- The Traveler -
By Louise McCrowe

- Chapter 1 : Once here -

Ryouga fidgeted with the ringchain, as he'd come to call it.  It was 
pretty, whatever it was, and he'd come up with a few ways to wear it, 
although he could never be entirely sure.  He tried adding an extra chain 
and hanging it on his forehead like he'd seen some Indian girls do.  The 
shape was just wrong, though, and the middle ring hung way too low, hitting 
his nose.  It couldn't be used as a bracelet, unless the wearer had 
extremely small wrists.  The storeowner hadn't been much help, either.

"Well, son, this looks like a portion of the fabled 
earring-necklace-bracelet-headpiece of FriNn," he had said, pulling out a 
dusty tome, "if it weren't for the fact that... here. See?" He showed an 
illustration of a short girl in a long white dress wearing a decidedly 
weird contraption. "The rings in the headpiece are much smaller, there are 
only two, and they are pretty far apart," he concluded.

"That, and they look nothing alike, old man," Ryouga had replied, comparing 
the illustration of the contraption being worn on the girl's hand, arm, 
neck, and head to the small three ring set in front of him.

"Look," he had continued, ignoring the boy, "it might just be a really 
fancy set of keychains, you know?  Used by janitors worldwide?"

"With these little rings?  And no way of hooking it to anything?" Ryouga 
was right.  The rings really didn't have any way to hook themselves into 
anything.  Either something was hooked to them, or they were used as rings.

"Listen, I don't know what it is, but I suppose I could pay you a decent 
price for the material.  That chain looks like silver, even if the quality 
isn't exceptional."

Ryouga had turned down the offer, deciding to have a girl take a look at it 
before getting rid of it.  In the worst case, he could always just give it 
to Akari without knowing what it was.  Seriously, though.  What are the 
chances of stumbling upon something like the forbidden Medallion of 
Uncontrolled Undead Summoning twice?

He tried wearing it around his index and middle finger, placing his pinky 
through the remaining ring.  The connecting fourth ring (which Ryouga had 
long decided was definitely not meant to house a finger) just hung there, 
swinging below his palm.  He frowned, and placed the ring from his index 
finger on his thumb.  He smiled at the result.  It was still strange, but 
now the ringchain made a nice triangle pattern if he opened his hand, and 
the light caught the central ring in a very pretty way, making it's azure 
color more pronounced.  Even if it wasn't how it was worn, it seemed right 
enough to present it as such.

"Why, hello, Ryouga.  How are you?"

Ryouga turned around, surprised at the voice.  There was a very nice girl 
standing behind him, with a bag of groceries in her hands, her hair tied in 
a loose ponytail.

"Kasumi! Hi," he replied, as best he could.  He was pleasantly surprised, 
but then realized that he was actually trying to get to Akari, and not 
Akane, which meant...

"I'm in Nerima," he said, dejectedly.

"Hm-hm," she replied, smiling politely.  She would never make fun of 
Ryouga's sense of direction, and tried to be as compassionate as she could 
towards him whenever he happened to stumble (many times literally, as he 
seemed half dead at the end of most of his trips) in.  "Could you help me 
with my groceries?  I could take you back to the dojo when I'm done, and 
you and Ranma can have fun."  She smiled again.  She knew what their 'fun' 
meant, but if she acknowledged it, chances are that they would see that as 
encouragement.  As long as no one got hurt, she could stand it.  It came 
with living in a martial arts environment for a good part of her 
life.  Plus, Ranma usually became more cheerful when Ryouga was around.

Ryouga thought this over for just a second before nodding.  Even if he 
didn't exactly want to get to the Tendo Dojo right then, preferring to stop 
by Akari's farm so some of the gifts didn't rot, helping Kasumi wouldn't be 
a problem.  It would be relaxing, actually, all things considered.  Kasumi 
didn't have any hidden agendas, had never humiliated him, was always 
pleasant, and was one of the few girls around whom he didn't get 
nervous.  He paused at that thought.  Kasumi was a girl.

"Kasumi, is this something that girls wear nowadays?" he asked, showing her 
his outstretched palm.

She looked at it for a second, then said, "Hmm.  That looks like the fabled 
headpiece of FriNn, except it's totally different."  She stared at it for a 
few seconds more, before shaking her head.  "Sorry.  It looks pretty, but I 
can't say that I recognize it.  Why?  Do you think it makes you look unmanly?"

"It's not for me!" he nearly shouted, flustered, "I... I just wanted to 
know if a girl would like this, is all..." he finished, in a lower voice.

Kasumi smiled a small, knowing smile, "Ryouga, don't worry.  It's very 
pretty, even if it's... well, I don't know what it is.  I'm sure she'd love 
the gesture, that's all that matters," she said, patting his arm. "Now," 
she continued, "let me just..." she reached to the rings, and gently 
twisted them in Ryouga's fingers. "There.  That would look better, I suppose."

