenly, Myaan's eyes widened, her expression brightening
considerably. She held her finger up to get Ryouga's attention. "Ne,
I'll bet they'd know in the City! They know all kinds of neat stuff
there!"
Ryouga's ears perked up at the mention of civilization. "The City?
Where's that?"
"Lotsa roads lead there; most of them, really. One's usually in the
woods, not too far from here!" Smiling happily, Myaan pointed at the
thin beginnings of a forest off in the distance.
"'One's _usually_ in the woods...?' What's that- never mind; I don't
want to know." Shaking his head, an exasperated look on his face,
Ryouga continued. "But they'll know what language this, is in the city?
Do think they'd know how I got here, or why I'm not dead?"
"They might!" Myaan nodded energetically, "`An they could tell you all
about Arcadia, and Bii`bi, and other stuff too! Y'hear lotsa good
stories in the city!" Leaning forward, Myaan looked up at Ryouga's
contemplative expression. "You're gonna go, right? To the City? Ne, can
I come too? `S been a while since I've been there, `an I wanna hear
some more stories! I can show you the way! Please, please, lemmie go
with you! Pretty please?"
"Uh... yeah," Ryouga nodded uncertainly to Myaan, "I think that would
be best."
"Yay!" grabbing Ryouga's hand Myaan began to lead them towards the
forest. "C`mon, lets go!"
"Wait, wait!" Standing his ground against the cat-girl's seemingly
boundless enthusiasm, Ryouga waved his other arm at the sky. "Don't you
think we should wait until it's light out?"
"Why, cant'cha see?" Myaan peered at the lost boy inquisitively.
"Yeah, but-" Blinking, Ryouga stopped abruptly. Turning around, he
looked off in the direction of the horizon. The sun had long since
disappeared, taking with it the fiery afterglow of its departure. The
twilight, too, had passed, and yet, even without it, the land seemed to
be cast in a sort of cool, shimmering light. Looking towards the sky,
Ryouga found that the moon hadn't yet risen, thus discounting the
possibility of moonlight. "How...?" Turning to face Myaan, Ryouga
caught the shine of gold in her feline eyes, her irises reflecting much
brighter than they should have; almost glowing. *Cat's eyes...* Almost
bringing a hand up to his face, Ryouga stopped himself and looked the
cat-girl in the eye. "Myaan, what color are my eyes?"
"They're green, why?" Myaan stopped trying to drag Ryouga toward
forest, and the lost boy could see a confused expression forming on her
face.
Nodding to himself, Ryouga continued. "Okay... um, do they glow?"
"... Sorta, I guess."
"Do they look like a cat's eyes?"
"Nah!" Shaking her head, Myaan smirked at him. "They look like a fox's
eyes! Why would they look like cat's eyes if you're a fox?"
"Never mind..." Rubbing his temples with his free hand, Ryouga faced
the sky and closed his eyes. "Just... never mind..." Opening his eyes
again, the lost boy looked towards the forest. It seemed reasonably
well lit, as far as he could see, though thinking about it was starting
to give him a headache. "Regardless, I still think we should find
somewhere to stay for the night. Traveling during the day is usually
safer. Unless this city is nearby?"
Shaking her head, Myaan rolled her shoulders. "I dunno. The roads to
the city are always different out here. Could be a couple hours, or a
couple weeks..."
"Wonderful... a city that has more trouble finding itself than I do..."
Chuckling ruefully to himself, Ryouga peered into the forest. "Um, do
you have a place that you usually stay around here?" He looked the cat
girl up and down, paying attention to her reasonably urban attire. "In
a town, or something?"
"Yup, yup! `S in the forest, but there's a town not too far away. The
road runs through it! The town, I mean." Nodding emphatically, Myaan
pointed in another direction. "My place is over there."
"Hmm..." Ryouga turned to face in the direction that Myaan had been
leading them. "Maybe I should get a place to stay in the town. Then,
you could go home, and if you still want to come with me you could come
pick me up in the morning."
