Another 30 page chunk.  This story went from page 37 early last month to
page 85 (A lot!  100 is just around the corner!) now.  That's a lot, ain't
it?  Plus a few pages of Back on Earth to finish that chapter, and... 12
pages on my new Ranma/MKR xover (which I'm only working on after my GR fix
every day, of course, the first chapter will be out soon).  So... when a
month has passed since I started the 1000 words a day thing, I will be over
70 pages within that time frame.  That's assuming I started on the
fourth(when I usually update my page), when I think it was a few days later.

Makes a big difference, writing a set amount every day.  It really does!
^_^;

Anyway, here is more.  Don't think many of you are reading this, but for
those who are, same thing applies: this is a rough draft, so any comments on
the story flow, characterization, whatever, are certainly requested and
appreciated.  Now, on to the fic:

Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.  Noir is written by Ryouei Tsukimura and
directed by Kouichi Mashimo.

Gensou Rakuen
By Thermopyle
Thermopyle.anifics.com

#####

Ranma pulled the post up out of the ground and pushed some of the
surrounding sand over the knives he'd hidden underneath.  Then he dug
another hole a foot away from its predecessor and shoved the end of
the post into it before packing sand up against the sides to hold the
wood upright.  The sand was dry and didn't pack well, instead just
seeming to settle easily to wherever he pushed it, so he just piled
the stuff onto the base as best as he could.  After giving it a few
experimental shoves, he deemed his target stable enough to use.

He backed up to about twenty feet away, and threw his ten remaining
knives with his left hand.  Then he retrieved them and returned to his
standing point.  Ranma tried throwing with his right hand this time.
He hadn't magically improved since his last practice session.

Throwing two knives at once was next, so he fetched the knives again
and got ready to toss them.  He stood at the previous spot, then
closed his eyes and visualized Chloe while she was practicing.  He
emulated the vision, holding his body as close to her stance as he
could.  Then he watched Chloe's movements in slow motion and followed
them, his eyes still closed, the only difference being that he didn't
release when he got to the end of the motion.

It felt right.  He was going to do it perfectly this time.

Ranma opened his eyes, staring at the target now, and, with his blue
orbs staring, re-pictured Chloe's starting posture.  Then he copied
her movements while fixating on the target, which was directly ahead
of him.  The knives flew freely, he wasn't sure when they left his
hands, and sailed through the air towards the target.  The left knife
passed over the top of it by about half a foot, the right-handed knife
cutting across to the left and then hitting the ground five feet to
the opposite side of the pole.

Ranma frowned, then closed his eyes and tried again.  He superimposed
Chloe's image over his own kinesthetic sense of placement.  He started
the movements, opening his eyes partway through to glare at the enemy.
His arms unerringly followed the paths set by those of another.
Release, and both missed.  Again.

So did the next six, and the ten after that, and the ten after that,
and...

He was hungry, and it'd been hours since he'd last eaten of grapes.

Ranma collected the knives again, replacing them carefully into his
pants pockets.  Five knives to a pocket were the most he could
comfortably fit, and even then, the hilts stuck out a few inches for
each one.  At least that made them easy to pull out, if Chloe showed
up and he needed to use one of them as a distraction.  She could be
somewhat startling, Chloe could, and requiring of diversion.

The trek back to the fields was uneventful.  He looked around to see
if the girl was anywhere about, but failed to spot her hiding in the
grass or anything.  Since it was a little after noon he figured she
was probably in eating lunch.  She might not eat as much as he did,
but she did clean her plate (sometimes with his help) every time he
saw her sit down to a meal.

Ranma sat down in one of the fields he hadn't filched from before.  He
didn't want to develop a habit of eating at the same place, and strip
the area or something equally drastic.  Not that he'd be here for that
long.

The grapes tasted as they usually did, like little balloons bursting
of sweet water, foiled only by the hard seeds contained within.  The
fleshy remains scattered as wind-swept corpse ashes, tossed about in
random directions as one hand snatched at the next morsel and the
other disposed of the previous.

Good as they were, his belly still felt like it sloshed of liquid
after binging on the things.  A change of provisions would be nice.
Something heavier and more substantial, like rice or noodles, maybe
some fish or even a beef bowl.  Cup ramen would be wonderful.

Ranma wondered if they had any of that in France, and where in France
it would be, since it wasn't here.

He glimpsed over at the Manor again, and this time a lack of
motionlessness was present.  Chloe was exiting the building.

She stopped after marching a few paces, then started to look around.
Her face revolved slowly as she searched for him.  Partway through the
task her jaw detached itself in a wide yawn.  Ranma grinned, wishing
he was close enough to toss in a grape.

After glaring about, probably wondering if he saw that, Chloe set off
towards the coliseum, or the ruins beyond.  He waited as she walked
by, giving her a good five-minute lead, and then stood himself,
playing the wine keg.  Bread would be nice, too.

Ranma followed at a discreet distance and made like an ostrich
whenever she seemed about to look backwards.  It hurt, sometimes.  His
clothes got dirtier, the dried red blood of his previously white shirt
becoming overlaid with a caking of brown.  His feet were holding
together well, though.  Cold sharp rocks seemed to be their weakness.

She went into the coliseum so he ran along the outside of the building
until he came to one of the other entrances.  He didn't want to be
caught the same way he'd done her, jumping down from over the
passageway.  Chloe wouldn't use the opportunity as a chance to escape.

When he reached the inner end of the tunnel he sidled up to one of the
corners, watching in the opposite direction for Chloe to come into
view.  When she didn't, he peeked around the stones at his back, to
check the other side of the arena.  He saw her enter the tunnel that
was opposite the direction of the Manor.  The one that led directly
into the middle of the ruins.

He waited a minute and then dashed out into the open, quickly reaching
the passageway Chloe had walked.  He again peeked around the corner
and saw that she was near the opening on the other side.  When she got
there, she kept going straight, following the road that lead in that
direction rather than turning to one side.  The passageway was dark
enough, shadowed enough, that he decided to risk following her down
it.  He could flatten himself down again if she turned around for some
reason and probably not be seen.

Once he reached the end he quickly turned right down one of the side
roads, hiding behind a wall whose face was perpendicular to the road
Chloe was on.  If she looked back and he wasn't hiding behind
something she would see him, with the flat stones making up the street
surface and the sun being overhead to reveal any sneakiness.  Laying
on the ground in that situation would only give her a head start on
tagging him.

Chloe continued going straight and the road remained unbending.  There
was no way for him to follow her without making himself painfully
visible, so Ranma hurried down the side street he was hiding in,
turned left, and then traveled a few blocks in Chloe's direction.
Then he turned left, sneaking up to the corner and peeking right
around it.  Chloe was another couple of blocks ahead, just as he had
anticipated, still walking forward.

Where was she going?  The direction she was headed in would just take
her through the ruined city, with the more broken-down buildings being
ahead of her.  The hot springs were in another direction; she would
have had to turn right like he had in order to get to those.

Ranma followed, checking her progress every few blocks while he ran
along the road parallel to Chloe heading.

Soon the stone buildings began to show increasing signs of disorder.
Stones were strewn about the roadway, obviously parts of damaged
houses or whatever the stone structures that lined the streets had
been.  Some walls were caved inwards, some ceilings collapsed.  The
destruction hadn't been caused by the passing ages--if they had, all
of the buildings would have been similarly effected.  Had there been
some kind of fight here?  When was it, when the city was abandoned, or
did it occur afterwards?

There wasn't anything that indicated explosions had done the damage.
The rocks didn't have holes and craters blasted into them, so he
didn't think that whatever had caused the devastation hadn't been some
kind of modern weaponry.  Not unless a tank had just come rolling in
and knocked everything over, anyway.

Catching himself spending more time looking at his surroundings than
looking after Chloe, Ranma rushed down the side street once more.  He
again looked around the corner, this one barely his own height due to
the missing blocks of stone.  Chloe wasn't there.

He looked back in the opposite direction, to see if she had turned
around, but saw nothing.  She must have turned down one of the streets
when he wasn't paying attention.  But where had she gone?  There
hadn't been anything interesting in the area when he'd come by
earlier.  Nothing worth walking all the way from the Manor for,
certainly.

Ranma stepped out into the street and turned right, following the
direction Chloe had been going.  He walked quickly, looking down the
smaller streets on each side as he traveled, checking for her
presence.  He saw nothing.  The buildings were damaged heavily here,
only some of them even having intact walls facing the street.  He
stepped carefully to avoid the stone fragments that littered the
street.

After a few blocks he stopped.  Maybe she had turned and gone back the
other way, or taken a turn before he'd switched to this road?  If she
had continued this far he would have been able see her still.  Or...
His eyes widened.

Ranma jumped to the side and two knives hit the stone street a moment
later, passing through the spot he'd been standing.  Chloe was above,
had climbed up one of the ruined buildings and waited for him from the
rooftop.  Right as he moved, she threw again and he had no doubt that
she was going as quickly as she was able, because they came two at a
time, one pair after the other as he leapt about and dodged as best
and as erratically as he could.

