Hey guys! This is a series that was originally written by a friend of
mine. She was kind enough to give me an outline of her story after I
offered to rewrite it for her. Expect future chapters to come out
slowly. Two Halves of the Whole is still my primary work but I intend
to work on this at the same time. Speaking of THOTW, chapters 7 and 8
are out to my prereaders now, so they should be out in a few weeks.
Well, any and all C&C will be greatly appreciated. Flames, on the other
hand, will be lauged at and promptly burned.
Ja mata,
Light Hawk
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is the property of Rumiko Takahashi. This fic is
written for pleasure only and not for profit.
This chapter can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/TDG.html
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It is believed by some that there exists a person who is your equal but
opposite. A Yin to your Yang, per se. For those who lead normal,
uneventful lives, the likelihood of those people having this 'equal but
opposite' is very high but the bond between the two is very weak. The
more unusual and eventful one's life becomes, the less likely you will
have that 'equal but opposite' but the bond will be much stronger to
those that do. Such is the case with young Ryuki Kansaki, a sixteen
year old girl who has led a very eventful and unusual life.
"Mom, why is it we have to walk though the middle of nowhere to get to
this place? Ain't there other training grounds closer to cities, towns,
or villages? Come on, a hut or something would be welcome," complained
a young girl of about sixteen. She was short and petite with long,
silky black hair pulled back into a simple ponytail. Her piercing green
eyes glared at an older woman.
"A young man told me about this place many years ago. Said he wanted
to take his son there when he was old enough. I read up a little about
it and ever since I've always wanted to take you. Anyway, I think
you're ready now. Besides what could possibly go wrong?" The woman was
half a head taller than her daughter with short blue/black hair with her
bangs held back with a headband. Her gi was old and threadbare but it
was well mended and clean.
Ryuki was wearing a brand new green kung fu suit that they had bought a
few weeks before. "What could go wrong, she says," the girl muttered
out loud. "Why is it every time she says that something does go wrong.
Is it just me or what?"
"Nonsense girl, what about that time in Kansai?"
"You mean the time when you were showing off on that log and fell and
broke your leg. Is that the time you mean?"
"Uh, what about up in northern Hokkaido?"
"Yes, you tried to kick me and ended up causing an avalanche when you
hit the mountain instead. I remember it took a whole day to dig out of
that one."
Her mother began to sweat a little. "Umm, Okinawa?"
Ryuki gave her mother a sharp look. "Don't even go there. I still
have nightmares over that!"
"Ok, I see your point. But that was then and this is now. We're
smarter now and we won't make such mistakes. It's just a simple
training exercise after all."
"Whatever you say, Mom. Whatever you say." Ryuki sighed as she
followed her mother along the overgrown trail.
After three days of hard walking, with sporadic training thrown in, the
two found what they were searching for. The training ground was in a
large valley with many pools of various sizes with a lot of bamboo poles
sticking out of the ground.
"Jusenkyo," Ryuki's mother breathed. "What a perfect place for a
training ground! We could train here for days!" Her excitement was
palpable and even Ryuki was not immune to it.
"It is beautiful and peaceful here and it doesn't seem as dangerous as
all those people said it is. Let's go, Mom!" They then started running
towards the cursed training ground but stopped suddenly when a short
bald man in a green Mao suit blocked their path.
"Welcome to training ground of cursed springs, Jusenkyo. If miss
customers come this way, I tell you tragic story."
"That's ok, old man," replied Ryuki's mother. "We can handle it from
here. Come girl, let's see how good you really are."
The two jumped over to the middle of the training ground but they did
not land on the poles. Instead, they landed on the soft earth between
the pools and the poles. The Jusenkyo guide had never seen such a thing
before. Everyone else used the poles, well that Mousse boy did not but
he was a special case. No one else fought between the poles before.
They were good at it, too. Jumping horizontally, they used quick hit
and run attacks as they dodged gracefully around the springs and bamboo
poles. It wasn't long, however, before Ryuki slipped a little and her
mother got hold of her. She threw her daughter as hard as she could
into one of the springs nearby, making a nice large splash.
The guide hurriedly ran over to that spring just as Ryuki broke the
surface, sputtering. "Oh too bad, you fall into Nannichuan, spring of
drowned boy. Very tragic story of young man you drowned in spring two
thousand year ago, now whoever fall in spring take body of young man."
Ryuki was now feeling her, now his, body, vainly searching for her
breasts. A quick feel and look down south, however, proved to her that
she had indeed taken on a man's body. Ryuki's mother, completely
shocked at what had become of her daughter, now son, fainted. She would
have fallen into a spring if the Jusenkyo guide had not been nearby to
catch her.