"That's silly!"
"Huh?" Blinking, Ryouga turned to face Myaan. The cat-girl had her
hands on her hips, a no-nonsense expression on her face. "Why's that?"
"`Cuz I bet you don't know where the town is!" Wagging a finger in
Ryouga's face, Myaan's expression began to crack, a hint of amusement
showing through. "`An anyway, my place's closer. It'd be simpler if you
just stayed there. That way, we could go to town together."
Though Ryouga had been planning on suggesting that Myaan drop him off
at an inn or something, he realized that Myaan had no way of knowing
about his directional problems, and had apparently assumed that Ryouga
was going to make his way to town by himself. Despairing at his own
weakness, the lost boy sighed, his ears drooping a bit. "I really don't
want to impose..."
"Don't worry about it!" Grinning, Myaan began to lead Ryouga towards
the forest. "I don't have company often, `an you're fun! `An you tell
good stories too!"
"Well, okay..." Letting himself be led, Ryouga nodded in resignation.
Reaching the near end of the field quickly, under Myaan's energetic
guidance, Ryouga began to follow the cat girl into the woods. After a
few minutes of walking and making small-talk, mostly Ryouga describing
earth, at Myaan's behest, the trees gradually began to thicken around
them. As per normal, the canopy of leaves and branches obscuring the
starlight made it slightly harder to see, but not nearly as much as
Ryouga would have expected; the shadows deepened, but it was more a
matter of contrast than visibility.
The trees themselves were surprisingly mundane. Ryouga could identify
most of them by sight, and those that he couldn't were at least
somewhat similar to other types that he had seen. One thing that did
surprise him was the intensity of the forest noises; the animals
sounded as though they were inordinately active, considering that there
were two talking... people, walking in their midst. At one pause in the
conversation, Ryouga turned his head to peer off into the trees on
their right. Animal noises were particularly loud in that direction; so
much so that Ryouga wouldn't have been surprised if the animals were
right there, up in the trees above them.
At first, the lost boy didn't see anything. Then, tracking another
sound, Ryouga turned to see, off in the distance, a gray squirrel
climbing up the side of a tree. Ryouga was amazed that, even at this
distance, some forty or fifty meters away, he could still hear the
squirrel's claws biting into the bark of the tree. It sounded like the
squirrel should have been right there with them, climbing up the tree
beside his head, not half a kilometer away. Ryouga couldn't decide what
he should be more impressed by, the fact that he could hear it, or the
fact that he could see that far in the dark.
"Ne, Ryouga, what'cha lookin' at?" Myaan asked, tugging at his sleeve.
"Huh?" Ryouga reflexively swiveled an ear towards the sound of Myaan's
voice. "Oh, noth-" He blinked in confusion, as the sounds of the
squirrel became much more indistinct, but still clearly audible.
Thinking about what his ear had just done, Ryouga returned it to its
original position. The sounds of the squirrel, now chewing on a nut,
leapt back into focus. *Hmmm... directional, like sight...* Turning his
attention back to Myaan, Ryouga faced forward, a small smirk on his
face. "Nothing. Nothing at all. It's just... I guess we're safer than I
thought we were..."
"Oh, that's good..." Myaan replied, a happily uncomprehending
expression on her face.
(~)
*Of course, I could still be wrong about that...*
"Ne, Ryouga, what'cha waitin' for?" Myaan's voice floated down from the
darkened canopy above. The thick branches obstructed his view enough
that he couldn't see her, but Ryouga found that he could still tell
where she was by the sound of her voice. "C'mon up!"
With a weary sigh, Ryouga grimaced and tilted his head back, peering up
at the patch of foliage where he had seen the cat-girl disappear.
"Alright, I'm coming up!" Dusting his hands off, the lost boy tested
his grip on the bark of the tree trunk in front of him. *When she said
that she had a place in the forest, was it asking too much to assume
that she meant a _house_...?* After a short while, he and Myaan had
come into a section of old growth forest, so many of the trees were too
wide across for Ryouga to get his arms around. The one he was facing
now was no exception.
