Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakugan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

I am not subscribed to the FFML, so please direct any commentary
to my personal e-mail address.  Comments are welcomed,
appreciated and very helpful to the continued betterment of this
series.  

I have also set up a page for this series.  If you've missed
previous chapters, you'll be able to find them at the Waters
Under Earth page at http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/9758/

Chapter 6 : Stained Be My Soul (4/4)

     "Why?" Ranma asked.  "Akane and everyone else is probably
tryin' to find us right now..."

     He trailed off.  "But you don't want them to, do you?"

     Cologne said nothing.

     "Answer me," Ranma said, a little too loudly.  "Dammit,
Cologne, answer me."

     "What question?" Cologne said.  "Do you want to know why it
was so easy for you to kill, or why I am currently working at
blocking whoever may be making attempts to find us?"

     "Both," Ranma sighed.  "Tell me why you don't want them to
find us first."

     "They may not be the only ones looking," Cologne said.
"Those two women who followed us up here, whoever they were..."

     "The one Ranma killed was called Denkoko," Kima said softly.

     Ranma closed his eyes against the memories.  "The one in
black was called Yamiko.  What about her?  What happened to her?"

     Cologne shook her head.  "I don't know.  I told Happosai to
help them out; together, they likely managed to defeat her."

     "You just left them?" Ranma said in a strangled voice.  "You
just left them?  Your own-"

     "Shut up, boy," Cologne said wearily.  "I know what I did.
It was not easy.  But I had reasons for it."

     "Well, I wanna know them."

     "All in time," Cologne breathed softly.  "All in time."

     "Well hurry it up," Ranma said.  "I've got to know... I've
got to know what I can do to stop this thing from happening ever
again."

     A soft chuckle emerged from Cologne.  "Might you be able to
drain the ocean with a tablespoon at the same time, Ranma?"

     "Enough," Kima said quietly.  "Cologne, if you won't give 
him an explanation, let me."

     Ranma looked at her, surprised, and gave her a silent nod of
thanks that received no acknowledgement on her face.

     "Let us start with your dreams," Cologne said.  "And the
change that has recently come over you in battle.  They both
spring from the same source."

     She fell silent suddenly, body trembling slightly.

     "Which would be?" Ranma prompted after a moment.

     "It's back," she said, an edge of pain to her voice.  "It's
trying to find him again.  I can feel it..."

     "What's goin' on?" Ranma said, turning and addressing Kima.

     "I'm not sure," the winged woman said with a frown.  "I only
awoke a half-hour before you did.  Cologne tells me we've been in
here perhaps five hours."

     Five hours.  Five hours in which anything could have
happened to Akane and the others.

     Cologne moaned softly.  "How can it be so strong..."

     A tremor ran through her body again; droplets of
perspiration beaded her face, glistening in the pale light of
whatever it was Kima held.  "So strong..."

     Her body stopped trembling and went rigid, as if steel bars
had been driven through her limbs.  "Ahh... no, no, no."

     Not quite knowing why, he scrambled across the rough stone
floor towards Cologne, grabbed her one of her hands in both of
his and trapped it between them in a tight grip.  Her hands were
so small, and he realized in that moment that she herself was a
very small woman.

     "Cologne?"

     A silent question, silently answered, not even quite
realizing he had given an answer.     

     He felt something rise within him, that inexplicable feeling
that arose whenever he channeled his ki into a technique.  It was
impossible to describe; a loss, a gain, an opening and a closing.

     Something passed between them, and Cologne's hand contorted
in his, nails digging into his palm hard enough to draw blood.
She groaned softly, and then slumped forward.  He caught her by
the shoulders.

     "Cologne?"

     Her eyes slowly opened.  "Thank you.  I'm not quite sure
what you did, but it worked.  A ki transfer, I suppose.  But it
was enough; it won't be back."

     "It?" Ranma asked.  "What are you talking about?"

     "Someone was seeking you," Cologne sighed.  "Through magic.
They had many weaves tied to you; I was breaking them one by one,
but then they realized it.  I managed to shatter the last few
with your help."