"You very lucky miss customer. You nearly fall in Spring of Drowned
Virus. Virus drown there I know not when and whoever fall in take body
of virus, never seen again." If the older woman was conscious she
probably would have fainted again.
Ryuki, however, was just sitting there in the spring. All she did was
mutter "I'm a man" over and over. It was obvious she was in shock. The
guide, stronger than he looked, picked up Ryuki while carrying her
mother and dragged her back to his hut. Around the time the three made
it back to the camp, Ryuki's mother came around.
"Oh God, I just had the worst nightmare. My daughter became my son,"
she said to the guide, who was heating a kettle.
"No is nightmare, miss customer. Daughter is cursed to be boy and is
over there," the man replied while pointing over to Ryuki, who was still
repeating her mantra.
"Ryuki! How dare you do this to your poor mother! What am I goin' to
do with you now, I have no need of a son! I want you back as a girl
this instant young lady!" The exclamation only had one positive effect,
it forced Ryuki back to her senses. It also had a major negative one,
it royally pissed the younger one off.
"You're saying THIS is MY fault, old lady! You were the one who threw
me in!" The two were now standing nose to nose, each one trying to
glare the other down. It was rather difficult because Ryuki now towered
over his mother.
"Who else would be at fault for bein' so careless. A real martial
artist would be able to avoid that pool."
"So, you're sayin' that you won't fall in if I throw you in a spring.
Let's test your theory!" Ryuki, using the strength of his boy form,
picked up his mother and walked over to a random spring. "Let's see you
avoid this one, mother!"
"Don't do it, miss customer! It only make things worse if you do
that. Curse no forever, I can make you girl again." The Jusenkyo guide
managed to calm Ryuki enough for her to let her struggling and desperate
mother go. She walked back to the hut muttering about kids these days
and lack of respect for their elders.
Ryuki turned to face the guide after her mother stalked off. "Ok, old
man. Tell me how I can be a girl again! If you lied to me, I will
throw you in a pool myself."
Sweating, the man stuttered through his routine. "I...I no lie to you,
m...miss c...customer. Hot water turn you back to g...girl but cold
water turn you back into boy a...again. That how curse work." Ryuki
let the guide go and ran into the hut where she had seen the guide heat
the kettle. Unfortunately the kettle had been left on the fire too long
and the water was now boiling. Ryuki did not know this and when she
dumped the contents on her head she did turn back into a girl. The
newly returned girl ,however, was now running in circles yelling "HOT!
HOT! HOT! HOT!"
Ryuki continued running around like a decapitated chicken until she
spotted a bucket in a corner and proceeded to douse herself with the
cold water, completely forgetting about the curse. She was now looking
at himself, cursing his stupidity. Fortunately, the guide foresaw this
and had a new kettle of warm water ready.
"Thanks, old man. Now let's find mom and get out of here." The two
did not have to search long because Ryuki's mother had returned with
their bags. She broke out into a huge grin upon seeing her daughter
back to normal.
"You're a girl again! See, I told you there was nothing to worry
about. It was only temporary." Seeing the young girl shake her head
confused her. "What's wrong?"
"The curse is permanent, mom. Cold water turns me into a guy and hot
water changes me back. Let's just get out of here, ok?"
"I can show you way, miss customers. For small fee I can take you to
nearest village."
"That's ok. I think you've done enough to us for one day. Ryuki and I
can find our way from here." Ryuki's mom simply waved him off and
walked off, leaving Ryuki and the guide behind. Ryuki gave the man a
shrug and ran off to catch up with her mother.
"I should tell them that way is Amazon village but they no listen. Why
no one listen to me? Oh well, time to fix Plum lunch."
The next two days were rough for Ryuki and her mother. A brief shower
shortly after the two left the guide quickly caused its damage and left,
almost as soon as it arrived. The shower itself was no problem for the
two martial artists, they had traveled through many of them. The
problem was a complete lack of firewood to start a fire. Thus, Ryuki
had to spend more time as a guy than he would have liked.
The two bickered constantly as they walked, only stopping when they
were asleep or at the end of a hard fight when they were breathless.
The arguments finally ended on the third day when they came upon the
outskirts of a small village. Two women dressed in strange armor walked
over to greet them.
"{Do you think he's here to challenge us, Conditioner?} asked the one
on the left with long, green hair.
"{I hope he challenges me then, Potion. He's really cute.}" replied
the other one, who had blonde hair in the same style.
"{Not today, girls,}" said a short, old woman who had approached behind
the two Amazon guards. "{You know that no outsider is allowed to enter
the village during the summer festival. Turn them away. If they insist
on entering the village, kill them.}"
"{Yes, Elder!}" said the two as the old woman walked away.
They continued over to Ryuki and his mother to turn them away. Barking
orders to them in Chinese proved useless, however, since neither one
could speak it. The blonde guard, however, knew some Japanese and
slowly spoke to them, heavily accented. "You no can enter. You go away
or you die!"
