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Hi,
A note beforehand, the revised Prologue is up on my site, which hopefully is up itself (the site, I mean).
Anyway, on with the story!
Troy
***
Comfort in the Eye of Chaos
By Troy Thomas <Silentnova@go.com>
Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the creations and properties of Rumiko Takahashi. Tenchi Muyo and its characters are the creations and properties of Masaki Kajishima. Excepting flames, if you have any comments or criticisms, feel free to send them my way.
***
Chapter One
The sun slowly rose lighting the cold valley. An elderly priest sipped green tea, gently smiling as he watched two young boys, the age of seven, from his home's front porch, sparring.
Time, it took too much and left too little.
A life, a daughter's love.
What is life anyway? Is it a smile?
He could remember her smile, peaceful and humorous, and her long hair, billowing in the warm breeze of summer, as the family walked to the great tree Funaho, his family's guardian, to give their thanks for long lives and endless moments.
And then his grandson, Tenchi, smiled and laughed, impelling the warm summer day back into his memory.
Memories, Time's only gift for the living.
Katsuhito, his smile growing, looked at the laughing boys and watched the two abandon the sparring in favour of hurly-burly. "Perhaps all life is, is memories." He winced as Ranma tossed Tenchi over his shoulder, but sighed in relief when Tenchi stood back up still alive and smiling. The boys continued laughing, suddenly grappling trying to force each other closer to the cold shimmering lake. "Moments we should forever treasure."
Katsuhito laughed out loud when Ranma out of the blue tossed Tenchi into the blue.
Nodoka rushed outside at the sound of splashing water. Quickly turning towards Katsuhito, she tentatively asked, "What happened?"
"Tenchi was tossed into the water by a brilliant throw from Ranma." Katsuhito answered. "It was beautiful to watch..." His words were stopped with a moan from Nodoka.
Standing up, Katsuhito took his niece in his arms, and held her from falling.
Wiping tears away, Nodoka sobbed, yet spoke, "Genma, my husband had been teaching him for the past few years away from home..." She stopped speaking, wanting to share something more, but could not for fear of her weeping overwhelming her senses.
Katsuhito timidly held Nodoka. 'Such a long life, and no wisdom to show for all my years.' he thought, sadly. 'No words to speak, I can say nothing to make anything better.'
"He...took sick one night, and for the entire week, he had tried to reach home, carrying Ranma on his back." Nodoka squeezed Katsuhito's sides with her arms, returning the hug. "And when he reached home, he..." Buried her face into his shoulder, she forced out the words she aspired to share, "And then he said, 'Goodbye my Nodoka. I'll always love you'..."
Her words muffled by her uncle's shoulder, Nodoka ceased to speak, instead allowing herself to be caught in her sobbing.
Is there anything to be said? Or, is silent love the lone contribution one can offer to assuage the suffering in the heart of someone close? 'I can say nothing, in any case. Wisdom is a distant star.'
Time past and they stood, nothing said, and neither moving.
Soon, he felt behind him the boys being ushered away towards the temple on the hill by his late daughter's husband, Noboyuki.
"Uncle," Nodoka said, when her tears were spent, "I must let you know of an agreement my husband had made with an old friend...The two had promised to join together their two schools by marriage."
Letting go, Nodoka and Katsuhito faced each other.
"But now, without a teacher, my son cannot...I regret..." Nodoka stopped, searching for the word she wanted. "I am deeply concerned my son cannot carry on the art of the school, since my husband...since he was the only teacher of Saotome Indiscriminate Grappling."
"Besides Ranma, was he the only practitioner?"
Slowly, Nodoka replied, "I was taught by Genma for the years while we had lived together. But..."
"Hmm, I think I understand." Katsuhito smiled. "Nodoka, whatever you have to offer your son, then I suggest you pass it on to him." His smile curled about, his face expressing wheels in his mind turning. "I am wondering, Niece, had you been left anything? Scrolls? Papers or books?"
"Yes, he had left for me his travelling backpack, and inside...I haven't looked inside it yet." Bowing her head, Nodoka's eyes filled, surprising her, since she had believed she'd no tears remaining. "I just couldn't bear..." she stopped, and stood straight.
"I'm going to start dinner, Uncle. The backpack is in my room, near the window."
When Nodoka had disappeared inside, Katsuhito sat down and looked at the lake. "The Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling. Genma must've been a fine teacher." He noted the cold lake's only constant. All over, the light of the sun shimmered brightly.
***
The boys sat under a tree, whose branches hung low, shading and cooling the grass below. It was the great tree Funaho, a sleeping spirit protecting the Masaki Shrine land from spiritual and living invaders.
All around the tree was a pond, its water crystal clear and clean, as though it was itself the spirit's tears, shed in its sleep for those whom Time had gently taken to the land of dream, forever and ever.
Rocks sticking out of the water's surface were the only access from the tree's lonely respite to land, which sat close to the unknowing spirit.
"Tenchi, I just got to let you know. Grandpa's a sadist! How can he take away a perfectly good school-free day like today?" said Ranma, a youth-filled boy, his hair long and braided in a pigtail.
He rested his head on the tree's trunk, his neck sore. "He knows my dad's school pretty well now. Almost as well as he does my mom's."
"I know, he's been teaching some of it to me also." Tenchi shrugged his shoulders. "It's tough though." Lying on his stomach, watching tadpoles swim about, Tenchi quietly lamented the pain in his legs. "Is it really rough for you Ranma?"
"Maybe a little, but..." Ranma smiled. "I'm glad he knows it. It'd be really hard, I think, if I forgot how to be a Saotome." He watched the branches of the tree, as the leaves lightly rustled in the summer breeze.
It had been five years, and Ranma knew he was a good fighter. Under the tutelage of his grandfather and mother, he knew he could be a great warrior in the future. "The best, in fact!"
"What was that?"
"I'm going to be the greatest, Tenchi." Ranma smiled. "Like my dad wanted me to be. That's how happy I am Grandpa knows the Saotome School!"
Tenchi had no reply. Silently, he watched the tadpoles scatter away when a sudden wind gusted from the right. He looked to the trees and the path through to the mountain's side, and shuddered, but quickly stopped panicking to hear Ranma's words.
"The Cave, Tenchi. It's the demon, waking up!" Ranma smiled, and beamed mischievously at his cousin.
Shaking his head, Tenchi stood and began walking home. "No, there's no demon."
"Ranma! Tenchi!" from nearby Nodoka called, her voice clearly nearing the tree.
"Lunchtime?" Ranma asked, happily, to no one.
Together, the two boys left behind them the tree, which gently swayed in the summer breeze, a song mournful and melancholy, which the tree could hear only, and the cave, its obscured shadow dying and amending for a mistake a legendary demon had never made.
And behind the two boys came a breeze, both warm and cool at its touch, which raced ahead past the boys towards the lake, through the valley, and onto the world.
End Chapter One
***
***
Check out my webpage:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~silentnova/index.html
I archive, write, link, and do almost all the wonderful things fanfic writers like. Check it out, today.
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