[FFML] [Ranma][FanFic] Kasumi the Wayfarer

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Kasumi the Wayfarer

A Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction

Jeremy Harper

Disclaimer - Ranma 1/2 is the creation of Rumiko Takahashi and is used without permission.

Chapter 1: A Long Desired Return

From the top of the stairs Kasumi called down, "I'm going to bed now. Good night."

"Good night," her sisters and Ranma replied in unison. The television's audio was set low, so they could hear her gentle footsteps and the shutting of her bedroom door. Ranma glanced at the stairs then at the digital clock set in the VCR.

"Kasumi goes to bed pretty early," he commented. "It's only ten o'clock, and tonight's a Saturday to boot."

"Well, Kasumi has a lot of chores on Sunday and she likes to finish them early," Akane explained. "She's very responsible, unlike some people around here I could mention."

"Huh," Ranma snorted. "I also guess that she needs more beauty sleep than certain tomboys I could mention."

"Jerk."

"Macho chick."

Nabiki just rolled her eyes and watched this latest exchanged with veiled amusement. Since the fiasco of a wedding that had occurred a few weeks ago the arguments between Akane and Ranma had deescalated, becoming playful - almost affectionate - teasing instead of the cacophonic shouting matches that were once their norm. It could still be annoying though. Nabiki turned up the TV's volume with the remote.

In her bedroom Kasumi couldn't hear the good-natured bickering. She sat at her dresser, clad in her nightgown, looking into the mirror as she brushed her long hair. Her expression was dreamy, her gentle brown eyes wistful, almost longing. "Maybe tonight, finally..." she murmured to herself. She set down her hairbrush, rose to her feet and walked to her bed. She slipped under the covers, checking the clock on her nightstand to make sure the alarm was set then switched off her lamp. She pulled her covers up to her shoulders and laid on her back, staring into the gentle, friendly darkness. "Maybe tonight," she murmured again. She folded her hands below her breast, closed her eyes and with practiced ease fell instantly to sleep.

*****

A pleasant warmth enveloped Kasumi. From a middle distance she heard birdsong, mellifluous, sweet to the ear, yet queerly alien in a way that if asked to explain she would be hard pressed to describe. A cool breeze caressed her gently, almost with a lover's touch. Leaves rustled, branches creaked. Kasumi opened her eyes, and found herself standing in a forest glade. Great oaks and maples surrounded her, their foliage hued a deep, dark emerald and the grass of the sward, verdantly luxuriously. A noontime sun blazed in a sky bluer than any she'd ever seen in Japan. She looked down, and found herself not in a nightgown, or one of her housedresses, but a flowing white blouse, trimmed with fine lace, and brown deerskin breeches. Instead of house slippers one her feet she wore sturdy leather boots, their cuffs flared and folded. A sash of fine purple silk wound about her waist, tied in a knot at her right hip; a saber sheathed a fine leather scabbard was thrust into it by her left hip. A large satchel hung from a baldric slung across her chest. She raised her hands - covered in gloves of kidskin - and took off the hat on her head. Its broad brim was folded up slightly on one side, and a shimmering blue-green peacock's feather adorned the band that wrapped the base of itscrown. She wore no ribbon in her hair; it flowed down past her shoulders in waves, free and unbound.

Kasumi threw back her head and laughed joyously. "I'm back!" she cried, throwing her hat in the air, pirouetting gracefully. She caught her hat and set it on her head and laughed again. "I'm finally back!" After a stint of unwanted exile Kasumi had returned to the dreamlands she had lived and wandered in for nearly a decade. She first dreamed of this realm not long after her mother's death and since that first fateful vision she explored and wandered its length and breadth almost nightly. Here she was not Kasumi Tendo, the meek, primly proper, staunchly traditional daughter of Soun Tendo, but instead was Kasumi the Wayfarer, swordswoman, mendicant adventurer, bold, insouciant, resourceful. But recently the dreamlands had been barred from her. Worries for her little sister, abducted by the bird folk of Junsendo, and the stresses caused by the chaotic wedding her father and Uncle Saotome had arranged somehow inhibited her from dreaming. But after Akane's safe return and her improving relationship with Ranma the fears and anxieties eventually dissipated; peace had returned to Kasumi's house, her exile was over. She laughed one more time before taking her locale into deeper consideration.