     "Who?"

     "I don't know," Cologne said edgily.  "Whoever sent those
two women, perhaps."

     "You okay now?" Ranma said.  Cologne nodded and he released
her shoulders; she settled back into sitting down with her legs
stretched out and looked at him evenly.

     "About the dreams, then," Cologne said.  "Do you know what
reincarnation is?"

     "Yeah, sure," Ranma said, although his voice sounded
uncertain.  "Karma an' stuff."

     "By strict definition, it is the idea that while the body is
mortal, the soul is eternal," Cologne said softly.  "And that
when the body dies, the soul enters into a new body.  Usually you
are unaware of any past lives you may have lived, but certain
people, under certain conditions, can begin to remember.  It
begins with dreams.  It can lead to drastic changes in
personality, in the way we behave towards other people.  It can
make us ice where once we were fire."

     Ranma sucked in a breath.  "So... I'm remembering past
lives?"

     "It is perhaps the easiest way to think of it," Cologne
said.  "But it goes deeper than that.  Far deeper."

     She looked at him for a moment.  "You have been having other
dreams, have you not?  Different ones.  Not memories of what has
been, but dreams that seem real."

     Ranma looked uncomfortable.  "I don't know..."

     "Ryugenzawa."

     He looked back at Kima.  "What?"

     "You have dreamed of Ryugenzawa, have you not?" Kima asked
quietly.  "I think that is what it is called.  The forest."

     He slowly nodded.  "I think."

     He turned back to Cologne.  "But it still doesn't add up,
Cologne.  Whatever's goin' on in my head, it doesn't add up to
you kidnappin' my mother.  It doesn't add up to you tryin' to get
me to fight you.  None of this adds up."

     Cologne sighed.  "We have many reasons for what we do,
Ranma.  I had... planned to make it appear in the fight that you
had been killed.  That we both had."

     "WHAT?" Ranma shouted.  "I take it back.  You are crazy!"

     "They will kill her," Cologne said.  "They will kill her and
call it justice.  They will kill my great-grandaughter, or
worse."

     "But I said I'd go back," Ranma said.  "I don't want
anything to happen to Shampoo.  I don't... I don't feel that way
about her, but she's my friend, Cologne.  You have to know that!
I know... I know I haven't handled things as well as I could
have, but I said I'd go back to China with you guys.  I..."

     "It would destroy her," Cologne said.  "As surely as not
having you as her husband would make the Council destroy her.
You saw what she tried to do."

     Ranma nodded.  "I'm sorry."

     "It's not entirely your fault," Cologne grudgingly admitted.
"Some of what I said to you when I took your mother was to make
you angry."

     "But a lot of it was true," Ranma interjected.  "A lot of
it."

     Cologne looked at, mild surprise written on her face, then
shook her head slightly without saying anything more.  She
reached behind her back and tossed something onto the floor
between them.

     Ranma shrank back involuntarily at the unpleasant memories
the object conjured.  A rod with two blunt-toothed blades at one
end, a silver chain leading to a silver bracelet on the other.
Denkoko's rod.

     "That's another reason," Cologne said softly.  "I'd
suspected it for a long time, but this is my first real proof.
This weapon is an Amazon artifact, the only one of its kind.  I
last saw it in the village treasure room three years ago.  There
are traitors in the village, somehow connected to those two
women."

     "But what does that have to do with me?  Why were those two
women after me?"

     "I'm not sure," Cologne admitted.  "Did they give any hint
to either of you?"

     "The Circle Eternal," Kima said from where she sat.  "The
one who I fought said she was a member of something called the
Circle Eternal."

     "That mean anything to you?" Ranma asked Cologne.

     Cologne shook her head.  "No."

     "She said she was from the Circle when she was fighting me,"
Ranma said.  "They wanted something from me.  I don't know what."