"And why not? All we need is some hot water and some food. Can't you
at least let us have that?" Ryuki's mom was furious. She was tired of
having to deal with Ryuki as a guy and she was also hungry. Those two
factors made her act irrationally and advance on the two guards, who had
to draw their weapons to keep her from approaching any futher. "Then I
challenge you! If I win, you give us what we need. If I lose, then
we'll leave. Deal?"
"Is you stupid? If you want fight with Amazon, then you get one.
{I'll take the loudmouth woman, Potion. You make sure that cute guy
doesn't do anything.}"
Potion had two bonbori as her weapons, they were the most popular in
the village. Ryuki's mother remained unarmed due to a lack of weapons
and a lack of need for them. The only thing keeping the fight was Ryuki
holding his mother back.
"What do you think you're doin', mother? You don't pick a fight with
people like that? You're actin' stupid."
"Let me go, girl!" his mother barked. "It's not like I'm gonna lose or
anything. I'm hungry and you're a guy. We're low on food and have no
hot water. I'm gonna get some for us no problem." Despite Ryuki's
strong grip, it was easily broken and his mother jumped into the fight.
The older woman was not lying, however, when she said that the fight
would be no problem. After ducking under a pair of thrusts by the
Amazon she hit the girl hard with an uppercut, stunning her
momentarily. What she did not count on, however, was the blonde getting
up a few moments later, wiping the blood off her lip and giving her a
kiss on the cheek.
What happened next was something Ryuki would never forget or forgive.
In mere seconds Conditioner drew the sword strapped to her back and
thrusted blade into her enemy's heart, killing the older woman
instantly. Ryuki was at a complete loss. His first instinct was to
attack his mother's killer. A quick look at the five or six women who
had come out of nowhere told him that a fight right then was not a good
idea.
"M....m....mother!" he cried out instead, running over to dead woman.
"Why did you have to do this? Why?" She was now cradling his mother's
head in her arms in the hopes that she would wake up.
"She beat Conditioner. Conditioner give her kiss of death and
Conditioner kill. Simple, yes?" Conditioner said as matter of factly
as she could despite her heavy accent.
"I wasn't talkin' to you, bitch!" Ryuki spat. "Just leave me alone! I
ain't gonna do nothin'. Just go away and leave me alone! Mom, you
idiot, you didn't have to go and do that and leave me alone." The
latter was said softly so no one could hear. With tears in his eyes and
a great weight on his heart Ryuki vowed that there would one day be a
reckoning.
Gently picking up his mother's limp form, Ryuki slowly walked away from
the village into a nearby wood. There, he knew he would be able to heat
up some water to change back to a girl and find a suitable burial site.
Ryuki set up camp a few hours later next to a small stream. By then
she was emotionally dead. She had felt nothing. No joy when she had
changed back into a girl and no grief while she buried her mother. All
her tears were shed on the walk through the woods. All she wanted to do
then was sleep and never wake up.
She did manage to fall asleep after many, many hours of memories. Her
dreams picked up where those thoughts left off. She dreamed of the good
times with her mother, the training, and traveling through Japan and
China. She dreamed of the bad times, such as the incident in Okinawa
among many others. Those were the minor dreams, however. Only after
she fell into a deep sleep did Ryuki have The Dream.
Ryuki was floating. Well, she was not really floating because there
was nothing to float over, under, or around. There was absolutely
nothing around her to refer to but floating was the only way she could
describe her situation. She herself did not seem to exist, she just
was.
"You must find your Yang, Little Dragon." The voice had no sound yet
she heard it just the same. It was neither male nor female, it was
everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Just like her, it just
was.
"Who are you? What am I doin' here?" Ryuki thought, it was all she
could do for she had no powers of speech.
"You will find out in due time, Little Dragon. You must find your Yang
and complete your training," was her reply.
"But where?"
"Japan," was the last thing she heard before she woke up.
Ryuki now found herself sitting up, looking at the morning sum. For
some reason she remembered her dream to the last detail, she could never
do that before. She only vaguely remembered her earlier ones, which was
normal. Also, she did not feel the depression and eternal emptiness she
felt the day before. Well, she did feel it inside and she was still
saddened, but it was not an overwhelming force, as it was before. Now,
she felt a drive to find someone, find him. But the only thing she had
to go by was a mental image of a running horse.
--
Tomorrow sees undone what happens not today. Indecision brings delays.
Days lost lamenting lost days. -Ryoga Hibiki
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake! -Unknown
Computer programmers don't byte...they nybble a bit. - Unknown
Email me at LightHawk@nc.rr.com
or
visit my web site at http://www.geocities.com/LightHawk19/Index.html