Kasumi looked about the forest glade, her lips quirking into a small half-frown. She knew these woods. It was the Enchanted Forest, a woodland both beautiful and perilous. Strange creatures roamed its twisting trails, many of which craved human flesh. Kasumi had hoped she could have willed herself to someplace more hospitable- Ulthar, for example, which lay to the west of the forest, situated along the winding banks of the River Skai. She had managed such feats before, often saving herself much tedious journeying. Still, she was not overly concerned. She had traveled through the Enchanted Forest many times before, and as long as one kept wary and alert it was not too hazardous a place.

Kasumi shut her eyes and meditated for a moment. She realized that the spells she last memorized had faded from her mind. She opened her eyes, loosened her saber in its sheath, and sat down in the shade of one of the larger trees. From her satchel she produced a small, slim volume- her grimoire. Kasumi was no true sorcerer, but over the years she learned a few things about magic. Her mind was supple and strong, and with some effort could encompass some of the more straightforward of mystical formulae. Leafing through her grimoire she selected two spells she deemed would be useful for the short walk to Ulthar - the Charm of Alacritous Motion and the Spell of the Slow Hour. She poured over the incantations, pondering the strange logic they represented, forcing the enigmatic syllables into her mind, where they writhed and twisted in protest. Kasumi closed her eyes, covering them with a hand, and in a moment the turmoil subsided. She sighed in relief, snapping shut the book and returning it to her satchel. She rose, glancing up at the sun. It had just started its decline. With speed and good fortune she should reach Ulthar before sunset. Picking out a trail to the west, she headed off, whistling happily.

The trail snaked through the trees, curving gently and twisting treacherously in turns. In hunched roughly up rises, poured rapidly down slopes. Kasumi walked it with wide, confident strides, surefooted and swift. She whistled or sang when she could spare the breath to help pass the time, un-fearful of the forest, but not unwary, keeping her saber close at hand and her spells foremost in her mind. As she walked along the trail she saw many of the forest's denizens going about their simple business- birds, squirrels, a few times a deer foraging in the underbrush or in clearings. More unusual creatures also caught her eye. Plump Zoogs the size of tanuki poked their round, furry faces cautiously through the foliage of their trees to peer at her curiously. Scintillant mynahr birds flitted from bough to branch, their emerald and ruby plumage glittering in the sunlight, quite literally sang for their supper. More than once Kasumi shook her head to clear it of the hypnotic cobwebs the mynahr's music wove. A twk-man buzzed by, mounted on a golden dragonfly, raising his lance in friendly salutation as he passed; Kasumi reciprocated with a wave of her hand. Once a butterfly dragon crossed her path, floating serenely through the trees, its large prismatic wings barely stirring in the air. Kasumi observed its grace and beauty in silent admiration.

After a few hours of uneventful travel Kasumi came across a glen where a silvery brook burbled quietly to itself. She thought she recognized it. Scaumanu's Brook, if she were correct- named after the forester from Ulthar that discovered it. It was the westernmost source of water in the Enchanted Forest, quite close to the woods' periphery. From here Ulthar was perhaps five miles walk. Kasumi doffed her hat and wiped her brow with a handkerchief from her pocket. The water looked refreshing; Scaumanu's Brook was renowned in the area for its purity. She walked to its bank and kneeled down, putting her hat to one side. Small, colorful fish swan in the current, poking about the rocks, silt and plants. She wished she had some line and tackle with her. Roasted fish would have tasted nice after tramping through the Enchanted Forest. She peeled off her gloves and placed them neatly in her hat. She washed her hands, laved the sweat from her face and drank deeply from the brook, quaffing down handfuls of water to quench her dry throat. She sighed contentedly and delicately wiped her mouth with her kerchief.