Moments earlier, Ryouga had seen his traveling companion take off her
shoes and scamper up this same tree with cat-like ease; surprise,
surprise. But still, Ryouga didn't trust his climbing skills that much,
and he suspected that Myaan's alacrity wasn't due entirely to natural
talent alone. *Oh well, nothing for it, I guess.* Spying a likely
looking branch, one thick enough that it wouldn't break under his
weight, Ryouga lowered into a half crouch, his wings locked tight to
his back. Then, pushing off with his considerable strength, Ryouga
sprang straight up, shooting through the branches like a silver-
fletched arrow.
At the calculated terminus of his leap, nearly fifty feet above the
ground, the lost boy cleared a particularly thick branch. Spreading his
arms for balance, Ryouga's wings popped open reflexively, cleaving the
air and softening his approach. He touched down lightly on the branch,
only the soft sound of feathers rustling, as his wings closed, giving
away his presence. *Humph... that was nice.* Ryouga had been betting on
a heavy landing, and maybe a bit of mad scrambling for purchase as the
branch broke under the stress. This development was a pleasant
surprise, though looking around at the confined space within the
branches, he decided that he didn't want to try opening his wings again
until he was out in the open.
Silently treading along the branch, seeking out his guide, Ryouga found
her standing on a lower branch, around the left side of the tree,
looking down at the ground below. Grinning to himself, Ryouga crept
towards the tree trunk, leaning against it casually, being careful not
to make any sound that couldn't be mistaken for animal noises. Then,
after peering down at the cat-girl's back for a few moments, watching
her tail swish back and forth in anticipation, Ryouga cleared his
throat noisily. "Hey Myaan! Who are you looking for?"
"Eep!" Jumping in surprise, Myaan nearly fell off of her branch as she
spun around to face him. "Ryouga! How'd you get back there?" She cast
an astonished glance towards the silently grinning wanderer.
Thinking back to an anime he had seen once, Ryouga just winked at her,
holding up a single, admonishing finger. "Sore wa himitsu desu..."
"Ara? Wha'dya mean?" Cocking her head to the side, Myaan peered up at
him in confusion. "Why's it a secret?"
"Never mind..." Snickering to himself, Ryouga hopped lightly down to
Myaan's branch, this time being careful to keep his wings shut, lest he
knock her off. "So, where to now?"
"Oh, just over there." Pointing off towards the top of a particularly
large tree on their right, Myaan began to bound on all fours from
branch to branch, gaining a bit of height before crossing over to the
other tree and continuing up into the canopy.
Following her lead, Ryouga leapt off from the trunk of the tree,
sailing through the air towards the larger tree, before bouncing off of
that tree trunk back towards the original tree and repeating the
process, gaining height with each leap without having to worry about
looking for strong branches to land on. Finally, seeing Myaan standing
on a long, thick branch sticking out of the larger tree, Ryouga landed
beside her. The branch only shook slightly upon his arrival, attesting
to its strength. Looking up at Myaan from his crouch, Ryouga cast her a
questioning glance. "So, where is it?"
"Right there, see?" Grinning, Myaan pointed at the tree.
Following her gaze, Ryouga turned to regard the tree, expecting to see
a bed of leaves nestled in the branches, or maybe just a broad branch
with a comfortable curve to it. What he wasn't expecting was the little
red door that loomed out of the darkness before him. Blinking in
surprise, Ryouga looked again. The door was set into the wall of what
was possibly the strangest looking house that Ryouga had ever seen.
Hugging the side of the tree like some sort of bizarre fungus, the tree
house curved up and around the nearly two meter wide trunk of the tree
in steps, each segment supported by both buttresses and living
branches. The bulk of the house sat in the crown of the tree, with
branches protruding irregularly from the earthen-tiled roof and wooden
walls in such a manner that Ryouga couldn't decide whether it looked
like the tree had grown up through the house, or if the house had grown
up around the tree.
