A Broken Casket
Chapter 1
"Look! A hole! A hole in the matrix!" Ranma-chan exclaimed
loudly. "At last, I'm free!!!" And she ran towards the hole, and
started pulling out the rocks as hard as she could.
Even after an hour of digging with absoultely no avail,
Ranma-chan still didn't give up. The hole wasn't getting any larger,
but her fingernails were ripped clean from her fingers and blood
continued to ooze out of control from her fingers and fingernails.
After what seemed like an eternity of continuous digging,
she gave up and sat back down, staring at the hole. Suddenly,
without any warning, a rock materialized and filled up the hole.
"NNNNNOOOOO!!!!" Ranma-chan cried, and started punching
furiously at the rock. It didn't move an inch. When Ranma-chan
tried to look for any cracks between them, she saw that the rock
looked exactly the same as the other ones, as if it were put there
years ago, on that fateful day. She kept on punching and punching,
until her whole hand was bleeding and she couldn't lift up her arms
anymore.
She sat down on the ground, curled up into the ball and cried.
Once again, she thought. The exit ran away once again. Why?
Ranma-chan just sat there, staring at the rocks that were
her only company for the past decade and a half. She didn't know
how long she sat there for, time no longer mattered to him. Day or
night didn't matter to him. She slept when she was tired, and
praticed the Art when she was awake. Sometimes she talked to other
friends, usually Sakurako, but she could never figure out how they
could disappear just like that. The chains around her arms and
legs had long been torn away by Ranma-chan, but still couldn't move
the rocks. Sometimes, she question himself about the reason for
continuing in the Art. As the days went on, the possibilty of
never leaving her stone prison became more and more prevalent in
her mind. Still, she held onto the hope that she would get out.
And once she did, the Art would be the way to her vengence.
One day, while practicing the Art, she was suddenly blinded by a
light. she turned away and closed her eyes, not being able stand
seeing the blindingly bright light. Then she heard a man's voice: "Oh
my God! You alright mister?"
"What?" Ranma-chan croaked. Could it be? Could it finally be?
Someone's here for him?
"You all right?" the man repeated.
"Who are you?" Ranma-chan asked.
"I'm a member of the Japanese Association for Terrforming
Deserts. This island is the next target for our project. I was
passing by this cave and became curious as to why there's a large wall
in here, and that there's a hole in the wall, and started pulling out
the rocks. They were too heavy, so I called the rest of my team over
and used the crane. They're standing behind me right now."
"Do you..." Ranma-chan asked, hope against hope, that she
would finally be able to leave. she was starting to be able to
see now. "Have a way off this island?"
"Of course we do!" The man answered.
"YES!!!! Thank you! Thank you!" Ranma-chan exclaimed, and
ran to hug the man, hard. She heard the man moan, heard something
crack in a series of cracking sound, and felt the man go limp. She
let go of the man, and the man fell to the ground in a heap. The
other men wore expressions of pure fear, and turned around and ran.
"Hold up!" Ranma-chan started to chase after them, but she
only ran a few steps before her legs gave up in a fit of cramps.
She could do nothing but sit there and watch the men leave. After
her legs were well again, she stood up and started making her way
out of the cave. Once again, she had to turn away once she neared
the exit. Her eyes just weren't prepared for the full assault of
sunlight after living in almost complete darkness for years. So
she stood there, squinting against the sunlight to see what's out
there, hoping that all this just won't disappear like her friends
do.
Ranma-chan just sat there, thinking about all this. Could
it be true? she thought. Am I finally free? Free, after all these
years, a lifetime of despair, could it be true?
Ranma-chan started making her way out along the path in the
jungle. It all came back to him now: the way to the beach, the
betrayal, the wasted years, everything. The betrayal was what
hurt him most. she had trusted Ryoga, but Ryoga had been the one
to put him in that cell for so many years.
The further she went, the more she was convinced that this
was real, and wouldn't just disappear. After that revelation,
she started sprinting towards the beach, ignoring the pricking
thorns and her now bleeding body.
Finally, she arrived at the beach, then collapsed again
in another cramping fit. But that didn't affect Ranma-chan's
mood. The water was crystal clear, and the sky was blue, more
blue, more beautiful than she had ever seen in her entire life.
"Freedom is mine!" Ranma-chan cried out. "The earth is still!
I feel the wind, I breath again, and the sky clears! The
world is waking! Drink from the pool, how clean it taste."
Then her voice turned bitter. "Never forget, the
years, the waste. Nor forgive them, for what they've done!
They are the guilty, everyone!"
She couldn't hold her anger for long though, the
happiness of finally being free was too much. "The day begins
and now lets see, what this new world will do for me!"
After almost drowning from having a cramp while
swimming, she made it back to Nerima. The place was foreign
to him now, it was completely different from what she had
known. The domestic feel of the neighborhood was gone,
replaced by an atmosphere that, complete with skyscrapers,
made the ward feel like the commercial part of Tokyo. So
there she was, walking around the now-unfamiliar ward of
Nerima, soaked to the bones, clothes barely decent, and generally
feeling like a tourist. But that didn't matter to her. She was
free! Free to run around! Free to do whatever she wanted!
Suddenly, without warning, the sky turned black and
started raining heavily. Ranma-chan didn't care though. The
rain felt good! She couldn't believe that she once hated rain
because of her curse. She certainly love the rain right now!
"I'm singing in the rain," she started to sing. "I'm singing
in the rain, oh what a glorious feeling! I'm dancing, and
singing, in the rain!"
She was completely engrossed in her personal mini-
concert, so she didn't notice a woman running blindly in the
rain, headed straight towards her. They collided, and both
fell to the ground on their respective rears.
"What do you think you're-" Ranma-chan stopped in mid-
sentence.
"What do you think you're doing, you should have
watched the road! Not singing!" the woman yelled at her.
Ranma-chan could only stare at the woman.
"Answer me, damn it! And stop staring!"
Ranma-chan continued to stare. She couldn't help it.
She couldn't believe the coincidence. Here she was, in the
middle of Nerima in a downpour, and collided with the love of
her life, Akane Tendo. There was no doubt about it. Even
though the woman before her had long hair flowing down to her
shoulders and even though the woman was in her mid-thirties,
there was no mistakening it. That face had came up more times
than he'd care to mention in his banishment.
That attitude is clearly Akane too, Ranma-chan thought
as the woman kept yelling at her, then stormed off.
Almost in a trance, she got up and went into the
direction where Akane had took off. By now she had lost track
of Akane, so she stopped and looked around. Almost right in
front of her, there was a building that was distinctly
different from the rest, lower and older than the other
skyscapers around. He dared to look up, and the sign read
"Tendo-Hibiki Dojo".
Maybe that's not it, Ranma-chan tried to convince
herself. Maybe there are other Tendos and Hibikis in the
neighborhood.
Then she heard a sound from inside, so she quietly
jumped up to the wall, and observed what was happening.
She saw the woman she met on the street before, whom
she thought was Akane, kiss a man. The man had a huge build,
his muscles threatening to rip the shirt apart, and he was
wearing a tiger-striped badana on his forehead. When he
opened his mouth to talk, Ranma-chan could see the fangs in
his mouth.
Only one person fit that description. His nemesis,
his executioner, the traitor, Ryoga Hibiki.
Author's Notes:
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