After a minute of this his foot came down hard on a rough piece of
rock.  He yelled out in pain and pushed himself off with his other
leg, rolling towards Chloe, getting a few more rocks in the back for
the cost of his escape as two more knives barely missed him.  There
was no way to make a drastic change of directions in mid-somersault
using only one leg.  He used his momentum to roll to his feet,
ignoring the still-stabbing pain in his foot and now back, and tossed
the knives he'd snatched from his pockets during that last move.

They weren't great throws but they caused Chloe to pause for a second.
He used the opportunity to move forward again, more easily now, to use
the wall of the building Chloe stood upon as shelter.  He grabbed a
few rocks, bending down as he ran and snatching them up.  Rocks he was
good with.

Now close to the building, he ran alongside it, heading for the
nearest way up to the top.  Ranma heard a slight scuffle behind him,
on the opposite side of the street.  He stopped and whirled, tossing a
rock at where the noise had come from.  One of Chloe's knives hit the
wall behind his ear, bouncing off in the right direction to miss
getting him on the ricochet.  The girl ducked to avoid getting hit in
the face with his rock.  They both threw again.

They both dodged, and he could see the frustration on her face.  She
had to be getting low on knives.  He had two pockets full of the
things.  He threw another rock, keeping an eye on Chloe's arms as she
did the same, using his judgment of the throw vector to anticipate
where the knives would be, and dodge them.  This time he dodged
towards Chloe.  She was fifteen feet away.

She looked angry at the advance but moved to meet him.  A blade was in
each hand and she was in a knife-fighter's stance, something he'd only
seen once before when his father had gotten into a drunken brawl with
someone who was fond of making stabbing gestures.  She held the side
of her body towards him, left arm leading with knife extended and the
right hovering in front of her torso, waiting for a chance to twist
her body towards him and plunge the knife into his stomach or neck or
something else that was soft necessary for Ranma's well being.  Ranma
made the mental adjustments to compensate for Chloe's extra range.

He tossed one of his rocks at her head and she ducked while sidling
forwards, now only a few feet away.  The last rock followed on a
heading for her gut.  Chloe used the flat of her left knife to knock
it away, stepping forward with her right foot and turning her body so
that the right side was the vanguard, gaining more ground as she did
so.

She turned that movement into a forward lunge, knife leading in a
full-body motion with her weight emphasized on the attacking arm and
shoulder.  Ranma used his left hand to deflected her arm, knocking it
to the inside of her body line and preventing a strike with her other
knife.  While she was off-center he stepped in with the right leg and
punched her in the stomach.  She tensed before the blow landed to help
absorb the damage, but he could tell that her breath was still knocked
out by the hit.

She stepped back and twisted left, continuing the momentum of the push
he'd given her, bringing her left arm and knife around in an arc to
make a backhanded swipe at him.  Ranma used his right hand to grab her
arm just above the elbow and his left caught her wrist, stopping the
leading knife and leaving her out of line for attacking with her
right.

He pulled down and back on her wrist, keeping the elbow steady, his
leverage making her body try to flip forward.  Chloe went with the
force, bending down.  Ranma hopped back slightly when she tried to
plant her other knife into one of his feet, then gave her arm a more
vicious twist.  She cried out and he used his right leg to kick her
hand away.  The knife flew free from her hand and skidded down the
stones of the street.

Chloe's right arm being knocked wide put more pressure on her left and
he could feel more of her weight pulling on her trapped arm.  She
yelled out in pain again.  Ranma pushed down on her elbow, bringing
the wrist and forearm further up and extending Chloe's whimpers.  He
stepped to the inside of her arm, his foot wrapping about her ankle,
and released the elbow.  His body keeping the elbow pinned in place,
he used his free hand to wrench Chloe's knife away.  Then he used the
girl's twisted arm to push her away.  His ankle caused her to go to
the ground and he stepped back cautiously.  The knife slipped into one
of his pockets.

Ranma grinned.  He knew what was next.  Now that he'd beat Chloe she'd
have to feed him, just like with Ukyou.  It would truly be a wonderful
thing to have a wider range of food substances.  Essence of no-grape.

Except that Chloe didn't get up.

Chloe lied on her side, collapsed to the ground with her left arm
tucked protectively inside her cloak.  Red-purple hair covered the
upper half of her face and Ranma couldn't see her expression at all.
She was shaking slightly.

Ranma's mouth did a one-eighty.  Was she crying?  She was, wasn't she?
Man, there was a reason he didn't like playing with girls; they played
along with the fun games until they lost and then they got all weepy,
or they clung to you with demands to play house or doctor or some
silly crap like that.  With Chloe being such a tomboy he'd thought she
would be as fun as Ukyou had been, but if she was gonna get like this
over a twisted arm...

"Hey, quit that!" he demanded.

Chloe's only response was to pull her cloak tighter around herself,
defensively.  She turned her face away from him, pointing it towards
the stone beneath.  The rock fragments were probably digging into her
cheek, but she didn't show it.  Or if she did, Ranma couldn't tell.

"Quit it!" he said again.  He hated it when girls pulled this.

Ranma picked up a few small rocks and bounced them off of Chloe's
hair.  One of her hands snatched the edge of the cloak and yanked it
up as protection, wrapping it over her head.  The red-purple fluff
disappeared under a dark, solid green.  The bottom of the cloak pulled
up some to expose her feet and lower legs.

Grinning again, he leaned forward to poke her behind the knee, then
yanked himself backwards just in time to avoid Chloe's swiping at him
with another knife as her left arm came slicing out from behind the
cloak.  When she missed Chloe pushed herself off the ground with her
right arm, springing forward to try to stab at him again with the
left.

Ranma twisted frantically and knocked her arm to his right, giving
Chloe who was smiling fiercely the opportunity to turn with the force
and bring in her other hand, which also had a knife now.  She was
still moving forward and that gave her enough speed that he couldn't
block or deflect the blow in time.  He twisted and the knife thrust
most of its length into his left arm.

"Ow!  That HURT!" he yelled at her.  Chloe tried to pull the knife
back so he let her, then grabbed her wrist with his left hand before
she could stab him again.  His arm was weak and he could feel blood
running down it, but he yanked on her wrist, bringing her right up
against him before she could try anything with the other arm.  He
smashed his forehead into her face and she was knocked backwards, off-
balance from trying to knee him in the groin.

His arm pleaded with him to release her wrist but Ranma ignored the
whiny bastard and kept at it.  Chloe still hadn't recovered when he
punched her in the stomach.  This time she wasn't ready for it and she
was pushed back, folding forwards slightly.  Her face was white and
she struggled to breathe, but she still tried to bring the other knife
around to cut at him.

Ranma twisted and moved forward underneath her extended arm, yanking
it up behind her back.  He could feel her chest heaving as she
struggled against him, still unable to pull in air.  She stomped on
one of his feet, her heal crushing him into the stone beneath.  Ranma
yelled in pain and shoved her away.  The edge of her knife sliced his
hand as she pulled it to in front of her.  He took a few steps back
and she turned around and did the same, glaring at him triumphantly.

Ranma looked at his hand.  A long cut ran the length of his palm.  It
wasn't too deep but blood was running freely from the wound, mixing
with what had already coated his arm from when she'd stabbed him just
before.  Chloe's knives were very sharp and it hadn't hurt much at
first, but where his arm had been punctured he could now feel the
buzzing of a million invisible bees as they began to dig into his
flesh, working their way into him, an invasion of spreading stings and
chewing insects.

He let his arm drop and the blood fell to the floor a tiny bit at a
time, the trickle slow but steady, that of the leaking milk caused by
a full baby who still sucks habitually at teat.  Red paint dripped
similarly from one of Chloe's knives, gripped caressingly, reverently
in a tiny fist.  The other knife was handled with disdain, scorn, and
it screamed in jealousy and a desire to prove itself.  Chloe seemed
willing to give it another chance.

He curled his fist.  "You cheated," Ranma accused.  She had.
"Pretending to cry like that, jeez, that was low."

She smirked in response.  "Anything-Goes.  There are no rules, right?"

"...Yeah.  Just remember that."  His smile made his head feel tight.
The bees were spreading.  He had a special attack he could use now.
An appropriate one.  One Chloe deserved.

Ranma jumped forward to attack, his right hand coming up sharply,
releasing the knife he'd pulled out of a pocket.  It was aimed
correctly and Chloe was forced to dodge, losing her stance in the
hasty step to the side.  She stepped right into his other attack.  His
left hand flung forward, snapping open as it jerked to a halt at the
end of his reach, and collected blood spat itself at Chloe.  She
barely had time to flinch, to stop it from getting into her eyes, but
it still splashed all over her face and forehead, running down, thick
red opaqueness hampering her vision with a salty sting of not-quite-
sweat.

Her hesitation cost and Ranma kept moving forward.  Extended knife arm
was knocked aside and his foot slammed into the side of her left knee.
She cried out, went down.  As she fell away her right arm crossed her
body, Chloe bringing the knife around to throw at his chest.  He
arched his back and it flew past, then he bent forward again to punch
Chloe in the jaw, her face smacking against the stone beneath and
stunning her.