"Hehehe, neat, ne? C'mon inside!" Not waiting for Ryouga to reply,
Myaan skipped up to the door, opening it with a flourish and stepping
across the threshold.
Realizing that he was staring, Ryouga shook his head and stepped
forward, proceeding cautiously along the branch. *Weird... I wonder why
I didn't see it before...* Stepping inside, Ryouga reflexively began to
take off his shoes. Then, looking down and seeing that Myaan hadn't
left hers, he decided that it would be safer to leave them on, just in
case. Shutting the door behind him, Ryouga began to make his way up the
narrow, curving hallway, towards the main house. By the starlight
filtering through the many small, open-shuttered windows in the outer
wall, Ryouga could see that the wall on his right was the bare trunk of
the tree itself. The outer wall seemed to be about a hand's width
thick, meaning it probably had some sort of insulating material packed
between the wood slats.
Reaching the main room, Ryouga found Myaan standing to one side,
fiddling with a small lantern. Light flooded into the room as Myaan
finally got it lit, hanging the lantern from one of the branches
protruding from the crown of the tree, which dominated the center of
the room, with several large branches radiating out from the center.
The leaves and smaller branches had been meticulously pruned, but the
larger branches, some of them as thick around as Ryouga's waist, were
given free reign. It made it somewhat difficult to walk around the
room, without having to duck at least once. The room itself was round,
about five meters across, and rather sparsely furnished. A table was
built into the center of the room, on top of the tree trunk, at about
waist height, and small, straw-covered cot was built into the outer
wall. It sat opposite the stairway down, with a set of shelves and
cabinets mounted into the wall and a small cast-iron stove at the other
two opposing points of the compass. A small chest sat at the foot of
the cot, and there were four shuttered windows set into the walls; one
at either side of the cot, mirrored by a pair at the sides of the
stairway.
Plopping down on the cot, Myaan crossed her legs and leaned up against
the wall. "Well, what'cha think?" The cat-girl stared up at Ryouga
expectantly, smiling.
Not finding any chairs in evidence, Ryouga walked around the center of
the room and sat down on the floor beside the cot, leaning against the
tree trunk. "It's not quite what I was expecting, but it's nice."
Looking around at the single bed, and the few personal possessions,
Ryouga turned to peer curiously at Myaan. "Do... do you live here
alone?"
"Yup! I've lived here for the last two winters, since I left home. I've
never had anybody living with me since I got here." She looked around
the room for a moment, a slightly regretful look on her face. "Still
seems sorta empty, I guess. But when the weather's nice, I like to
travel, so I'm not here much anyway. `S too bad I can't have a
fireplace up here tho; I like fireplaces, but I have'ta be really
careful when I burn anything up here. Stove's usually warm enough,
tho."
Looking over at the stove, Ryouga saw that it was sitting in a pit of
packed earth, probably to catch any falling ash, and to keep the wooden
floor from catching fire. If the walls were as well insulated as they
looked, the room could probably be quite cozy with a fire burning. All
things considered, it appeared as though someone had put a lot of
thought into this tree house, though why anyone would go would go to so
much effort to construct such an unconventional house, Ryouga had no
idea. "Hey Myaan, are houses like this common around here?" He asked,
turning to look at his host.
Myaan seemed to lose herself in thought for a few moments, before
answering. "Not really, I think. `S the first one that I had ever seen,
anyway."
"You didn't have it built for you?"
"Uh-uh." Myaan shook her head, "I just found it."
Ryouga gave Myaan a questioning look. "You found it?"