     "Until the Phoenix falls, his fires dimmed by the one from
across the sea, never shall be the valley be open to the Dark.
By this sign shall we know his coming, by this sign we shall know
the end of what has been and the beginning of what is to be.
The circle unbroken shall cast its shadows across the east, the
wolf shall gnash bloody jaws at the sun, and only by his coming
shall the valley be saved."

     Cologne and Ranma turned their heads to look at Kima.  "What
was that?" Ranma asked quizzically.

     "You're right," Cologne said over Ranma's head to Kima.  "It
does sound similiar.  The circle unbroken..."

     "I don't know any other passages by heart," Kima said.
"That's just one that stuck in my head."

     "I'll have to look for other references later," Cologne
said.

     "Can you please tell me what you two are talking about?"
Ranma sighed.

     "The Book of Fire and Earth," Kima said.

     "And that would be?"

     "A book of prophecy, I suppose," Cologne said.  "One of
many, but among the oldest."

     "The original was written over three thousand years ago,"
Kima said.  "Early in the history of Phoenix Mountain as things
go."

     "The Joketsuzoku have them as well," Cologne said.  "Our
primary one is the Treatise of the Forgotten Elders; it's not
nearly as old as the Book of Fire and Earth, but, then again,
even the Joketsuzoku do not have a continuing line of history as
far back as Phoenix Mountain."

     "But what does any of this have to do with me?" Ranma said,
frustration in his voice.  "All I asked was for you to tell me
what the hell's going on, and I'm just more confused.  Give me an
answer, Cologne!  What's going on with my mind?  Why were you
gonna try to make it look like the two of us were dead?"

     He clenched his right hand into a fist and knuckled it
against his forehead.  "Dammit, what's WRONG with me!"

     "The books concern you because they are about you," Kima
said.  "They told of your coming to Jusenkyou and your curse
thousands of years before you were born.  They told of your
battle with Lord Saffron."

     "What is going on with your mind I will shortly explain as
best I can," Cologne said.  "Right now, you need to understand my
behaviour."

     She leaned forward slightly, one hand cupping her chin, and
looked at him.  "By the old made young shall his thread seem
torn, his fire made ash, and the eyes and hands of the Dark
turned away from him as surely as the hearts and minds of those
who know him.  A darkness done in the name of light, a means
towards an end, a lesser evil."

     "That's from those books as well, isn't it?" Ranma said.

     Cologne nodded.  "From the Treatise."

     Ranma sighed and shook his head.  "I dunno..."

     "Ranma," Cologne said.  "I had to do this.  For many, many
reasons.  At the core was the need to remove you from the
observations of whatever it was that those two women came from.
It had to be done in such a way that it would look as if your
family and friends had no knowledge of it."

     "Why?" Ranma said.  "My mother, Akane...  How can you just
expect me to... you expect me to just leave them with no
explanation?"

     "Ranma, what that woman did to you," Cologne said slowly.
"Is nothing compared to what they would do to anyone they thought
had knowledge of where you'd gone."

     "Then how can I just go?" Ranma demanded.  "How can I just
go?  If this Circle, whatever it is, if they're all like those
two women, how can I leave them unprotected?"

     "Because it is only in absence that you can protect them,"
Cologne insisted.  "They do not care about them.  They care about
you."

     "And it is only if he seems to be gone completely that your
great-grandaughter will be protected," Kima interjected in a
quiet voice.  "That is a part of it as well, I do not doubt."

     Cologne slowly nodded, although she shot the other woman a
glare that looked capable of melting stone.  "That is a part as
well."

     Ranma sighed and rubbed his temples with both hands.  "I
don't know what to think, Cologne.  I..."

     "Boy, if ever you have had reason to trust me, believe me in
this," Cologne said softly, with almost a note of pleading to her
voice.  "As long as you remain with them, all those that you care
for are in danger."

     "I've always kinda thought that," Ranma said quietly.  "Ever
since I showed up, Akane's life..."

     He shuddered slightly.  "This thing... this change in me.
It seems to come out in a fight, and it's worse and worse every
time.  What if the next time Akane gets mad and takes a swing at
me, it decides..."

