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[Note]: This is only Part 5-A, which I consider extremely long--for ME,
anyway. ^^; I'm still working on Part 5-B, which, with my luck, will
ALSO be extremely long... -_-;
[Question]: Does ANYONE know what the things at the ends of piers/docks
are?
ASCII Example (SIDE): (DOCK) --> __________|| <-- (?)
ASCII Example #2 (FRONT): --> (?) ||_____|| <-- (DOCK, followed by ?)
Yeah, I know it sucks. :)
[Disclaimer]: "Silence and Motion" is a background theme from Final
Fantasy VIII, which belongs to SquareSoft. "Drifting" is ALSO a theme
from the game. I just thought they would work well if this 'fic was a
cartoon. ^_^;
~~~~~*~~~~~
[ insert really cool ASCII "OMOIDE GA IPPAI" artwork here ]
OMOIDE GA IPPAI - PART FIVE: Silence and Motion
Part 5-A: Drifting
The sun beat down upon a sparkling blue sea and attempted to
suffocate the crabs and fish in the cold water's depths. Clouds floated
lazily across an azure pool while a crisp, salty breeze whipped about
below them, eventually easing its way under grey-tipped wings to fling
seabirds ever higher in graceful spirals. It weaved swiftly between
buildings near a harbor, and then dived at a pier upon which were two
girls, each in her own distinctive form.
The redhead sat with her back against one of the posts and had
quite a bored expression on her small face. Her slender arms, folded
against her bosom, only reinforced this appearance.
The other girl seemed anxious, however, her legs and back stiff
with hands clasped before her. Chewing on her lower lip, she scanned
the empty horizon several times before turning to her companion with
somber eyes. The wind teased her hair, and when she ignored this, it
sidled freshly beneath the silk of her Chinese blouse.
"Ranko?"
Ranma kept her eyes shut and only sighed tiredly. "Like I said,
Akane, I don't know when Bushido-Butt'll get here. Just keep your eyes
open, okay?"
There was a pointed pause from Akane's part, but the girl finally
agreed. Slumping further in her spot, Ranma muttered to herself, "The
guy wouldn't miss a date with me for his life." Then, as an
afterthought: "Oh, he'd better get us a ship, or I'll ground his balls
into the dust, wearing stiletto heels."
The minutes dragged slowly by in the smothering atmosphere, but at
last, a rustling of clothing muffled the foaming waves. Curious, Ranma
opened an eye.
Akane had also sat, leaning against the other tier with her face
turned toward the light. At least, the Mandarin collar partly shielded
her beautiful white neck from the harsh sun. The skin there looked
soft. The scent... Could it possibly smell--or taste--as sweet as
Ranma imagined? The girl did currently owe her.
Uncomfortable with the direction her thoughts were taking,
especially as it seemed she'd never be a whole man, Ranma pulled her
legs up beneath her and looked out to sea, which was really the only
reason she noticed the ship. She leapt up, gaping as the dot slowly
continued to grow upon the water. Beside her, Akane quietly got to her
feet. Ranma was tapped from behind, however, and she turned to find a
great bear of a man looming over her in a security uniform.
He regarded her with the most intent of expressions, and then
looked down at a piece of paper to compare faces. Chortling, the wind
quickly snatched the printed pictures from his meaty hands, dangled it
before him, and tossed it into the water. When the man did not react as
expected and only shrugged to himself, the wind softly shuddered and
slipped away.
He asked for names, which Ranma simply fabricated and gave in
Mandarin. He asked for origins; Jane Bob and Mary Pen came from the
United States, and bright-haired Mary even proved it to him, saying to
him in English what sounded like, "I am a Pen." Satisfied, he
graciously apologized to the two ladies. He had mistaken them for a
kidnapper and her hospitalized victim, but apparently, he was very
wrong, and so, he was quite sorry, and left them to shuffle back toward
the buildings.
Ranma gave a relieved sigh as the man's stocky form disappeared
into a doorway, and, ignoring Akane's confusion, watched the wooden
craft near.