The cat-girl nodded. "Yeah. I had just gotten to this area and was
staying in town. One day, I was wandering around in the woods, and saw
it up in the trees, so I climbed up to take a look." Turning over,
Myaan rested her chin on the small, feather stuffed pillow that sat at
one end of the cot, wrapping her arms around it. "It was empty, and it
looked like nobody had been home for a while, so I went back to town
and asked if anybody knew about it. Most had never even heard about a
house up in the trees, and nobody could tell me who lived there, so the
next day I brought my stuff and moved in. I've been living here ever
since."
"Strange..." Scratching his head, Ryouga looked around again. "Nobody's
ever come looking for whoever lived her?"
"Nope."
"Hmm... That's sort of odd." Shrugging, Ryouga put his hands behind his
head and leaned back, using his wings as an impromptu cushion.
"Not really." Myaan smirked, sitting up again. "You find all kinds of
neat stuff in the forest."
Ryouga favored her with a funny look. "Neat stuff? Like what?"
Peering at Ryouga playfully, Myaan seemed to consider her answer for a
moment before replying. "Well... I found these shoes in the forest."
She replied, holding up the gray sneakers that she had been wearing.
"They've got this weird gummy stuff on the bottoms, and they feel
better than the kind you get from a cobbler."
Narrowing his eyes, Ryouga examined the shoes. Though badly worn, they
seemed to have once been a rather nice pair of name-brand sneakers;
somebody would probably have paid a lot for a pair of shoes like that,
on earth. "Humph... you found these in the forest, huh?"
"Yup! Where'dja find yours? Don't see clothes like that much, either."
Myaan pointed out, indicating Ryouga's attire.
Self consciously, Ryouga looked down at his clothes, as if noticing
them for the first time. Strangely, they didn't appear to be the same
clothes that he had... left earth in. When he had been fighting Ranma,
Ryouga had been wearing a yellow cutoff T-shirt, a pair of his regular
cotton, drawstring travel pants, with bindings up the shins, and his
leather-soled slippers. Now, he appeared to be wearing a pair of drab
khaki pants, possibly army surplus, with a black T-shirt and a pair of
high-topped, black leather combat boots. Only the bandanna was the
same. The outfit wasn't unfamiliar; Ryouga could remember having worn
something like this, once, but the memory was hazy, and he hadn't owned
a pair of boots since... *Since I was traveling in China, searching for
Ranma...*
The thread of memory snapped taut, leading him back to the very moment.
He had been weeks wandering in the deepest expanses of China, searching
for a man who had fled from a duel of honor. Carrying a heavy hiking
backpack, he wore the clothing of a Chinese soldier; clothing that he
had bought right off of the soldier's back. Village people tended not
to question the actions of the military, at least not in front of them,
so the clothing allowed him to cross regional borders relatively
unmolested, blending in as just another young man returning home on
leave. He had a good command of the language, which helped, and the
intensity of his manner tended to put off any unwanted questions
regarding his comings and goings.
The day had been hot, and he was climbing into the mountains, so he had
taken off the jacket, stuffing it in his pack with the rest of his
clothes. Finally, he had broken out of the forest; standing on a rocky
outcropping, overlooking a wide valley filled with shining, inviting
pools of cool spring water, he tried to regain his bearings. Suddenly,
he heard a sound behind him. Spinning, he leapt just in time to avoid
the panda that was charging at his back. In his haste, however, he had
failed to notice the red-haired girl chasing after the animal.
Springing from the ground, the girl's knee collided with the side of
his head in passing; not hard enough to cause injury, but enough to
knock him off the edge of the cliff, sending him plummeting down into
the valley below. Down into the crystalline blue depths of a cool
mountain spring, hidden deep within the mountains of China, in the
valley of the Pools of Sorrow...
(~)
"Ne, Ryouga? Ryouugaaa..."
"Huh?" Blinking, the lost boy came back to the present. He turned to
Myaan, a slightly panicked look in his eyes.
"What'cha thinking of?" The cat girl peered at him intently. "Maybe
you've got a story `bout how you got those clothes?"
"Uh...," Staring down at himself again, then back at Myaan, Ryouga
tried to think of an answer. "Well, um, I'm not really sure how I got
these clothes. Eheh..."