     The sound of the woman's neck breaking.

     "Oh god..." he said, putting his face in his hands.  "How
can I go back?  How can I go back after what I did..."

     "You can't," Cologne said softly.  "You never can.  I have
with free will ended nine lives in my time.  Each time it never
becomes easier.  Killing should never become an easy thing."

     "Avoid rather than check," Ranma mumbled into his hands.
"Check rather than hurt.  Hurt rather than maim.  Maim rather
than kill."

     His shoulders shook, there in the dim light cast by the
object in the box Kima held.  The winged woman watched him, pale
blue eyes reflecting in the light of the box, watched him in
utter silence.

     "It didn't need to happen," he whispered mournfully.  "I
didn't need to kill her."

     "You can never answer that," Cologne said.  "Whether it was
necessary or not, it is done."

     "What have I become?" Ranma said in a voice so low it almost
could not be heard.  "What have I become?"

     "It can be controlled," Cologne said in a soft voice.  "You
can learn to control it, direct it.  It is a part of your soul,
Ranma, a warrior's instinct and skill bound up in your very
being, a thing deeper than flesh or blood or bone, as old as
battle itself.  You can never be rid of it.  But you can turn it
to your advantage."

     "I killed her," Ranma said, as if he had not heard.  "Oh,
god... I killed her."

     "She would have ended your life far far more easily," Kima
said, breaking her silence.  "She was a sadist and a killer to
her core."

     "But I killed her," Ranma said, looking up from his hands
with eyes scarred deep by remorse.  "She didn't kill me.  I
killed her.  What does that make me?"

     "No more than what you are," Cologne said.  "It has always
been a part of you.  But it can be controlled, and from the
seething rage of it you can forge a weapon that you can direct."

     "How?" Ranma said.  "Cologne, if what you say is true..."

     "I chose this spot for a reason," Cologne said quietly.
"Ryugenzawa is a day away, walking.  It begins there."

     "I thought it would," Ranma said.  "I dreamed of it.  I
think I did.  But..."

     "But what?" Cologne said.

     "What about Akane and everyone else?" Ranma asked.  "How do
we know they're okay?"

     "Did you meet Shiso?"

     (...the sound of the raven's cry...)

     "Huh?"

     (...whisper of night-black feathers against his face...)

     "Perhaps not."

     (...an endless stream of names flowing into his mind...)

     "Sounds kinda familiar.  Some friend of yours?"

     (...too many, an overflow, no more could be contained, but
they were still coming, still coming, splashing over the sides,
but they could not be contained and they slip away from him like
water through his fingers...)

     "A very old friend."

     (...he wants it to stop but he does not want it to, he wants
to know, he wants to know, for in those endless ageless infinite
dark eyes are answers to questions he does not know how to ask,
but the raven continues to speak, and in his eyes is something
deeper than oceans, deeper than chasms at the bottom of the sea,
deep beyond depth...)

     A crack of light appeared on one wall, and then the sound of
someone swearing through a mouthful of dirt.  Stones and pebbles
clattered on the ground, and then a large, dark-feathered shape
half-fell, half-fluttered to land on the ground in a shower of
dirt.

     "You could have left me a small opening," the bird said, his
beak occasionally adding a clicking sound to the words.  He
immediately began to shake his wings, throwing off the dirt of
his passage.

     "Sorry," Cologne said.  "Tell me, are they well?"

     The bird bobbed his head in a nod.  "They are well.  They
are looking for you."

     "They are?" Ranma said.  "I've gotta go see Akane."

     He pushed himself to his feet.  One leg promptly collapsed
under him and he fell to the floor, scraping his palm as he
absorbed his fall with one arm.

     "Don't you see, Ranma?" Cologne said softly.  "We can't go
back.  Not after what's happened."

     The sound of the woman's neck breaking.

     "You're right," Ranma said, with a slightly bitter laugh.
"You're right.  I can't go back.  Not now.  Not ever."