It was a Chinese junk, its crimson sails in sad condition and its
masts weakened probably by ages of grim weather. Its owner looked even
worse, somehow, his face haggard after days without a mirror and bath.
Ranma winced at the thought of having to date this young man--and then
she winced again at the sight of one, two, three unhappy girls eyeing
her from the deck.
"Dammit," Ranma grumbled as the brown-haired girl tossed the end
of a rope ladder over the side, "I thought I told 'im to make sure they
didn't come! Stupid Kunou..." She glanced back down at Akane, and then
climbed over onto the deck with a nervous greeting and grin for her best
friend.
"Long time, no see, sugar," Ukyou replied and stepped back to let
Akane aboard, her dark blue eyes flashing in her displeasure. Ranma
only turned away and began hauling the ladder up, trying in vain to
block out the sudden verbal assault made by the two other girls.
"Airen, why you take Akane and not Shampoo?"
"You wicked little harlots! Where is he? What have you done to
my beloved Ranma-sama?"
The Saotome girl glanced up at Akane, who seemed a bit bewildered
at both the outbursts and at the fact that there was a spiked club being
thrust at her face. Muttering an oath beneath her breath, she caught
the girl in her arms and leapt to the poop deck in one swift motion.
The leotard-clad young woman below only gave the two of them a
venomous glare before she threw the ladder back over the rail and made
her descent, while Ukyou and Shampoo were whipping out their weapons.
The owner of the ship appeared at last and valiantly tried to protect
his war goddesses from harm.
A slipper and a spatula later, Kunou was floating face-down in the
water in perfect imitation of a drowned rat.
"What're they trying to do?" Akane asked worriedly, turning to eye
the heavy stone bonbori in the hands of the girl with lavender hair.
Relentlessly, the two girls approached. Ukyou was already climbing the
deck ladder, the over-sized kitchen utensil strapped to her back
gleaming.
Dropping a complaining Akane to the floor, Ranma appealed
nervously to her best friend: "C-C'mon, U-chan, you... you don't wanna
do this, do you? Shampoo?"
Ukyou paused, perhaps waiting for the Chinese girl. After a short
while of contemplation, she said curtly, "Yes, I do," and brought the
flat of her giant spatula down on Ranma's head--which was painful enough
by itself, but Shampoo had to attempt and succeed at least fracturing
her bonbori, as well.
~~~~~*~~~~~
"Good morning."
Ranma opened his eyes, and there was a strange face smiling
tenderly down at him. He stared blankly up at it, for he could not
comprehend why it was there, and so said nothing in response to its
greeting. After a moment, its lips formed a pout, and the face
retreated to its side of the bed.
Slowly, he turned his head to find the source of the gentle light.
It streamed in on all sides from between stone pillars... and there were
large potted tropical plants further out. The air was cool and still,
and he could hear water dripping from the leaves.
At last, it occurred to him that it was cool because he had no
clothing on. "All right," Ranma groaned, disgusted. He pushed himself
up, wincing, and gingerly put his hand to the back of his neck.
Gruffly, he asked of the female body beside him, "So what number
fiancee..."
It was Akane laying beside him.
And then he could not remember what it was he had been asking of
her. His mind was suddenly empty, blank--and then just as suddenly,
half a million jumbled thoughts and unfamiliar memories were thrust back
into his head.
W-Wedding night?
When did I...?
Ukyou... Akane--Saira--pregnant...?
Saira sat up in bed, clutching the clean, white sheets modestly to
her chest, and peered into his face with a little concern. "Mastrael,
are you feeling all right?" She put a hand gently to his forehead, and
the sheet slipped, partially revealing her. His eyes followed the
movement, jolted back up, and reluctantly slid downwards again as he
silently wondered why, as her husband, he could not see her body.
"I'm fine," he murmured absent-mindedly as he eased the covers
from her hand. His eyes traced the outline of her slender body, from
the top of her head to her fine little toes. Obviously, no, she was not
pregnant--
And then the disruption of thought, again, as she leaned back on
her elbow with an amused smile playing on her lips.