Ranma grabbed the edge of Chloe's cloak and ripped it away from her.
He stumbled back when the cloth pulled out from where it was pinned
under her body.  A red handprint branded the green.  He clenched his
fist around the fabric to help slow the bleeding.  Plus it'd stain
better.

Chloe got up awkwardly, having trouble standing.  The empty hand went
to her cheek and she was glaring at him again.  Ranma could see her
harnesses, one on each limb, and it looked like five fit to each arm
and eight to a leg.  They were empty, but Chloe still had one more
knife.  Plus there were others from when she'd been throwing at him
that were scattered all over the road surface, easy to pick up.
Underneath she had clothes identical to what he was wearing; a long-
sleeve white button-up shirt and a pair of brown cotton pants.  She
also wore tennis shoes, dirty white and with big laces.

She looked very angry to be without her cloak.

"Give it back!"  The blood on her face turned her enraged, upset look
into something ridiculous.

"Umm... no."  Ranma grinned, then wiped the wrap against his bloody
arm, turning it into a soiled, oversized rag.  Chloe's fist tightened
around her last blade and he wondered if she'd try throwing it.  He
could block or deflect with the cloak.  "You have another one of
these, don't you?  I like this one."

The girl wiped her arm across her face, her eyes.  The blood streaked
over her skin but didn't go anywhere.  But she didn't attack, she just
watched him angrily.

Ranma frowned, made a guess.  "Catch," he said, and tossed the cloak.
The blood made it stick and fall short.  Chloe stumbled when she
stepped forward to catch, the knee he'd stomped buckling under her
weight.  She gave him another glare and then held open the cloak to
see the bloodstains that covered it.

"I hate you," she said quietly.

He stared at Chloe, then picked up a rock and tossed it at her.  She
moved the cloth aside and the stone bounced off her injured knee.
Chloe made a small noise but continued to stare at the bloody
handprints.

"...Whatever.  Seeya later," he said, then turned and ran down the
street before she could reply or throw her knife at him.


Blood didn't wash off.  This was something she knew well.  Because of
that, she was always careful to not get blood on her clothes or on
herself.  The cloak wasn't hers.  Chloe didn't know whose it was, but
she'd found it some years earlier.  It had seemed like a nice blanket,
the dark fabric warm and soft.

Artena had been surprised at her discovery.  Her smile had seemed sad,
then, and Chloe was sure she was going to be told to put the cloak
back where she'd found it.  Instead, Artena told her what it was for,
and that she could use it if she was very careful.  The older woman
hadn't said who had used it previously, and Chloe hadn't asked.  But
she wondered.

And blood didn't wash off easy.  From her first few assassinations she
knew that to be the case.  Standing to close to the victim, the knife
or sometimes bullet hitting in the right (or wrong) spot, a brief
spray, and the clothes had to be scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.
They wouldn't come clean.  Artena just threw the clothes out once they
got blood on them.

Chloe tucked the cloak under her arm and then slowly limped around the
street, picking up and harnessing her knives.  It took only a few
minutes, then she hobbled to the nearest side street and turned
towards the hot springs.  Maybe if the blood didn't have enough time
to dry, she could clean it off.  The water was hot and she could scrub
it out.  Maybe.

Her knee was badly sprained and each step drilled a thick steel pin
home.  The pant leg surrounding it seemed tight, tighter than it
should be, and she was sure that her pants weren't getting smaller.
The other knee still had plenty of room.  She stepped carefully but
sometimes her haste turned the pin into heavy pick chopping away at
pain barriers.

Her cheek throbbed, too, but that was a lesser pain, more easily
ignored.  It didn't fluctuate, it was just a steady hum along her
nerves.  Except when she clenched her teeth those times when her knee
got hit by a sledgehammer.  Then it did hurt, but not as much.

It took her a half hour to reach the hot springs.  The blood felt dry.
The color was darkened and drying out to an almost-brown.  Her own
clothes she would have deemed trash.  Not this, though.

There were several small springs, the water bubbling up in different
areas.  Only the biggest one, the one with the lowest temperature, had
steps leading down into it.  One of the others was almost hot enough
to boil.  The earth surrounding it was of a similar temperature.
Chloe could feel the heat seeping through her shoes and knew she
wouldn't be able to stay here long.

Crouching was hell.  Each thump of the fuel lines contracting was a
crushing blow designed to torment.  She almost wished for her leg to
fall off so that her knee would stop hurting.  But if it did she
wouldn't be able to keep her balance when doing this, so she suffered
willingly.  She would clean the cloak.

She carefully dipped the garment into the water.  When she pulled it
back out it steamed.  Red dripped down from where it was heaviest,
spreading in a diluted red dye throughout the rest of the material.
She laid the cloak out on top of the ground and tried scrubbing at the
blood with a flat rock.  It'd work the clotted, thick mess free yet
wasn't rough-edged enough to cause tears or permanent stretching.  She
hoped.

She started where the blood was like a printed plastic design on a
shirt; heavy and stiffening, making the cloth feel cheap and
uncomfortable.  The crust softened slightly, turned more reddish and
runny, the absorbed water a thin spongy sheet that collected the dry
excess as it was rubbed free.

Chloe moved on to each bit of the stain, burning her hands on the
cloak and ground whenever they slipped from the rock, ignoring her
sawed-off knee's protests as she rocked back and forth, pushing the
rock as best she could.  Soon the scrubbed areas were so littered with
bits of congealed blood that she couldn't tell what was still stuck to
the cloak.  So she picked it up and leaned forward painfully to dip
the reddish-green thing into the water again, holding one edge
carefully as she shook the cloak back and forth.  Dirty crimson specks
swam free like ship-jumpers escaping the sinking Titanic.

When she pulled the cloak free the remaining stains looked almost like
they'd been there forever.  The affected areas just had a little blood
dried into them, nothing she could pull off with her fingernails or
separate from the actual cloth.  But the discoloring was easy to see.


A few hours later she started back for the Manor.  The cloak was heavy
and dripped, the water she hadn't been able to wring out escaping
slowly.  It was hot, too, where she carried it draped over one
shoulder, and the moisture seeped into her shirt where they touched.

The blood hadn't come out, and now appeared baked into the threads.

Her walk was slow.  The injured knee was worse and she could barely
take a step without wanting to cry.  If she thought she could make it
far enough she would try hopping on the other leg, but even holding
her damaged one up was very painful.  Chloe wished she could just lie
down and wait for Artena to come and carry her back to the Manor, but
why would Artena bother?

So she took one excruciating step after another, trying not to think
about what Artena's reaction to the ruining of the cloak Chloe had
been lent would be.

It took her almost two hours to walk back to the Manor.  Usually it
was a quick but relaxed forty minutes.  Today it was the march from
hell.

The sun was low and it was about time for dinner when Chloe arrived.
She didn't know if she'd be able to eat anything.  Her stomach felt
empty, butterflies need room for high-speed maneuvers, but she didn't
think holding it down would be easy.  She kept picturing Artena's
disappointment at her failure to be Noir, and her failure to keep the
cloak, whoever it belonged to, from getting damaged.  The tears and
thin runs of snot that dripped off her chin weren't all because of an
injured knee.

She hobbled through the doorway.  The smell of food scampered about
like an energetic puppy, making Chloe feel nauseous.  She slowed
beyond what he pain limits required, not sure if she really wanted to
go to the kitchen.  She knew she had to, though.  She couldn't hide
from Artena.  She'd tried it before and it always made the woman sad.
Chloe didn't want that.

So she stepped slowly, timorously, through the threshold and into the
kitchen.

Artena was at the stove, stirring something that smelled like it would
make her taste buds explode in an orgasmic frenzy.  Chloe's stomach
did flips and somersaults and all kinds of acrobatics that involved
not staying still.  She stood motionless, waiting.  Chloe was sure
that Artena knew she was there, knew when she had entered the Manor
and probably knew when she'd even gotten close to it.  Artena was much
better than she was.  So was that girl.

After a couple of minutes, Artena turned to look at her.  Chloe stood
still, dirty clothes hanging limply, her skin contaminated by dust and
scrapes.  She could feel the deep bruise on her cheek, and the
incriminating evidence hung heavily on her shoulder.  Her knee
trembled.

Artena's eyes studied her up and down, measuring, taking everything
in.  No surprise was evident, the woman just stood there, taller and
prettier and better than Chloe would ever be, looking at her as though
she had expected Chloe to show up with such a bedraggled appearance.
Except for when she saw the cloak.  When Artena saw the cloak her eyes
widened slightly and Chloe died.  That hadn't been expected.  Artena
had thought she would do better than that.

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes," Artena said, turning back to
her preparations.  "Why don't you go get changed?"

"Yes, Artena-sama," Chloe said quietly.  She turned and limped off to
her room.