"Oh, okay!" Grinning, Myaan leaned back again, resting her hands on her
knees.
Sitting up straighter, Ryouga took another glance around the room,
before crossing his arms and bowing his head. *Hmm... it's possible, if
I really did die... And if I didn't, well, foxes are _supposed_ to be
able to change form. Maybe...* After a few more moments of
contemplation, Ryouga reached a decision. Nodding to himself, Ryouga
stood up and looked down at Myaan. "Myaan, do you have any water in
here?"
Looking up at Ryouga, an expression of curiosity formed on Myaan's
face. "Yeah, there's a barrel outside." She replied, waving over
towards the window at the foot of her bed. "Why?"
Walking over to the window, Ryouga threw open the shutters and looked
down. There, sitting in a small, box-like platform mounted on the side
of the house, was a medium-sized wooden barrel. A thick rope harness
was tied around it, with three leads joined to a coil of rope that hung
from a peg mounted in the wall on the right. A heavy looking wooden
cover sat atop the barrel, hinged in the middle so that one edge could
be lifted. Ryouga lifted the lid and peered inside, noting the glint of
clear water about halfway down.
At tap on his shoulder caused the lost boy to turn to his right, where
Myaan was standing, offering him a small wooden pitcher. "Here, use
this!" Myaan urged, smiling obligingly.
"Thanks." Accepting the pitcher, Ryouga leaned down and dipped it into
the water. When it was about half full, he pulled it out and closed the
lid, backing up and setting it on the floor beside him before closing
the shutters again. Picking up the pitcher again, Ryouga moved over to
stand by the stove, Myaan following him along, a questioning look on
her face.
Turning to face her, Ryouga glanced down at the water in the pitcher,
gathering his nerve. "Um... Myaan, I'm going to do something, but first
I need to ask you a favor."
"Sure!" Nodding happily, Myaan regarded Ryouga from her perch on the
edge of the table. "Wha'dya need?"
"Okay," nodding, Ryouga indicated the pitcher. "I'm going to pour some
of this on myself, and I might need you to do something for me after
that." Looking into Myaan's eyes to make sure that she understood,
Ryouga took a deep breath and continued. "If- if I should... change,
then I'm going to need you to heat up some water with your stove, and
then pour it on me. Could you do that for me?"
"Yeah, I guess." Scratching her head, Myaan peered back at Ryouga in
confusion. "But why would'ja need me to do that? Couldn't you just do
it yourself? And wha'dya mean 'if' you change? I mean, shouldn't you
know if you're gonna change-" Myaan's eyes suddenly widened, as if she
had just experienced some sort of revelation. "Unless you aren't good
at changing yet! If you were a human before, then you wouldn't know
much about changing yet, ne?" Smiling to herself, Myaan nodded once,
but then the look of confusion returned. "Ara, but what's the water
for, then?"
"Uhh... that's a long story." Ryouga replied uncertainly.
"Okay!" Grinning brightly, Myaan hopped to her feet and raised one
finger. "I'll do it if you'll tell me the story afterward, `kay?"
"... Alright, I'll tell you that story later. I'll probably need to
explain anyway...." sighing, Ryouga nodded to Myaan, before turning his
gaze back to the pitcher in his hand. Swallowing uncomfortably, Ryouga
raised the pitcher to head level. *Well, here goes nothing...* Tipping
the pitcher, Ryouga felt a cool cascade of wetness flow across his brow
and down his cheeks. For several moments he simply stood there, waiting
for the familiar pins and needles sensation of the magic to sweep
across him, to steal what remained of his humanity. Water seeped though
his shirt, trickling down his chest.
Setting down the pitcher on the cold stove, Ryouga ran his fingers
through his hair, smoothing back his damp bangs. Drawing his hand back
down, Ryouga watched in uncomprehending wonder as the lamplight
flickered and flashed in the sheen of moisture on his skin. Grabbing
the pitcher again, Ryouga dumped its remaining contents over his head,
feeling the water splash across his shoulders, flowing down the middle
of his back. His eyes widened as he held the empty pitcher before him,
his jaw hanging slack in surprise.