--or that was how it seemed, but hadn't they just confirmed her
pregnancy a few weeks ago? He laid his hand lightly over her belly.
Warmth on his palm. Perhaps only imaginary, but there was... a slight
stirring beneath his fingertips... or so he thought before she laughed
his name, "Mastrael!" and pulled him down for a kiss.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Ranma woke from her dream and found a concerned face hovering
above her. "Are you all right, Ranko?" the girl asked, and then Ranma
blinked and roughly pushed herself up and away from Akane's lap.
"I'm fine!" Ranma got to her feet and looked out at the water,
crests of waves daubed with the warm orange and pink of sunset, and
craned her head around to find the darker horizon empty of land, too.
"Ranko, tell me why Ukyou-san and Shampoo-san did that to you,"
Akane said quietly after a moment. Ranma became nervous at the sobriety
of her gaze, but shrugged it off in what she hoped was a nonchalant
manner, and returned her eyes to the setting sun.
"My friends're some pretty violent chicks."
"But... completely unprovoked? How can you possibly call them
your friends?"
She gave a cynical smirk. "Easy. You make an O shape with your
mouth, then say, 'tomo,' and then the last bit sounds a little like
'plural' 'cept with a D--'dachi.' Kinda like the name of the girl who
tried to spike your face."
Akane had been smiling at that, but at the mention of Kodachi, her
expression suddenly hardened, and she glared across the deck. Ranma
followed her gaze and saw Kodachi tied, and struggling, to the main
mast--with a suitable section of ribbon over her mouth, as well. On the
other side of the mast was a damp Kunou, also bound, but slumped on the
floor with a wooden bucket over his head and a cracked mop in his hand.
"You... you did that, Akane?"
Either she didn't hear her or she ignored the incredulous
question. "What's her problem, anyway? I didn't even get a chance to
greet her, and she tries to kill me with Porcupine-on-a-Stick!" Akane
spat in disgust and sat back with her arms folded against her chest.
A moment passed, in which Ranma continued to stare at her fiancee,
until finally, more than a hint of uncertainty in her voice, Akane
looked up at her and whispered, "What did I do to her?"
"You were my fiancee first," Ranma whispered in reply. Akane's
eyes widened at this. "Uh," Ranma stammered, "that is, you were Ranma's
fiancee first, and uh, Kodachi's got... this thing... for Ranma, you
see, so she's a little jealous of you for being engaged to such an ass-
kickin' guy, that's all."
Akane was silent for what seemed like an eternity, looking down at
her tightly clasped hands. When at last she spoke, she stood up and
mumbled, still with eyes averted, "Um, I need to go to the-the
restroom--or whatever. Excuse me," and hurried away in search of the
entrance to the lower deck.
Ranma wrung her hands as she watched her fiancee's stiff form
disappear down into the depths of the junk. Eventually, it dawned on
her that the other girl was not coming back up, and, alone in the fading
light with only two incoherently muttering nuts, she wondered aloud,
where were the other two incoherently shrieking nuts? How had Akane
beaten them into allowing her to watch over Ranma?
At that point, Ranma got a certain feeling and glanced up.
Oh, Akane just had to use the Mallet, huh.
She saw two female faces, both unconscious, before Ukyou and
Shampoo fell out of the stratosphere and onto her.
~~~~~*~~~~~
Akane squeezed the pillow almost to death in her arms. It was
hugged tightly to her chest like some sort of shield against her
femininity--and if Ranko came down in search of her, it'd be better than
a cannonball by the time she was through compacting it.
A shiver ran from her shoulders to the very tips of her fingers,
and she buried her face in the pillow to give a shuddery breath. The
red-headed girl's words kept running through her mind, accompanied by
her clear blue eyes:
'You were my fiancee first.'
What had she been like prior to her amnesia? Akane wondered,
staring blankly at the old wooden floor. Was it possible... the cause
of the amnesia had changed her sexual preferences from... whatever they
had been to what they were now? Which seemed, a week ago, in Ranko's
brother's arms, to be strictly heterosexual, now...