Easing her leg out of the pants was difficult.  The knee had swelled
badly; it hadn't been her imagination that made the pants tight.
Chloe didn't want to ruin another garment, though, so she pulled the
knee out sharply.  She wiped her face on the sleeve of her shirt,
especially her eyes, which were dirty, and changed out of that, as
well, carefully putting on new, clean clothes.  Artena would do the
laundry later, hopefully getting out any of the simple stains that
might be in the stuff she was wearing.  Chloe carried the dirties,
along with the cloak, to the room the laundry stuff was in.

After she put her clothes in the basket she hesitated, then went to
the kitchen, still with the cloak.  Artena had already seen it, but...

The table was already set when she got to the dining room, and the
food was placed.  Artena stood up when Chloe entered.  She took the
cloak without a word, then held Chloe's chair for her and helped her
scoot it in after she'd sat.  Then Artena went to her own place again
and did the same.  She put the cloak on her lap.

When Artena started to eat, Chloe did the same.  The silence that was
normally comfortable wasn't.  Every time Chloe started to look up at
Artena she caught herself and tried to concentrate on her food.  She
didn't want to see.  Eventually her eyes met Artena's and she looked
away, ashamed.

"Artena-sama, I-"

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" the woman interrupted, and
Chloe nodded miserably.

She told Artena of how she'd gone to the ruins to look for Ranma and
noticed him following her, then how she'd waited and attacked from
ambush and still failed.  She told Artena of how she'd been beaten,
how she'd tricked Ranma and then stabbed and cut him.  She told Artena
of how Ranma had just left when she'd been defeated for real.  And she
told Artena of how she'd tried to clean the cloak, but that the blood
wouldn't come off.

At that, Artena stopped eating and looked down at her lap.  "You tried
cleaning this in the hot springs?"

"Yes, Artena-sama," she answered.

"Stains only come out when washed in cold water.  Hot water sets them
in," Artena said quietly.

Chloe didn't look up.  Her plate was wet, but it wasn't from something
she'd been served.  She didn't want to look up.

"I'm sorry, Artena-sama."

A scraping noise sounded.  It was Artena's chair moving across the
stone floor.  A rustling of cloth was the woman's standing, then came
the sharp clicking of heels to rock as Artena exited the dining room,
went out into the hallway.  The footsteps faded away and Chloe's food
swam in a hot salty sea.

Chloe's sweaty hands were on her legs, clenching the material of the
pants within each fist, soaking it through.  She held her eyes shut
because it was better than seeing everything blurry.  Thin snot
trickled into her mouth over the overhang of her upper lip.  The
little food Chloe had eaten was on the verge of successful rebellion.

After a few minutes of silence interrupted occasionally by a wet
sniffle, she knew Artena wasn't going to be coming right back.  Which
made things even worse, though she fought to make it not so.  She
wiped her face with the sleeves of her shirt, and they turned wet and
heavy and sticky, but she recovered herself enough to realize her food
had gone cold, and so had Artena's.

She might not be good enough for Noir, but she could at least clean
the dishes, so she set about doing so.  Chloe carried the dishes into
the kitchen, scraping the plates and other implements clean, and then
scrubbed them in the sink.  After each item was clean she dried her
hands with one towel and then carefully did the same for the dish with
a second.  It was slow, doing both tasks by herself.  Adjusting her
weight was painful as she leaned to one side to pick something up off
the counter for washing, or leaned to the other to pick one of the
towels up.  Plus she had to walk over to the appropriate cupboard for
each dish, since there wasn't a clean counter to stack the things on.
But Chloe wanted to get the job done before Artena returned to see her
in the middle of another unhand led mess, so she kept at it.  Each bit
of inflicted pain her knee could throw against her was met with a
surpassing desperate need to not fail in this, as well.

She finished the dishes, then wiped the counter and table down
carefully.  The wolf chewing on her leg went along obligingly, and
then there was no more to clean.  Chloe wondered if Ranma's kick had
done more than sprain, if something had torn or broken.  It felt like
it.

Chloe hobbled to the room with the laundry supplies, and Artena was
there, her back turned to the doorway Chloe stood in.  She was
kneeling on the floor with a wooden bucket before her, a metal rubbing
board angled into the water.  Artena scrubbed the cloak back and forth
across the board, the sudsy water sloshing around in the wide pail.
Chloe remained where she was, not wanting to get closer.  Artena
didn't respond to her presence at all.

Her leg hurt, though she was leaning on the opposite limb and the
doorframe.  Should she ask Artena to look at it?  Chloe had mentioned
her injury when telling of her fight with Ranma, so the older woman
already knew.  Artena had also seen that she was having trouble
walking.  Maybe she didn't think it was that bad?  Maybe she didn't
care.

"Artena-sama," Chloe said quietly.  No response, the scrubbing
continued.  "I'm going to bed, Artena-sama."

She waited a moment and then turned on her good knee and headed off to
her room.  When she got there she pushed herself into bed, pulling her
leg around awkwardly, and raised the covers to her chin.  She would
wait until Artena came to tuck her in.

Soon her knee started hurting, the position uncomfortable.  Lying on
her back made it stretched out, the natural tendency for the knee to
be slightly bent foiled by the flat surface of the mattress and the
weight of her leg.  So she turned to her side, to let the knee lie
flat against the bed.  That left her other knee on top, a ball of
pressure bearing down painfully.

Chloe shoved her pillow down between her legs to ease the pressure.
That helped immediately, the cool fluff soothing her injury.  Soon she
caught herself starting to drift off.  She hadn't slept in two days,
but she wanted Artena to come and say goodnight.  She would wait.

So she kept pinching herself as needed, opening her eyes to the
maximum, employing little tricks to keep herself from falling asleep.
She didn't know how long it was but eventually her legs started
getting warm as her body heat was absorbed into the pillow.  Her lower
body started to sweat, the previously comfortable room temperature
rising to the seek-shade zone.  The sheets, too, got hotter, and the
bed was a slow-cooking roaster that was just getting started.

Flapping her sheets to get some fresh air between them didn't help but
momentarily.  Folding the sheets back and leaving herself exposed to
the air quickly left her feeling cold except where the pillow was.
She didn't want to remove that because then her knee would start
hurting again.  Instead, she pulled the sheets back over her body.
They were cool for a little while and Chloe wondered how long she had
been waiting for Artena.

Before too long she had to move the sheets away again.  A few times
she could have fallen asleep but held out long enough to become
uncomfortable again, which left her fidgety and restless and wide
awake.  Artena would be along any time now.

The candle that had been burning on the nightstand beside her bed went
out.  The sudden blackness was only broken by little wisps of white
smoke that streamed up from the burnt string that hid under a puddle
of wax.  Chloe stared wide-eyed and concentrating until the wick
cooled.  Tendrils of white spread across the room as her eyes adjusted
to the lack of light.  They made odd shapes, like clouds, and Chloe
wondered if it was cloudy out, and if it would rain, cold water
falling upon Ranma in a flood of tiny bullets.  She hoped so.  She
hoped he went running for shelter and slipped on a wet rock or in the
mud and then hit his head and died.

Chloe noticed that the smoke was gone and wondered how long it had
been.  How long had she been waiting?  Was Artena still scrubbing at
the cloak, whoever it belonged to, or had she finished and decided not
to tuck Chloe in?  Was it because she thought Chloe was already
asleep?  No, if she cared she would have come to check anyway.  So
Artena was either still trying to work out those bloodstains or she
was in bed and sleeping without any concern and perhaps with a bit of
resentment towards the undeserving.  Chloe wasn't fit to live with
Artena; that girl was, but not Chloe.

That girl did everything better.  Everything but the knives, and so
Chloe practiced with those every day, even though the girl would still
win their fights, Chloe was the more skilled in that respect.  So she
practiced to keep it so.

The high, small window set in one wall of her room let in a bit of
light and soon Chloe could see her cupboard and the door and the
stones built up around and above and below her.  They were all in
varying shades of black and dark blue shadow but it was enough for her
to watch the door in its motionlessness, waiting.  Artena would come
to tuck her in, just like she always did except for the night of
Ranma's arrival.  She would.

So Chloe stared at the door, eyes wide-open in alertness, silent,
expectant, and ignoring how the sheet below her head became damp where
it touched her down-turned cheek.


Ranma woke, looked up sleepily, and got whacked in the eyeball by a
raindrop.  Then he scowled and pulled his shirt collar up over his
head for a bit of protection for the light barrage of chilled suicide
bombers.  Problem fixed, he went back to unconsciousness.


Ranma's arm was sore the next day all around where Chloe had stabbed
him.  Moving his arm wasn't too painful, but it was reminiscent of
over-enthusiastic training sessions that had been punctuated by deep
bruises that went all the way to the bone.  That was what his wound
felt like.  The scab over the cut itself looked healthy enough and he
guessed that his arm would be fully repaired within just a few days.

His hand was bothering him far more, however.  Every time he clenched
his fist, opened it up, or tried to hold something he would get a
burning sensation like from a disturbed paper cut.  With the sharpness
of Chloe's knife and the fact that the blade had barely done more than
open a flap of skin on his hand and cause a lot of blood to spill out,
a paper cut was just a less affected version of what he had.