A faint rustling sounded behind her, from the far side of the glen. The small, fine hairs on the back of neck rose as a premonitory chill danced down it. Kasumi spun around swiftly, rising into a crouch. Her saber rasped free from its scabbard. Something crawled towards her through the thick sward, something lusterless black, large as a man. It froze statue-still when it spied her movement, then rose up serpentine from the ground. It would have looked like a man, a handsome man dressed in leather harness, if not for the gleaming fangs so prominent in its mouth, the iron claws curving from its digits, the large, murky yellow eyes with the slitted, cat-like pupils.

Kasumi straightened her stance and pointed her saber at the creature. 'A deodand,' she thought. 'What ill-fortune.' The deodand smiled widely. Its eyes raked greedily over her body. A long, too narrow tongue flitted across its fangs. She could feel radiating from it the intensity of its anthropophagus cravings. They struck her almost like a physical blow. It held out its hands to its sides as if in friendly welcome and spoke, its voice a resonant baritone.

"Ah, I recognize you now," the deodand crooned. "Kasumi the Wayfarer. You are as beautiful, as... delectable... as the stories said. You have strayed quite far from your usual haunts, I think."

"I have no usual haunts. I have traveled farther than you can imagine," Kasumi answered. "I wander as I will, beholden to no one and causing no harm without just provocation. It is a philosophy that would profit you this day to adopt, deodand." Kasumi twisted her wrist, making a tight cut in the air with the tip of her saber.

"What barbaric times we live in, when just-met strangers make such boorish and unwarranted threats," the deodand murmured pettishly. "Your sword looks fine, though. How it catches the sunlight! Is it sharp?"

"Quite sharp, and very strong. It was wrought by the smiths of Kaiin, the finest swordmakers in the world." Kasumi flourished the weapon in question. "Note well the rune of puissance engraved on the blade, the blessed ribbon tied above the pommel. It is a weapon of the highest quality, and I am proficient in its use."

"Yes, yes, but do you think that will be enough, when brought to the task? I have heard that you know something of magic, Kasumi. Are you with spells today?"

"I am. The spells I know are of excellent brevity and power. You will have to find your supper elsewhere, deodand."

"Perhaps, but I think not." With a slim claw the deodand pointed over Kasumi's shoulder. "Even now my brother comes behind you, foolish girl. He shall strike your head off your shoulders ere you blink."

Kasumi turned quickly, raising her saber to ward off an attack. But nothing was behind her, and the deodand sprang as she turned. But Kasumi expected such treachery and jumped back, the monster's claws missing her by the thickness of her skin. It pivoted to strike at her again and she uttered urgently the Spell of the Slow Hour. The air twisted and shimmered about the deodand, and its motions slowed by half, then by half again. Kasumi almost casually stepped out of the way of its lethargically swung claw then lunged with her saber. The blade flashed three times, piercing the deodand once through the shoulder, twice through the chest, high and low. The air shimmered around the deodand again. It fell writhing to the ground, blood spurting on the grass, staining the verdant stalks black. Grimacing in distaste Kasumi dispatched it, stabbing it through the throat. The deodand twitched once violently and lay still.

Kasumi wiped her saber on the sward, cleaning it of blood. Her lips were pursed in a tight, thin line. What an unfortunate way for her return to her dreamlands to begin. She wished no harm to any creature, but she was worldly enough to understand that not all shared such an enlightened belief. Her sojourns had made her pragmatic; if threatened by unreasoning violence she was more than capable of making the offender regret his incivility. But she would never like doing so. Pointedly avoiding looking at the deodand's corpse, she sheathed her saber, donned her hat and gloves and started west. She heard more rustling in the underbrush and looked over her shoulder. Several zoogs had waddled out of hiding, eagerly approaching the slain deodand, licking their furry lips. Kasumi grimaced and left the glen as swiftly as her dignity would allow.