She lay back on the lumpy mattress, ran her eyes warily over the
beams of the top bunk, felt suddenly frightened that the aging wood
would release its weight, and moved to the bed across the tiny room.
Two seconds later, she jumped up again to pace around the room--still
with the pillow in her arms.
She was wearing Ranma's shirt, and it carried faintly what she
thought could be his scent, along with the smell of the sea. She had
had his arms around her and had slumbered beside him in the grass, with
the night breeze caressing her cheek, and his heart pulsing in her ear.
However, when she had woken, he had been gone, and she had found Ranko
putting out the fire with a kettle of steamless water. As the redheaded
girl had said, Ranma would be waiting for them in Japan.
He was wonderful! Perfect in every way she knew (so far). He was
strong, handsome, and she liked to think he was also sweet. After all,
not every young man could spend a night with a girl and not at least try
to get farther than a quick grope, right? He hadn't even tried to kiss
her... which was a little disappointing, Akane thought, pausing in her
step at a loud thud from above.
She glanced upwards at the smoke-stained ceiling of the cabin and
tore up to the deck... to find Ranko sleeping beneath her two "friends."
Disgusted, Akane stalked back downstairs to lock herself into a small
room where the lesbians couldn't talk to her. After what seemed like
half a night of weary thoughts, she fell into a dreamless slumber on the
wooden floor.
A tentative knock and a muffled murmur of her name in Ranko's
voice woke the girl. Still groggy, Akane staggered to her feet and
mumbled something incoherent. Her hand was curled round the cool handle
before she recalled yesterday's unpleasant discovery, and she withdrew
her hand to her side.
"Akane!" Pounding on the door, door handle shaking in decrepit
wood, an exasperated pause... Pounding again. "Akane, c'mon, let me
in, or at least tell me what I did!"
Then more shouting, but with the addition of different voices--
outraged, squeaky and high-pitched, and last, but perhaps loudest,
presumably the captain's. There were several utterances of the odd
"Oof!" and "Ack!", and Akane listened almost with interest as it sounded
as if they had all gone tumbling.
"Tendou Akane, belov--agh!"
"Shaddup, Kunou."
~~~~~*~~~~~
The hours dragged on and left Ranma slumped against the wall
across Akane's door. The tediousness of it would never end. Ukyou had
told her it had taken them about a week to reach China from Japan, and
it would take that long to get back to the mainland where Ranma could
heat up some water, become male Ranma, and finally coax Akane out of her
little hiding place.
For some reason, Akane didn't seem to like Ranko very much, which
was a curious thing, considering Ranma'd tried her best to behave. And
now she smelled like raw fish, which just happened to be all there was
to eat in the middle of the Yellow Sea, where the sharks had never heard
of okonomiyaki--where Akane wouldn't open her goddamned door even to
accept her sushi-without-everything-BUT-fish!
Ranma eyed the door, again, and rolled the idea around in her head
a bit more. It was a flimsy piece of wood. Huh, Kunou probably hadn't
spent much money on the heap of firewood called a ship. It wouldn't
take much for it to shatter, and then she would tear inside and cram the
food down the dumb girl's throat.
She sat there, immobile, for a moment, and then shook her head
with a dry smile. "I've been pretty violent lately, huh, Akane?" she
murmured fondly to the door across the hall. She expected no answer
from her fiancee, and received none--not so much as even a sound of
movement.
Ukyou's voice floated down to her, somewhat hopefully. Earlier,
her pleadings to move onto the upper deck had been turned down, and
after three hours of sitting there beside Ranma in silence, she had
sighed softly and wandered up to the deck. "Did you say something, Ran-
chan?"
"No, nothing," Ranma called up quickly.
"Oh." The brunette sounded disappointed. "Okay." There was the
sound of a sheet of steel meeting a face, and then a body probably
crumpled to the deck. "No, she wasn't talking to you, you jackass."