Ryouga looked at the ringchain.  The hanging ring wasn't hanging that much 
anymore, the chains having been drawn tight.  It did look a lot better, and 
he squinted at the rings, noticing that the fine chain actually retracted 
inside of them.

"How did you know?" Ryouga asked, embarrassed to have missed such an 
obvious detail.

"Oh, girls just do," she said, with a small wave of her hand.  "Now, 
Ryouga?" She presented her bag to him, and he took it, accompanying her for 
the rest of her groceries, never having removing the ringchain.

Some time later, Ryouga was carrying six bags of groceries, following 
Kasumi closely.  How she would have been able to carry home so much by 
herself had he not shown up was a mystery to him, but he didn't dawdle on 
it for long.  It wasn't as if it bothered him, even with his backpack still 
strapped, this was far less than what he was used to.

Kasumi, on her part, didn't tell him that she was already heading home when 
they met and decided to use his brutish strength to stock up on food.  No 
reason to make six trips to the market when there is a human mule walking 
around.  Ranma was starting to notice that Kasumi always bought bulk when 
he went along and was starting to mysteriously vanish about the time she 
would leave for shopping.  Kasumi figured that neither Ranma nor Akane 
would have been home anyway, so there would be no reason to leave poor 
Ryouga walking around the house without any purpose.

"We're here," she announced, not so rhetorically, considering Ryouga was 
ready to keep on walking past the front gate. She opened the gate and 
ushered her entourage in.  Ryouga followed her to the kitchen, where he 
placed the bags on the counter.

"You can sit down in the living room, if you want.  Ranma should be getting 
home soon," Kasumi offered, opening a cupboard.

Ryouga thought about the perilous journey to the living room, and decided 
that it wasn't worth the risk.  "It's OK, Kasumi, I'm not tired.  I'll help 
you out."  He took out a tub o' lard from one of the bags (they were really 
big bags) and looked at Kasumi.

"Oh, that goes over there," she said, motioning to the cupboard behind 
him.  Ryouga promptly turned around, opened it, and placed the tub o' lard 
inside.  He couldn't help but notice how dark that particular cabinet was, 
it almost seemed to be swallowing the light.  He closed it and turned to 
Kasumi, another item from the bags in hand.  She informed him of where it 
went, and he placed it there.  This process repeated itself a few times, 
with Ryouga only sometimes storing the products without asking, knowing 
where the eggs went, for instance.  He couldn't help but notice just how 
dark some of those drawers, cabinets, cupboards were.  Not all of them, and 
not all the time, he noticed as well.  Finally, they were done and Kasumi 
suggested (as in, forced) Ryouga to wait in the living room while she got 
tea ready.

Ryouga took a few steps out of the kitchen and was confronted with a 
door.  Whether or not there was supposed to be a door on the way from the 
kitchen to the living room was inconsequential.  Ryouga had long ago learnt 
that the second he stopped to look around, he'd actually get more lost than 
before.  Without a third thought, he placed his hand on the doorknob and 
stepped through the darkest doorway he'd seen in daytime yet.

He closed the door, feeling around for a light switch.  After a few seconds 
of fumbling, he realized how stupid this was, and decided to open the door 
to let some light in, and then maybe shout for Kasumi.  If he had just 
walked into a closet, he'd be damned if he was going to shout for help 
while still inside it.  He found the door relatively easily (after only 
three tries.  Impressive, considering he hadn't budged his feet so far), 
and opened it.

Outside, Ryouga saw outside.  He did a double take, but it was still 
there.  Outside the door, was outside.  He wasn't inside a house any 
longer, he wasn't even in the yard.  He was plain outside the house.  He 
stepped out and looked back, noticing where he had just come from.

"A porta-potty?"  Ryouga asked himself in a very low voice.  He hadn't been 
daydreaming, he wasn't walking unnecessarily, and he wasn't thinking about 
Akari or Akane.  How did he get from the Tendo Dojo to a portable toilet?

Ryouga looked around, trying to see if maybe the dojo was just around the 
corner or something.  He wasn't crazy.  He knew there was no way he could 
have left the house in such a few number of steps.  Realizing he had 
absolutely no idea where he was, Ryouga lowered his head.

"This is all your fault!  Ranma Saotome, Prepare to die!" came a mighty 
bellow.  Good resonance, nice enunciation, Ryouga noticed.  However, the 
voice sounded wrong, and, most importantly, didn't come from him.  He 
looked up and noticed a Japanese boy, dressed in yellow, orange and black, 
lunge at him from above, wielding a familiar red umbrella.

To be continued...



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