Everything he did that raised a sweat dropped his hand into a vat of
salty acid.  He hoped that cut went away quickly.

For now, though, he snacked on some more grapes.  Yum.  Grapes for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner of every day.  He loved it.  If Chloe
came out he might just skin and eat her for the meat.  Not that he
knew how to do the skinning, his father always did that, but still, he
was going to have to find something else to fill his belly with.
Maybe sneak into the Manor and steal some food?  It couldn't be that
hard.

After finishing breakfast he looked over at the Manor to make sure
Chloe wasn't around, then headed back to the coliseum.  Time to get
some more practice in.  He knew what he was doing wrong now.


A bird mocked him, its voice shrill and unreasonable, proclaiming that
it could throw knives better than he could.  Ranma wondered if it was
right.  He'd spent a few more hours trying to improve, to no avail.
Maybe he was some kind of knife cripple.  Did handicaps get that
specific?

Ranma finished collecting his knives and returned to his throwing
point.  No matter which method he used, right handed throwing, left
handed throwing, or throwing with both hands, his performance was
abysmal.  He quit using his injured hand after only a few tries--his
accuracy went down even more, and the flapping skin started to leak
blood from underneath.  The other hand didn't do too much better, but
he'd keep on trying it.  He refused to give up, though the bird's
voice grew louder and more insistent.

Some of his knives sought out avian intelligence on the situation but
were turned down without being received.  That damn bird.

Soon enough he was hungry again.  The bird became more than a simple
annoyance.  It was mocking him, saying, 'Eat me.  Eat me, if you can!'
while chuckling in its insane way.  Ranma didn't know what kind of
bird it was but the thing looked like it tasted non-grapelike and had
a meaty texture.  That was a big plus.

The sun bore down and his arm sweated and ached and whined like crazy
as he worked it for hours without a break.  His rebellious limb tried
to toss itself to freedom with every abusive exercise of it, but he
refused to let it go.  It was his arm.  He owned it, no matte what it
might think of the matter.

He threw knife after knife at the wooden post, the only difference
coming when the bird would settle down for a minute, on the grass or
on a stack of bricks or even on top of the post.  Then he'd throw a
few knives at it, which never hit but scared the feathered fellow into
taking a walk, its obscenities banished temporarily.  Next open season
was again declared on the target and he went to town, unsuccessfully.


This simple practice just wasn't getting him anywhere.  He knew his
father would have been able to figure out the problem, but the old man
wasn't around.  Which way to Japan?  South?  East?  West?  He didn't
think it was north, mountains in their white-bearded and cranky dotage
could be seen up that way.

Ranma picked up his knives and went to go get lunch.  The bird
followed him like some demonic imp sent to make his life a nagging
hell, poking, prodding at him with its incessant presence.

He kept an eye out as he walked towards the Manor but Chloe was
nowhere around.  Was she still upset about losing to him?  He hadn't
beaten her that badly--his kick to her knee shouldn't have hurt the
girl that much, and she'd gotten him twice with her knife.  She'd been
the one unable to fight at the end of their match, but she hadn't done
too badly.  Better than anybody but his father and some of the dojo
masters he had fought while traveling.  So where was she?

Ranma ate from the outside edge of the grape field closest to the
Manor, watching the building entrance in between chomps on fleshy
victims.  Maybe Chloe had gone to the village, or to somewhere else
nearby, and since he hadn't seen her leave...

He frowned.  Chloe leaving when he wasn't paying attention was no
good.  He'd never find out which way to the village or Japan or
anything, like that.  So had she left, or was she just inside the
Manor?  Maybe she was outside and somewhere he couldn't see her?

Ranma finished another grape and stood, then turned around to look at
the hills surrounding him.  He didn't see Chloe, but she could have
just passed out of sight on the backside of a hill, or gotten far
enough away that she was a small, slow-moving dot that was just
unnoticeable.

Well, there was one place he could check...and it'd have food, too.

He studied the Manor intently.  He knew that there were windows on all
sides, plus the front doorway.  Big building, to have only one
entrance.  The terrain surrounding it was bare enough that anybody
paying attention would be likely to see his approach.  Which meant
getting there as fast as possible was the best way to cut down on
visibility.

Ranma ran quickly towards the front door, thinking sneaky thoughts,
quiet thoughts, thoughts about nobody being around but a few bunnies
and an annoying bird.  A hundred feet, seventy-five, fifty, twenty-
five, fifteen, ten, five.  He stopped abruptly when the doorway filled
before he got there and Artena stood blocking his passage.  She didn't
look quite as friendly as he remembered.

"Uh...hi," he said, slightly out of breath.  Grin.  Happy thoughts,
happy thoughts, starving-little-angel thoughts.  Feed me!

"Why are you here?" Artena asked.  The annoying bird flapped its way
over his head and settled on her shoulder.  It stared at him and
Artena paid it no mind.  Weird.

"Ummm..."  Ranma took a cautious sniff, tried not to give himself
away.  No food, dammit.  "Which way is Japan?"

"Any direction will get you closer to Japan," was her response.

For some reason he hadn't expected her to tell him.  "Right.  Say,
where is Chloe?  I haven't seen her."

"Why do you want to know?"

"She invited me for lunch..."

The bird laughed at him and he wondered if he could shove one of his
knives down its throat.  Artena's mouth just twitched slightly.  "We
already ate lunch," she said.  "If you do the dishes you can join us
for dinner."

"Oh, well, maybe later.  When is Chloe going to be out?"  He could
probably get Chloe mad enough to tell him where Japan was, just to
make him go away, but he was sure it wouldn't work with Artena.  It
wasn't working with Chloe so far, either, though.  The Saotome School
of Anything-Goes Being Annoying was usually more successful than this.
Maybe it didn't work as well on girls?  Or maybe Chloe knew all the
tricks?  It sure seemed like it.

"Not for a few days.  She sprained one of her knees and has to stay
off of it for a while."  She looked sad.  So did the bird, oddly
enough.  Why was it on Artena's shoulder?  It abandoned the sad look
and mocked him in some strange birdish manner.  He wasn't sure how
that worked, but something about the way it was looking at him was
definitely scornful.

"Do you want to tell her you're sorry?" Artena asked, distracting him
from the avian.

"What?  No."  It was Chloe's fault anyway, attacking him like that.
Plus she'd ripped his shirt.  Twice, actually.  Well, it had been her
shirt first, but it was his now so that didn't matter.  "I didn't even
kick her that hard."

The bird laughed and launched itself into the air, flew off.  Artena
paid it no attention, and Ranma considered trying to hit it with one
of his knives.  Soon it was a tiny black dot in a clean Etch-A-Sketch
sky.

Ranma turned back to Artena and notice how precisely in the center of
the doorway she stood.  He hadn't seen her fight any, but knew he
wouldn't make it past her if he tried, so he didn't.  "Okay.  Well,
I'm going, then.  Tell Chloe I said 'hi'."

"I will," was her response, the slight smile on her face again.

Ranma headed off after the bird, keeping an eye out for slower moving
critters.  Maybe he could tag a bunny or something.  Anything would be
better than more grapes.


Chloe looked up from her book as Artena entered the room.  "Artena-
sama?" she asked.  A pillow was propped under her knee for support,
and Artena had brought her another one earlier to put her back against
so she could sit up properly.

"Ranma came by," the woman said.  "He told me to tell you that he said
'hello'."

"Um, okay.  Did his arm look infected?"  A brief prayer.

"No, it looked fine.  It will be well-healed soon.  Probably before
your knee is."

Chloe nodded.  It would be.  Ranma was the better fighter, so he'd
recover faster.  That girl did, definitely.  "Did he say anything
else, Artena-sama?"

"He wanted to know where Japan was."

Yeah, so he could walk there.  "Did you tell him?"  Chloe had to kill
him.  If he left, that'd be harder.  Could she get a rocket launcher
and kill him with that?  It'd stop his grape filching, but Artena
didn't seem to care much about that.  Probably not.

"No, I didn't.  He'll stay here."

"Thank you, Artena-sama."

"How are you going to kill him, Chloe?"

"I don't know, Artena-sama."  Unless she could find him sleeping,
Ranma held the advantage.  Her knee testified to that.

"Well, keep thinking on it, then.  I'm sure you'll come up with
something," Artena said encouragingly.  "I have to go clean the dishes
now, so call if you need anything."  She smiled at Chloe and then
stepped out of the room without waiting for a response.

Chloe looked back down at her book.  She was rereading 'Through the
Looking Glass' since she hadn't gone back to the village to get a
replacement yet.  The book had been in one of the other rooms, Chloe
forgot where she had left it, but Artena had brought it to her that
morning, along with another pillow.  She'd been cheerful and as kind
as ever, checking Chloe's knee carefully so as to not cause any pain.