When things quieted above her, Ranma stared blankly at the door,
her hands folded in her lap.
It was true. She had become increasingly violent, even if only in
her thoughts. Quicker to raise a hand, to even think of harming Akane,
an act which would have been harshly punished before Ryouga had knocked
her down.
Before Jusenkyou's waters had seeped into the ground, imparting a
valley of dry springs to her. Of course, Ryouga popped out of nowhere,
probably having gotten lost back at the Tendou dojo, and just
automatically assumed it was her fault, and then started that damned
fight which had caused Akane's amnesia.
A surge of quiet fury flew through Ranma's chest as she wandered
to the upper deck with the dish and past the still-bound and struggling
Kodachi towards her best friend, if just for the sake of companionship.
Before she could reach her, however, the purple-haired Amazon had caught
her up in her arms with a happy squeal.
"Oh, Airen, you do love Shampoo!" the girl squeaked, squeezing
Ranma even more tightly.
Since when? Ranma stiffened and said quietly, "Let go of me,
Shampoo." Her tone was unbearably cold, for once, and so the Amazon did
release her capture--if only for that day--to watch with accusing eyes
as Ranma headed straight to her other serious rival.
Ranma paused and looked on with a smirk while Ukyou flung several
of her small spatulas at the wall, to which Kunou was already pinned.
The first and fourth of the airborne spatulas pinned the undersides of
his sleeves to the wood beneath, while the second and third fell on
either side of his neck. At the sight of the redhead, Kunou started a
muffled gibbering, which did him no good, as it appeared a section of
Kodachi's gymnastics ribbon was strapped over his mouth.
Ukyou, seeing his struggling, looked over her shoulder, and she
beamed. "Glad to see you, Ran-chan. Akane eat anything?" With a quick
glance at the dish before she stepped toward the quaking Kunou, she
murmured, "I guess not, huh?"
She grunted and ripped out one of the spatulas that he was hanging
from. "Geez, what's eating her, Ran-chan? As far as I know, Shampoo
and I didn't do anything to her, and Kunou didn't actually get to grope
her like he usually does..." Ukyou turned with a bemused smile and
three of her spatulas held casually in one hand. "So what'd you do?"
she asked.
Telling Ukyou about her great one-liner last night would not do,
of that Ranma was very sure. However, there was nothing else Ranma felt
she had done. "I don't know," she lied, "but listen, U-chan, that's not
what I came up here for." She looked down at the deck, and then up into
her best friend's eyes. "I want you to tell me: Do I seem any
different since I left?" Do you think I snapped?
At Ukyou's confused expression, Ranma pulled out the spatula near
Kunou's neck and mumbled, "There isn't a cure."
Ukyou was silent, still removing her weapons from the wood.
"When me and Akane got there, there wasn't one drop of water left
in any of the springs. You know, I thought I smelled blood, and the
guide wasn't there, or his daughter, either." Blood, yes, and a few
tatters of shredded clothing strewn in the tall grass.
Her best friend paused to stare at her as she said, "I think I saw
the guide in the hospital where Akane was staying..." Lying still and
pale as the sheets beneath her dark hair, with an oxygen mask strapped
over her mouth. Ranma turned away from Ukyou's inquiring eyes. "A-
after Ryouga hit her."
While Kunou began to struggle and screech a muffled vow of revenge
against the fanged boy, Ukyou appeared stunned and gazed down at her
hands. "He hit her hard enough to make her lose her memory?" she
whispered. "It was some sort of accident, right? I thought he loved
her. I mean, if Ryouga hit Akane, would you..."
The hairs at the back of Ranma's neck bristled. "I wou--"
She already had, and by the look on the other girl's face, Ukyou
knew. She just looked like she didn't believe it, though. Pity for
her.
Ranma dropped Ukyou's spatulas with a depressed clatter. "Wake me
when we get back to Nerima," she said softly as she wandered back below
decks.
~~~~~*~~~~~
-- pinku_chan@hotmail.com
-- http://members.nbci.com/nibunyuri/