"YEEEAAHH!!" Throwing his head back, Ryouga shouted victoriously,
raising the empty pitcher above his head. "NOT A PIG! NOT A PIG!
WHAHAHAHAHA!"
"KYAA!"
Blinking, Ryouga stopped laughing and looked to his right. There,
pinned to the wall by one of his outstretched wings, was Myaan. "Oops!
Sorry!" Blushing sheepishly, Ryouga refolded his wings and bent over to
help host her back to her feet. *Not a pig, but not human either...* he
mused with a sigh.
"Aah, `s okay," Myaan replied as she grasped Ryouga's arm, rubbing her
nose with her other hand. Letting the lost boy pull her to her feet,
Myaan took the pitcher from Ryouga's hands, bringing it back to the
shelf where she got it. "Was just surprised, `s all." Still grinning,
the cat girl sat back down on the table.
"Oh... well, still, I shouldn't have done that." Looking rather
abashed, Ryouga scratched the back of his head. "I'll try to be more
careful from now on." He assured her, again making sure that his wings
were firmly secured.
"`Kay. Now why'dja do that thing with the water, an why were you so
happy when nothing happened?" Leaning forward, Myaan looked at him
expectantly.
"Uh... well," Ryouga thought of how to explain his actions without
embarrassing himself. Then he realized that, since he apparently wasn't
cursed anymore, he really didn't have anything to be embarrassed about.
"Okay, well, a while ago, I was traveling through China, when-"
"Where's that?" Myaan interrupted.
"Huh? Well, China is..." Ryouga trailed off, wondering how he could
explain relative geography to someone who had never even been on earth
before. Not that he really put much stock in geography anyway, since
the maps that he always tried to use never seemed to get him where he
wanted to go. "It's sort of... well, it's big... and kind of in the
west, somewhere, usually..."
"Show me!"
"Huh?" Ryouga glanced back at Myaan, his face twisted in confusion. "Do
you have a map or something?"
"Nah, silly!" Hopping to her feet, Myaan wovee her way around the room
bac towards the window with the water barrel. "Just follow me!" So
saying, she opened the shutters again and leapt out the window,
bounding off of the water barrel into the branches above.
*What the hell...?* Planting a hand on the table, Ryouga flipped
through the center of the room, landing near the window. Then, being
careful to make sure that his wings fit, he ducked through the window
and stood atop the water barrel, looking up through the branches for
Myaan. Not seeing her, he hopped up to one of the branches that was
protruding from the roof, absently noting that on the leaves and
smaller branches were still whole and quite healthy on the outside of
the house. Scanning the other branches from his perch, Ryouga found
Myaan standing in the center of the roof, looking up at the sky.
*Why'd she bring me up here?* Ryouga wondered, as he began to make his
way towards the cat-girl, stepping gingerly across the roof tiles.
Stopping beside her, Ryouga tapped Myaan on the shoulder. "Why'd we
come out here, Myaan?"
"`Cuz I wanted you to show me where China is." Myaan replied simply,
nodding towards the sky.
"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to..." Ryouga's protests died on his
lips as he turned to look in the direction that Myaan had indicated.
*... No way...* Closing his eyes for a few heartbeats, Ryouga looked
again, a bit more intensely this time. *There's no way that that can
be... this can't be real.* But even as Ryouga though this, he began to
make out the familiar shapes that he had seen so many times before.
"I guess those maps were right after all..." he mumbled to himself.
Painted in warm luminescence across the bluish night sky, looming large
before his unbelieving eyes, the earth floated before him, shining like
a beautiful, blue-green moon. And there, just now peeking around from
behind that mysterious celestial body, her ashen-faced sister satellite
began to make an appearance.