She hadn't stayed awake long enough for Artena to tuck her in, and had
been woken to breakfast in bed.  Artena had carried in a chair to keep
her company during the meal, handing Chloe her glass of milk when she
wanted it.  There wasn't a place on the bed to set the cup down, so
Chloe was glad about that.  Lunch had been delivered the same way and
they had talked normally during both.

Artena had said nothing about the cloak and whether she had fixed it.
Chloe hadn't asked, though she wanted to.  Artena hadn't given it
back, so she would assume it to be trashed.  Better that than simply
unreturned from lack of faith.  She was pretty sure which it was,
though.

Chloe sighed, put her book down, and wondered how she was going to
kill Ranma.  Catching him when he was asleep or going to the bathroom
was all she could come up with.  Both of those would require either
great luck or an ability to follow Ranma completely undetected until
he engaged in one of those activities, or something else gave her a
similar opportunity.

She was pretty sure she wasn't skilled enough at sneaking to avoid
Ranma's notice, and a week and a half wasn't enough time to improve
the necessary amount--especially when some of that time would be spent
waiting for her knee to heal.  She really only had about a week that
she would be able to use in order to kill Ranma.  That wasn't enough
time to get better.  Which meant that she was going to have to get
lucky, instead, or trick the pigtailed boy into making himself
vulnerable.

She had already pulled the weepy female routine once and it had
worked, but she didn't know if even someone as dumb as Ranma would
fall for it twice from the same person.  But there were other ways of
getting to him, to be sure.  Pretending to be hurt was only the most
obvious one.

Some of the others would require Artena's assistance, however, and
Chloe wasn't sure if that would be allowed.  She was supposed to kill
Ranma herself, not with somebody else's help.  Artena could easily
execute Ranma at any time; that she hadn't done so indicated it was
supposed to be a test of Chloe's abilities.

So, no help from Artena.  She wanted to kill Ranma on her own anyway.
But how?


Ranma chased the rabbit.  It hopped to the left, to the right, more to
the right, darted between the grape posts and took off down the row on
the other side.  When Ranma got to the end of the row he was in he
turned to where the bunny had escaped.  It was gone.  Damn rabbit.

The grapes laughed at him.  Well, they'd get theirs.  He'd see to
that.

The bird had taken off, he'd not seen the thing since it left him and
Artena standing at the entrance to the Manor.  Then that damn rabbit
had shown up and taken up the mocking game.  What was it with the
wildlife here?  Were they trained in psychological warfare?  Some
variant of the Saotome School of Anything-Goes Being Annoying?  No,
his pop was back in Japan, wherever that was, and wouldn't have taught
anybody but Ranma anyway.

Any direction gets him closer to Japan than staying here.  Heh.  That
was true, but it really didn't help him any.  The world was a big
place.  He didn't know how far he was from Japan or what direction he
had to go in to get back home, but he was sure that picking a
direction randomly would probably make it take a long, long time.

Which meant that he was going to stay here, wandering around in the
valley with no clue where to go.  The grapes would do him in before
too long, Ranma was sure.  Practicing with those knives had gotten old
and annoying.  He wasn't getting any better, he didn't know why; he
carefully copied Chloe's movements and the accurate throws that she
made almost every try were wildly varying misses for him.  So that was
no good.  Plus, Chloe was going to be inside the Manor for the next
few days, too, which meant that along with not wanting to practice he
would have nobody to play with.  Boring.

Ranma started walking through the grape field again, looking for more
rabbits.  Even a simple opponent was better than none at all.  And if
he did catch one, he could finally eat something different for a
change, break up the routine of grape after grape for days on end.
How he'd ever enjoyed the things he had no idea.


Chloe sat on the ground out in front of the Manor, her back up against
a tree and a pillow set underneath her knees.  Artena had put a second
case on the pillow to make sure it didn't get dirty.  Her book was on
her lap, angled nicely because her legs were raised somewhat.

Where was Ranma?  She had expected him to show up shortly after she
came outside, but she was already a good ways through the book and
it'd been a couple of hours since he had come by shortly after lunch.
If he'd decided to try leaving again, well, that'd make things
difficult.  Tracking him down when he left in a random direction and
had a lead of half a week after her leg healed would be almost
impossible.  The only way she'd be able to find him is if he turned
back towards the valley or if he lucked out in his bearing and ended
up coming across the village.  They wouldn't do anything to a
linguistically inarticulate young boy, not without instructions, but
if she showed up asking about him they would give her whatever
assistance they needed.  But that was only if he went by there, and
the odds on that were rather small when he would be taking a blind
guess.

Archimedes touched down a few feet in front of her, head cocked to the
side so it could look upon her directly.  The bird hopped forward a
few times until it was beside Chloe's legs.

Chloe smiled at her.  Artena hadn't thought the name fit.  The bird
wasn't that smart, she had said, but Chloe thought the opposite.
Archimedes was the most intelligent bird she'd ever met.  Archimedes
wasn't a female name, though, so Artena had been right about that.

"Hello," she said.  "Artena doesn't have anything for you to do?"

The bird's head shook back and forth, a quick, jerky set of motions.
Smart though it was, its communication abilities were still rather
limited.  It seemed to understand her well enough, though.

"Have you seen Ranma?  The boy that's been here lately?"

Archimedes stared at her, and Chloe wondered if it didn't understand,
then it turned itself to face out towards the grape fields, a bit west
of southwest.  Ranma must be out by the far edge of the fruit,
probably gorging himself on the things again.

Chloe nodded to the bird when it turned back to look at her, to
indicate that she understood.  Its response was to hop closer to her
again and look directly at her lap, where Alice in Wonderland lie.
Chloe grinned, delighted, and put her book on the ground, then her
hands to her sides to show that the coast was clear.  Archimedes
jumped up on to her lap, facing sideways so that it could continue to
look at her.  The impacts as it landed on her were light, barely
noticeable.  The book had been hardbound and heavier.

Slowly, Chloe brought one of her hands up.  Archimedes tensed
slightly.  Chloe could crush the bird in that hand, if she were of a
mind to, and she was sure that Archimedes knew that.  But it remained
still as she brushed her extended index finger down the back of the
smooth, egg-fragile head.  Its beak pulled upwards and her finger dug
in slightly to the crook between skull and back.  She scratched, and
Archimedes crooned, a soft vibration passing into her fingertip and
legs.

"Hold it still so I can chop off its head," Ranma said quietly.  "I'm
gonna eat that bird."

Chloe yelped in surprise, covered Archimedes by bending forward,
holding her arms in the space between her legs and chest.  Ranma was a
few feet in front of her, to the left side enough that he had
approached from behind the bird.  Chloe hadn't been paying attention
at all.

"You are NOT going to eat Archimedes!"  It was Artena's bird, her
bird.  If he tried to eat it she'd shove one of her knives down his
throat and see how sharp his mindless appetite was.  She could feel
Archimedes trembling against her, but the bird didn't struggle to get
free, which only would have hurt it.

Ranma stood still, a knife in each hand, glaring at her.  "Why not?
I'm hungry!  And I hate that bird!  It won't leave me alone!"

"I don't care!  She's my bird, you jerk, and if you touch her I'll
kill you!"  Her neck hurt from looking up at him with her body facing
the ground, but she stayed there, still, holding Archimedes
protectively.

Ranma relaxed slightly, his hands dropping most of the way to his
sides.  "Well, feed me, then," he said.  "You're costing me my dinner,
right?  So you have to make up for it."

"I do not!  Archimedes isn't your dinner!"

The knives came back up, and he smirked.  "Wanna fight for it?"  One
of them pointed at her knee.  He'd probably miss in a throw even from
this distance, clumsy imbecile that he was, but if he tried to stab
her, he'd have no problems.

Chloe flung one of her hands towards Ranma and he flinched, suddenly
awkward, probably because he wasn't sure what to do with the two
knives in his hands while being attacked.  But she hadn't thrown
anything, and she took his hesitation as an opportunity to sit back
up, freeing Archimedes, and cup the bird in her hands.  Chloe yanked
her arms skywards, propelling Archimedes into the air, the bird
narrowly missing several of the tree branches above.  Archimedes
recovered quickly and flew up, went through the branches, and then
took off towards the Manor.

Chloe grabbed the pillow from behind her back and whipped it at Ranma,
hitting him in the face before he could throw a knife at Archimedes.
She looked to see if the distraction worked and saw her bird escape,
flying into the Manor's open door and probably going straight to
Artena.  Maybe Artena would come out and kill the boy.

Her pillow smacked into the side of her head, knocking it into the
tree behind her.  The pillow fell back into her lap and she put a hand
to the back of her head to feel for injury, rubbing where it hurt.
"You jerk," she said, looking at Ranma again.

He just grinned at her and held up his hands.  The knives were gone
and she could see the hilts of a number of the things sticking out of
his pockets.  Replacing them was her book, closed, the page she'd been
reading lost.  "What's this?" he asked.

"It's a book."  Her own hand dropped back to her side, and Chloe
wished she hadn't decided to leave her knives in her room.  "Give it
back."