Another hour of walking passed before Kasumi reached the end of the Enchanted Forest. She stepped free from the tree line and the thick shadows, out onto a grassy rise. The Skai River Valley stretched out before her, green, pleasant and peaceful. On the far horizon the sun was lethargically sinking behind the sharp, distant peaks of the Magnatz Mountains, its tired light painting the valley in red and shadows, transmuting the River Skai into a curving line of ruddy gold. A cool breeze blew from the west. Kasumi sat down in the grass, taking off her hat and drawing her knees to her chest, content to watch the sunset for a few minutes in quiet introspection. Along the southern banks of the River Skai were the neat, white cottages of the town of Ulthar. She could see the villagers, made miniscule by distance, going about their last minute chores, preparing to settle in for the night after a day of honest labor. Boatmen moored their craft at the dock. Storekeepers closed the shutters of their shops. Housewives called their children in from play. One by one lamps and candles flickered on in the cottages. Kasumi stood up and descended down a well-trod trail leading to the village. Twilight had come and was swiftly darkening when she reached Ulthar. She made her way to the inn she favored, her boots clicking on the streets' cobblestones. Few people were out, but those who saw her greeted her warmly, for she was well known and liked in Ulthar. She returned their welcomes with bright smiles, glad to have finally returned. She had grown up in this town, playing with the town children, consorting with its numerous, ubiquitous cats, learning the ways of these dreamlands at the feet of far-flung travelers. In many ways Ulthar was more of her home then the house in Tokyo she had been born in. Kasumi dearly loved her father and her sisters, but here in Ulthar she was free, free to be the type of woman she wished she could be in the waking world, unfettered by the duties of house and home that had been thrust upon her when she was so young...

Kasumi sighed and shook her head, banishing such melancholy ruminations from her mind. She entered a large two-story building, a wooden sign hanging over its door, an illustration of a tankard brimming with foam painted on it. Lamps and the roaring fireplace brightly illuminated the inn's common room. The many patrons ate, drank and chattered merrily. The master of the Overflowing Tankard, old Ranson, welcomed Kasumi, waddling out from behind the bar and giving her a fatherly hug. Kasumi laughed and kissed him on the cheek. He beamed happily and escorted her to a table near the fireplace, ordering one of his serving maids to fetch food and fine wine. They talked for a little while before duty called him away, Ranson informing Kasumi of events great and small that had passed during her absence. She listened with interest, and ate her dinner of gamebird, soup, cheese and bread with gusto, her appetite sharp after the long hike from the Enchanted Forest. Night wore on, and one by one people retired, seeking their rooms or houses. Kasumi was content to sit before the fire, staring into it drowsily and sipping sweet wine. Finally she yawned and inquired to Ranson about a room for the night. He led her upstairs to a large chamber, its window overlooking the inn's courtyard, and bid her goodnight. Once her door was shut and locked she set aside her saber and satchel and untied her sash. Along with her hat and gloves she placed them neatly on a chair. She stepped to the window, opening its shutters so she could look up at the night sky. The stars twinkled, diamonds strewn on black velvet; the moon floated among them, flat and full, glowing with a diffused, white light. Kasumi shut her window and undressed for bed. She slipped into bed, naked under the blankets, and quickly fell into a pleasant slumber.

*****

Nabiki watched her sister as she hummed happily to herself as she prepared breakfast. "You seem chipper today Kasumi," she commented.

Kasumi nodded. "Yes, I had a very good night's sleep."

"Oh? Did you have any interesting dreams?" Nabiki asked, grinning. Kasumi paused and looked at her younger sister with a small, pursed smile. Something mischievous flashed in her brown eyes.

"Well, I did have a few dreams, but I doubt they would be of any interest to you, Nabiki. Could you go tell everyone that breakfast will be ready shortly?"

Nabiki blinked, a little puzzled by her older sister's demeanor. "Ah, sure Sis." She left the kitchen with a thoughtful expression. Nabiki thought she knew how to read people, deduce their intentions and tendencies, but Kasumi had always been an enigma to her. She seemed so simple, yet sometimes Nabiki sensed hidden depths within her... Nabiki shook her head and called her extended family down to breakfast.

/////

Author's Notes:

The dream realm Kasumi adventures in is an unsubtle amalgamation of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands and Jack Vance's Dying Earth.

Comments and criticism are welcome, and can be directed to DorianVal@aol.com.

Thank you for your time and tolerance,

Jeremy Harper