"So where is it?" Myaan pressed, pointing up at the great globe
floating across the sky.
"Where is what?" Ryouga mumbled, still rather stunned.
"China!"
"Oh." Staring up at the earth, Ryouga realized that, at the very least,
it looked like the right side of it was facing them. *I'm gonna have to
remember to ask her why the _hell_ we can see that.* He looked back at
Myaan, who was staring at him expectantly, curiosity gleaming in her
eyes. *Though something tells me that I'm not gonna like the answer,
even if she's got one...*
"Well, you see that really big chunk of green and brown that's sort of
in the center there?" Myaan nodded to him. "Now that's Asia. The blue
stuff that's all around it is the sea."
"So the sea's blue?" His companion wondered aloud.
"Yeah, it's blue." Thinking back to a previous conversation, Ryouga
suddenly got a confused look on his face. "Hasn't anyone ever told you
about this before? What, with _that_ up there and all?" He queried,
waving up at the earth.
Myaan shook her head. "Uh-uh. Cat spirits don't go to earth much, so
momma didn't tell me anything about it. `An most of the stories that
I've heard don't say much about the sea, really." Looking up again,
Myaan peered intently at the blue-green orb before them. "I knew it was
water `an all, but sometimes water is different colors, ne? I've seen
ponds where the water's clear, and swamps where it's brown or yellow.
But I've never seen a sea before..."
"Hmm..." Ryouga nodded to himself, regarding the earth once again.
"Well, the water's not really blue. It's just that it's so deep that
the light- it- well, it's complicated." Ryouga stopped, hoping to avoid
any more explanations along those lines. "But anyway, that big piece of
land in the middle is Asia. Now on the right side of Asia- sort of in
the lower corner there," He explained, waving his hands up at the globe
for emphasis, "That's China."
"So you're from China?" Myaan inquired curiously.
"No, I was just traveling through China."
"But I was always told that Bii`bi were 'Chinese' fox spirits. That
means they're from China, ne?" Myaan looked into Ryouga's eyes for
confirmation before continuing. "I never knew where China was before,
but I knew it was supposed to be different from the place where Kitsune
are from, some place called Japan."
"Hmm... well, I don't know much about that, but I'm originally from
Japan myself." Ryouga explained, looking contemplative.
"So why aren't you a Kitsune?" The cat-girl questioned, looking
confused.
Ryouga shrugged. "I dunno. Is there really that much difference?"
"I'm not sure. You're the first Bii`bi I've met." Myaan admitted.
"Where's Japan, anyway."
"Umm..." Squinting a bit, Ryouga examined the sea to the east of China.
"Okay, can you see that line of green and brown that's sort of floating
out in the sea beside China?" Myaan made a small affirmative sound, not
taking her eyes off of the sky. "That's Japan. It's a bunch of islands.
My home is sort of in the middle of the big one, I think."
"So why were you in China?"
"Well..." Ryouga peered closely at Myaan, wondering if he should
continue. Then, sighing to himself, he sat down on the roof of Myaan's
house. "Actually, if you want me to tell you the _whole_ story, we have
to start in Japan. This could take a while..." He explained, patting
the spot beside him.
When Myaan had gotten comfortable, Ryouga tuned his face up to the sky,
this time looking to the stars, "About... a winter and a summer ago, I
was living by myself at my home in Japan. Well, not really by myself; I
had a dog too. Back then I was going to school-"
"School, what's that?" Myaan interjected.
"It's a place where humans go to learn about the world, and about math,
and science, and stuff like that. The people there teach you all sorts
of things." Ryouga explained.
"Wow, that sounds like fun." Myaan replied cheerily. "I'll bet'cha hear
all kinds of neat stories there. Do alot of people go to school?"
"That depends on where you are," Ryouga elaborated, thinking back to
his travels, "but in Japan, everyone that's not an adult is supposed to
go to school. And as it happened, it was in this school that I met
another boy. His name was Ranma..."