"What's it about?"

"It's about a little boy who got shoved into a sack full of useless
kittens and tossed in the river.  Now give it back."

Ranma gave her an odd look, stared at the cover, which just held the
title, then opened to a random page.  He frowned.  "I can't read it."

"It's in French."  Moron.

He grunted, snapped the book shut, then tossed it to her.  "Why don't
you read it in Japanese?"

Chloe caught it by the spine and started looking for where she'd been.
Since she'd just read it a few days earlier it was hard to remember
her place.  "Because it's not my book, and the person who owns it only
reads French.  Now go away."  She looked back towards the Manor and
saw that Artena was standing in the doorway, watching.

Ranma noticed the gesture and looked, too, saw Artena, then turned
back to Chloe.  "You owe me dinner," he said.

"No, I don't.  If you want Artena-sama to make you some food, go ask
her."

Ranma crouched down, facing her.  "No way.  She just wants to make me
do the dishes."

If Artena had a gun, she could shoot him from where she was standing.
Ranma would never even know what hit him, his head would just snap
slightly, a wet pinging noise would sound as the bullet ripped through
his brain and bounced off the inside of his skull, and then he would
fall over, legs still bent like a frog's, dead before he hit the
ground.  Artena did have a gun, Chloe was sure, but she never took the
shot and Ranma remained alive.

Chloe was glad, because if Artena killed him it would be because
Artena had decided she was unable to do it herself, that she was a
failure as Noir.

"If you told Artena-sama you were incapable of doing the dishes, she
might feed you anyway."  Chloe smirked slightly at Ranma's hungry
look.  "Try saying you are mentally handicap."

"Hey!"

"You can stand and both sets of fingers are usable.  That's all you
need for drying dishes.  Mental handicap is all you could claim."

"I ain't mentally handicapped!" he lied, outraged.

"You're limiting yourself to eating stolen grapes because you don't
want to rub some dishes down with a towel.  You're a moron," Chloe
told him.

"I am not!  I just hate doing dishes!"  Ranma was standing now,
glaring down at her.  "Now you take that back!"

"Or what?"  Chloe lifted her injured knee slightly.  "Will you kick me
again?  Stab me with one of my own knives, which you stole?"

His fists were tight and shook slightly, his face red with anger.  He
stepped forward and her knee tensed.  This would hurt.

Ranma stopped, turned, and stalked away, towards the grape fields, and
Chloe breathed out slowly.  He would have smashed his heel into her
knee, had been just about to do it, but he'd stopped.  She wondered
why.

"Are you going to be able to do it this way?" Artena asked from beside
her.

Chloe looked at the woman, wondering when she had come over.  "Yes,
Artena-sama.  It's just... difficult.  But yes."

Artena nodded acquiescence.  "Be careful.  Ranma was very angry.  He
views fighting as a game, and a fun one, so attacking him is fine, but
you can get him mad in other ways."

"I know, Artena-sama."

"Good."  Smile.  "If you need it, he can eat with us sometimes.  Only
if it is necessary, though."

"Thank you, Artena-sama.  That will help."  If she could feed Ranma,
this would be a lot easier, Chloe was sure.

"Archimedes is inside.  It will probably be a few days before I have
to send her out again, so you can check on her later, if you want.
She got a bit of a fright, it seems, but she's fine."

"Ranma wanted to eat her."

Artena's smile froze, dropped completely.  "Make sure he doesn't do
that.  It's very important."

"Okay, Artena-sama.  I will."  Chloe knew that if Ranma ate
Archimedes, Artena would probably kill him herself.

"Make sure," Artena repeated, then, "I'm going back inside.  Call me
if you want to come in or need something."

Chloe watched as Artena walked back to the Manor and went inside.  Had
she already been on the way over when Ranma was about to hit her?
Ranma hadn't been facing in the right direction, but could he have
sensed Artena coming?

Chloe hadn't, and never could unless the woman let herself be
detected.

She sighed and tried to find her page again.  It was going to be a
long wait for her knee to heal.


Ranma stomped carefully through the grape fields.  It was difficult,
being barefoot, so he was watching his step.  He purposefully made as
much noise as he could, smacking his hands against posts as he walked
by, kicking one every once in a while, the wood rough and loud and
smacking against the soles of his feet.  No rabbits had been scared
out yet, though.

Chloe was annoying.  He'd just been playing around with her about the
bird, he wasn't gonna kill her pet no matter how maddening the two of
them were.  But she coulda given him some food as compensation anyway.
It'd only be fair.  Instead she'd gotten all nasty and pissed him off
when he was trying to be nice because of her messed up knee, which was
her fault for starting the fight anyway.  Stupid girl.

*SMACK*

A fluffy head poked itself out from nowhere and stared at him.  They
both froze, then the bunny took off and Ranma ran in pursuit.  It
switched to the next lane over but continued in the same direction, so
Ranma followed it.

They hit the end of the field, the separator gigantic compared to the
rows they'd just left, and the rabbit turned away from him, ran down
the length of the pathway.  Big mistake.

Ranma's knives were in his hands now, the injured one slick and
stinging with sweat and a bit of blood.  He threw, the bunny didn't
change direction and just stayed straight ahead.  Both blades missed,
the quarry turned back into the fields, and he continued, not far
behind.  Fifteen feet into the row the rabbit threw itself between
posts, the vines running between stopping him from doing the same, and
kept going.  It was gone.

"Dammit!"  There went supper.

He went back to pick up the knives he'd tossed, then reentered the
field.  It was in there somewhere and it wasn't like he had anything
better to do than search for supper.


Chloe was helped into her chair, then Artena scooted it forward
gently.  "Thank you," she said, and Artena went to sit herself.  They
began to eat.

Between bites, Artena asked, "Has Ranma come back yet?"

"No, Artena-sama.  Not since he left earlier."  Where was he?  She
hadn't seen him walked towards the coliseum.  Maybe she'd missed it,
reading her book, but she didn't think she had.  He couldn't have been
eating grapes the whole time.  Chloe was pretty sure he couldn't have.

"The other girl will get here on the last day.  She'll be staying for
a little while, a few weeks, this time."

Chloe grinned happily.  "She's coming to visit?  I'll kill Ranma
before she gets here.  I will!"  It'd been a while since she had seen
the girl, the other Noir.  Months, she wasn't sure how many, had
passed.  Much too long.

"Good."  Artena's pleased smile made the news even better.  Ranma was
going to die, and then the other girl was coming to visit!  It would
be perfect!

She spent the rest of the meal plotting the boy's demise and thinking
about how nice the following weeks would be.


Hide and seek was a horrible game, when you were it.  He walked up and
down the rows, looking for some cute little critter to pop up and make
itself edible, but found nothing.  The grapes passed on each side and
his stomach grew increasingly demanding, but he ignored both.  Ranma
was going to eat something else this time.  He was!

Step.  Step.  Step.

Ranma's eyes narrowed.

Step.  Step.  Step.

The grapes were getting closer.  He wasn't sure how, but the rows were
becoming more narrow, the posts and vines and bunches getting bigger,
pressing in.  The dull purple became brighter, more alive, more
menacing.  They were watching him, hundreds and thousands and millions
of eyes staring, filled with malice.

Step.  Step.  Step.

A grape reached out and touched his arm, and that was it.  He ripped
into the enemy.  They ran away shrieking, but they weren't fast enough
and their numbers dwindled quickly from his attack.  The stragglers
were picked off first, then the main body took a hit to its center and
collapsed.  It was over.

Afterwards he lied on his back, a belly full of juicy grape flesh,
surrounded by seeds.  Even if he caught a rabbit or bird or something
else now, he was too full to eat it.

"This sucks."

Soon he started feeling drowsy, his digestive system declaring war on
the malicious little buggers.  Ranma wondered who would win, and fell
asleep.


The early bird gets the worm, but Ranma wanted something a little bit
bigger and not quite so slimy.  The sun was only partially risen, and
he was gonna catch him a rabbit.  They all seemed to still be in their
little rabbit holes, with better sense than to be up this early,
though.  He'd get one eventually.

Instead of checking the grape fields, today he was checking the area
around the Manor.

Ranma tripped, his foot falling an opening in the ground that he
hadn't noticed.  He yanked his leg out quickly, happy that he'd not
twisted it, and inspected the hole.  He put his face up against it,
the thing was almost as big around as his head, and looked inside.
Nothing.  If there were critters home, they were deep.  There had to
be rabbits in there somewhere, right?

Or it could be a snake as big around as his head, about to come out
for a morning snack of its own.

Ranma pulled back quickly, looking suspiciously at the hole.  Maybe
there weren't any rabbits in there.

He stood, stepped carefully around the hole, and then continued his
search for breakfast.


A few grapes can taste great, but Ranma was beginning to suspect that
there was some kinda aftereffect to eating the things.  A few, no
problem.  A lot, they start to get old.  Eat hundreds of the things
for days on end, though, and you about die.  It felt like that one
time he'd eaten two pounds of butter, yuck.  He'd never touched the
stuff again, and never would, either.