     "Only not yet," Cologne said quietly.  "I have told you what
I can, Ranma.  Now I ask you this; will you come with us to
Ryugenzawa?  For if you seek a cure for what you believe ails
you, it is there that you may find it.  Will you come?"

     The question is asked for the first time.

     Ranma looked around the small cave, illuminated in the dim
light of the artifact Kima held.  The light shone on bare, rough
stone walls.

     He looked from Kima to Cologne.  An enemy a week ago, not
even truly human, and an old woman two days ago now made young.

     He looked to the raven, inexplicably familiar.  The dark
eyes glittered back at him like pools of night, and from
somewhere he conjured a memory that the eyes of a bird are not
supposed to be a solid expanse of black.

     "Will you come to Ryugenzawa?" Cologne repeated, and asked
the question for the second time.  And for a second time, it was
answered by silence.

     There are certain points in our lives when we stand upon a
fork, a crossroads, and one small decision at one certain time
in one particular direction will cause a hundred thousand things
to happen that would not have otherwise.

     For wont of a nail, the kingdom was lost.  The flapping
wings of a butterfly cause hurricanes half a world away.

     Throw a pebble into a pond, and watch the ripples spread
themselves across the entire surface.  Moving, changing, leaving
nothing untouched.

     One small decision.

     A hundred reasons to go one way, a hundred reasons to go the
other.  A deep-held secret, a hidden heart that no one may ever
see.  The image of a girl smiling.  A spire of ice as jagged as
pain, as high as a mountain.  The eyes of a raven, depthless
beyond any human ability to measure depth.

     The sound of a woman's neck breaking.

     A question, asked a third time.  More often than not, these
things work by threes.

     "Yes."

     And now the answer is given.

     And here the river divides.

**********

     "Akane?"

     "Hmmm..."

     "Wake up, Akane," Ryoga said, kneeling down beside her where
she sat with her back against a tree.

     "I just sat down to rest for a minute," Akane yawned.
"I..."

     "I know," Ryoga said, stifling his own yawn.  "The sun's
gonna set soon.  We..."

     "We have to find him," Akane said.  She scrambled to her
feet; Mousse, Shampoo, Ukyou and Nodoka stood a dozen feet away,
quietly conversing.  Further away, Happosai stared off into the
setting sun, his arms folded.

     "We've been looking for hours, Akane," Ryoga said gently as
he slowly got back up.  "If we can't find him in the daylight, we
won't be able to do it at night.  This mountain is too big for
seven people to search."

     "He could be lying somewhere hurt, or... or..."

     "Akane, you know Ranma," Ryoga said with a nervous smile.
"He'll come... he'll come back in a few hours, bragging about his
latest victory, some new technique he invented..."

     "But we have to find him..."

     "We're not having any luck doing it this way," Ryoga said.
"We'll go down to the village, call your father, tell him what's
happened.  We need to tell Ranma's father as well."

     "Like he cares," Akane said.  "Don't any of you care?  Are
you just going to leave?"

     Her voice rose as she spoke, a faint edge of panic to it.
"If you're not willing to stay and look for him, fine!  I'll look
by myself."

     "Akane..." Nodoka said as she approached.  "My son... I want
to find him as well.  But we've been looking for a long time with
no results.  We need to call the authorities, get organized..."

     Akane looked into Ranma's mother's eyes, at the hidden pain
there.  Anyone else she could have accused, could have yelled at.

     Not her.  The western horizon was aflame with colours, as
the last edge of the sun slipped below, preceding the dark that
follows always behind the light.

     "He'll be okay, Akane," Ukyou said with a weak smile.
"He's... he's..."

     She sighed and closed her eyes.  "He's Ranma."

     And that, in the end, was all that could be said, Akane
realized.  He was Ranma; he would be alright.

     "Let's get moving," Ryoga said.  "It's going to be dark
soon."

     Slowly, silently, Akane nodded and began to walk.  After a
hesitant moment, Ryoga followed her, and a moment after he began
to walk, so too did the others.

     And here the river divides.

-End Chapter 6

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