He'd eaten a lot more grapes than two pounds worth, though.

Ranma wobbled over to Chloe, who was reading under the tree again, and
collapsed to the ground.  He lay on his side, facing her, in case she
tried anything even with her bum knee.  She didn't even look up, and
Archimedes glared at him from her place on Chloe's shoulder.

He breathed out slowly, then back in through his nose, and smelt grape
air.  Gah.

"Isn't Archimedes a boy's name?" he asked.

She frowned, but continued to read.

"It is, isn't it?  I saw this movie with this kid who pulled a sword
out of this stone, Exterminator, and this old guy in it had a bird
named Archimedes, and it was a guy.  So how come you named it
Archimedes?"

He stared at her, then looked around lazily for a rock to toss at the
girl.

"It's not that easy to tell the difference," she said, finally, right
after he found a nice round one.

"Uh, yeah it is.  See, you just--"

"Not when you're three years old."

"Oh."  That would make it a bit harder.  "Still, that was pretty
stupid."

The bird chirped angrily, and Ranma wondered if he should throw the
rock at it, instead.  Wait, he'd probably hit Chloe in the face if he
tried.  Not that that was a bad thing.  Getting her mad wouldn't be
boring, at least.  Plus that'd happen even if he did hit the bird.  He
took aim, then tossed, and the rock flew past the tree without hitting
anything.  Figures.

How boring.  Too bad Pop wasn't here, he'd have somebody to spar.
Kata was dull and all the ones he knew were easy anyway.  Chloe was
busted as far as fun went, and he didn't think Artena would be any fun
to play with.  She wasn't even his age, and she couldn't be as good as
his pop was, so why bother?

"You still reading that book about the boy and the bagful of cats?" he
asked.

Both Chloe and the bird looked at him funny.

"What?"

"Well, yes," she said.  "It's a long book."

"So read it to me."

Chloe seemed annoyed, but flipped back to the start.  "'There once was
a boy who was shoved into a sack full of useless kittens and tossed in
the river,'" she began.

Creepy.

"'Luckily the kittens were able to claw their way out of the bag
before they drowned, leaving the boy to fend for himself.  Since he
couldn't swim he fell to the bottom, where he was found by a merman,
who poked the kid with his trident.  The boy tried to run away but was
too slow.  The merman captured him and took him to see the king.'"

Chloe flipped to the next page, then resumed.  "'The king...'"


She reached the end of the third make-believe chapter and glanced up
to see that Ranma had his eyes closed.  His mouth was hanging
partially open and a some kind of bug was in front of it, eyeing the
opening with consideration.  Imbecile.

"Archimedes," she said hopefully, but quietly, to her bird, who was
still on her shoulder, "go get one of my knives."

A blank look was her only response.  Now would be the time.  She'd
deliberately left her knives inside, to keep herself from trying to
take a chance that her knee would prevent her from succeeding in
anyway.  And now she could have slit Ranma's throat with the most
minimal effort.  It wasn't fair.

She didn't have anything she could use to attack Ranma with on her.
The boy was stronger and would wake in time to overpower her if she
tried to strangle him.  Nothing else she could have done right now
would have worked, either.  Yelling for Artena would just wake Ranma
up, which wasn't help at all, and she was supposed to kill him herself
anyway.

Chloe sighed, disappointed, and turned back to where she had left off
reading the real story.  She still had plenty of time.


Ranma woke, slightly.  Artena was in front of him, picking Chloe up.
One of the woman's arms was under Chloe's knees with one of the
pillows padding the contact, and the other was under Chloe's arms,
holding her up by the armpits.  Chloe was asleep.

He briefly considered running inside while they were busy and grabbing
some food.  He wasn't hungry again yet, though, and he had an odd
taste in his mouth anyway.  Probably from all those grapes, disgusting
things.  Plus he wasn't done napping.

He closed his eyes and drifted back off.


The sun had moved and the tree no longer shaded him.  Everything
behind his closed eyelids was a bright orange and that wasn't
something he could sleep through.  Ranma yawned and sat up, blinking
about and seeing that it was a little after noon.  He was hungry
again.  Time to take another shot at hunting.

He stood and began making his way slowly back over to the grape
fields.  Stupid critters probably loved the things.  This time he
wasn't going to give up until he had something new to eat.


Ranma collapsed to the ground, panting, completely out of breath and
energy.  Run here, run there, no matter what he did he couldn't catch
any rabbits.  It was like they had some kind of early warning system
to let them know he was coming.  He was sneaking about completely
silent, yet they still knew when he was approaching and took off
instantly.  And they were fast, too, bouncing all over the place in
seemingly random directions that he could never guess right ahead of
time.  None of his knives got very close to even tagging one.  Well,
not close enough.

There had to be some kinda trick to doing this, but he didn't have a
clue what it was.  He was already getting hungry enough that the
grapes were looking appetizing again, dammit.  That shouldn't be
happening!

He exhaled slowly, completely, and then stood again.  No more grapes.
Nope!  Some grape-eating critter it would be, instead!


Chloe was back under the tree again, reading her book and taking tiny,
neat bites out of sandwich.  Oh, how he hated her.  "Gimme that."

"No."  Another bite.  "Go ask Artena-sama to make you one."

"I don't wanna do the dishes!"

Bite, chew, swallow.  "Well, making a sandwich isn't something that
would make more dishes dirty.  All she has to do is cut stuff up.  So
she might make you one if you ask nicely and she hasn't already washed
the dishes."

"...you think she would?"

"No."

Ranma eyed what was left of her lunch.  "Wanna make a bet?"

Chloe held on to her sandwich with both hands, looking at him
suspiciously now.  "What?"

"I bet... that... um... a bunch of grapes would fill you up better
than half a sandwich would!"  That was so lame.

"Okay," she said.  "So go get me some grapes and we'll see."

No way.  "You'll eat what's left while I'm gone, won't you?"

She smiled.  "I won't."

Ranma stared at her.  "You better not."

"You better hurry.  I don't know how long I can wait."  Chloe glanced
down at the sandwich.  "It looks really good, doesn't it?  I sure
liked the first half."

He took off running.


Chloe stared as Ranma kicked up a small dust cloud in his wake.  If he
wanted to run the quarter mile there and back just to earn a sandwich,
that was fine with her.  Seemed stupid of him, though.  What was wrong
with grapes?  She ate them all the time.  His mother must have taken a
few bad falls when carrying him, because Ranma had problems.

She set the sandwich down between her legs, on the pillow beneath.
Ranma would be back for it quick enough.  He was already halfway
there.  Must be the motivation.

Chloe picked her book back up and resumed reading.


Ranma came to a stop in front of the sandwich-holding girl, a huge
lump of grapes almost as big as he was cradled to his chest.  They
were large and heavy things and he doubted even he could eat the whole
bunch without getting full.  Chloe had a smaller appetite.

"Here ya go," he said, and dropped the grapes in her lap, the sandwich
snatched from her hand sometime later in that same second.

Ranma took a big bite out of it as he sat down and suddenly a third of
the thing was already gone.  Must take smaller bites.  "Ow."  A huge
shock jolted through the lower back corners of his mouth.  He hated
that.  Another sign that he'd been living on grapes for too long, if a
simple sandwich could give his taste buds a heart attack.

Chloe started on the grapes.  She ate one, he took a bite, she ate
another, he took another bite.  After a few repetitions of this his
sandwich was gone.  Ranma licked at his fingers, and Chloe ate another
grape.  There were over a hundred of the left.  It wasn't fair.

"Are you gonna eat all those?"  He didn't really want to, but he had
to have something else.  That sandwich half was so tiny!

"Yes."

"You're going to eat every one of those grapes?" he asked,
incredulous.

"Yes.  Go get your own, if you want some."  She was annoyed!  At him!

"Fine."  He'd watch, and she'd have to eat EVERY ONE!

Chloe ignored him and resumed reading her book, popping grapes into
her mouth regularly.  He noticed that she turned the book pages with a
hand other than the one she tossed the messy seeds away from herself
with.

"Read more of that story," Ranma said to her.  "I fell asleep,
earlier."

She looked up, sighed, and then turned back to near the beginning of
the book.  "When did you fall asleep?"

He tried to remember.  "Um, the boy was sent by the mermaid king to
fetch a pearl that an evil diver stole from a great big octopus."

"It was an oyster, not an octopus."  Chloe flipped a few pages.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Okay," she said.  "'The mermaid king took the boy back to land, with
a warning that if he didn't return he would never see his beloved
snake friend again.   He would be unable to pee.  The boy's bladder
would just fill and fill until the boy exploded and died.'"

Ranma winced.  That evil mermaid king!

"'The boy swore that he would return before it was too late, and set
off to find the evil diver.  He knew it would be a long, dangerous
trip, but the alternative was too horrible to bear.  The boy would
succeed!'"

Ranma listened intently.  This was much better than the stories his
father told about growing up to run a boring dojo!

#####

End of this chunk.  Hope you enjoyed.  ^_^



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