Without You
Part One
By Medina
(This is my first Ranma 1/2 fanfiction. I haven't finished yet, but I do
have more than this done. C&C welcome. ^_^ Here we go!!)
“Eh? What’s this?” he asked, looking at the letter-sized paper that
Akane had so suddenly thrust into his view upon the fence-railing
where he usually walked on their way home from school. He
snatched it from her grasp when he noticed that she was keeping her
face, stern, turned away so that they would not meet gazes.
“‘Furinkan High School Senior Ball,’” he read aloud, still keeping his
uncanny sense of balance while reading the the paper intently and
studying the picture of a man and woman dressed in fine attire
surrounded by stars on a moonlit walk that was a center eye-catcher
on the flier as well as the logo for the theme: “ ‘Together, Forever...
Come and experience the night that you will remember for the rest of
your life’.” He paused and glanced at Akane again, who was still
somehow keeping her view engaged elsewhere. “Senior Ball’s comin’
up already? I’d better keep my guard; word of this is bound to end
up in Shampoo’s or Kodachi’s hands,” he put his arms up in back of
his head and walked for a while, looking up, waiting for Akane to
comment. The sun shone down on the Nerima rooftops, in their red
tiling and brown shingles; laundry rustled in the breeze, a bird
fluttered, singing, to a lofty nest. Akane still walked, silent.
“Well?” Ranma finally broke the silence, peering down at her, bored
of the interlude.
“ ‘Well’ what?” Akane finally said, still not looking at the handsome
young martial artist. He hopped down from the fence and walked
beside her.
“Aren’t you going to ask me if I want to go? You know, a macho chick
like you would do the asking, not the guy,” he said, smiling impishly to
add to his dig.
“Why would I ask YOU?” she said, finally turning to him, staring
daggers through his head, her face red for more reason than anger,
“You didn’t look at the whole thing,” she pointed to the bottom, which
said, ‘Martial Swing-Dancing Competition! Winning pair to be
crowned King and Queen of the Senior Ball! (Couples Only!).’
“Uh,” he looked at it blankly, “you want me to dance with you?
Hahaha!” mouth open wide, nearly crying, he laughed. “After all, who
would lead? Hahaha!!” Akane’s head steamed, her hair stood on
end, and with a swift backhand left a stinging reminder to Ranma
upon his right cheek that he should be more tactful.
“WHY would I want to dance with an idiot-pervert who cross-
dresses?!? I was just showing it to you in case you were interested
ON YOUR OWN! You think that I want to have anything to do with you
after everything that’s happened? A wedding fiasco... I’m surprised I
even walk to school with you anymore!!” Akane yelled into the young
man’s face, who was now as heated and indignant as she, although
Akane was nearly in tears.
“That’s a damn low blow! It’s because of my STUPID pop, your dad,
and that perverted old man...!” his rebuttal was halted by a soft, high
keen that pierced the air of the area, making both his and Akane’s
hair stand on end. Broken out of their quarrel, the two of them
looked around, realizing that in their heated discourse, had walked
down a different street and had ended up in an unfamiliar part of
town. The houses were less kept than the ones around their school
and the Tendo Dojo, and much older. Large trees stood like menacing
giants, hiding a dilapidated abandoned shrine.
“Great, now you got us lost, idiot,” Akane quipped, bopping him on
the shoulder. He turned to her, frazzled.
“I’m not Ryoga! I can figure out where we are...” he took a moment
to look about them again; “yeah, I know where we are now,” he
mused, “this is the oldest part of Nerima; not too many people live on
this side anymore -- at least, if they can help it,” they both took in
the depressing sight.
“Then... let’s go--” again, the strange howling noise sounded from
one of the houses nearby. “W-what was that?” Akane asked, trying
her best not to look scared in front of Ranma -- no matter how much
she actually felt so. They paused to listen again; it was coming from
the direction of the abandoned shrine.
“I’m going to check it out -- maybe it’s an injured person?” the young
woman said, bounding impulsively off towards the imposing old
building, leaving Ranma on the sidewalk. “I’m not scared... I’m not!”
She neared the archway, where a sleek raven sat, cawing a warning
at her; she hesitated there.
“Turn baaaack...”
“AGGGGH!!!!” Akane yelped and jumped up, whacking the low voice
behind her with her mallet.
“M-macho... chick...” Ranma groaned, the mallet leaving a lump on his
head, his hands up and twitching in a defeated pose.
“D-d-don’t DO that, BAKA!!” hiding her mallet, she turned back to the
shrine, determined to gain the courage to face the shrine, undaunted.
Ranma, rubbing his poor, injured head, stood beside her.
“You know, whenever there are abandoned shrines, they have to be
haunted,” he said sternly. Akane looked up at him, wide-eyed, as he
rested his stare upon the old building at the end of a dirt walk. “Why
else would they abandon a shrine? Monks have more respect for holy
places; only if the place becomes cursed would devout priests leave
their shrines. It must be the sound of a restless spirit.”
Akane noted Ranma’s uncharacteristic sobriety, and looked on the
shabby shrine with a knot in her stomach: Ghosts??
“You... don’t think -- is it??” she stuttered to him, turning around.
“Of course not,” he said flatly, and Akane fell flat as well. “Only fools
n’ kids believe in ghosts!”
Leaping to her feet, growling inwardly, Akane stared down the shrine,
her newest adversary in battle: she must conquer this -- or be
laughed at by Ranma for weeks!
“I’m not going to let him make a fool out of me!” Akane thought as she
took another step towards the structure. Ranma, still in his serious,
arms-crossed pose, took a moment to notice her advance towards the
mysterious old place. Somewhat startled by this, he leapt in front of
her.
“Wait wait -- you’re not actually GOING there now, are you?” he said,
with a smile to show that he had been merely joking earlier. Akane,
face flushed, forced her eyes off of the shrine before her to face him,
trying with all of her heart and mind to remain stoic against her
feelings of trepidation and embarrassment.
“What, are YOU scared?” she spat sharply, forcing herself to take on a
look of ice at the face which she had so many times been unable to
stay calm towards. Ranma froze for a second, and frowned.
“Why the heck would I be afraid? (Unless there’s a cat...)” he
reasoned unconvincingly with her, “what I meant was that it’s late,
and I’m hungry; Kasumi said she was making sukiyaki tonight too!
Now, Akane, be a good girl for once and go home nicely--” he had
closed his eyes for a moment in an attempt to seem more reasonable,
and in doing so let Akane walk away from him again without noticing.
When he finally did look up, his head turning back and forth to find
her, he saw that she had already walked halfway to the shrine. He
groaned, and scurried after her, stopping in front of her again.
“Akane! Come on! Why can’t you just be a typical girl and not some
jock with something to prove?”
Without saying anything, Akane slapped him across the face, and
down into the remnants of one of the shrine’s ponds. However a
remnant it was, it still had water in it, and when he emerged, he was
a she, with her typical large bust and bright red hair. “Pfff...” she
began, getting the stagnant water out of her mouth, “what was that
for?”
“Dummy, if you want a “typical girl” I’m SURE that you can satisfy
yourself. Go home if you want -- I don’t care; just leave me alone!”
she stormed off further, leaving the female Ranma by herself, wringing
out her soaked clothes.
“Fine, you go in there, and I’ll eat your sukiyaki! Bah... women,” she
muttered, and began walking back to the street.
* * * *
“Idiot -- I know that he’s really afraid, but I’ll prove that I’m braver
than
him. Using food as an excuse...” she paused in her thought when her
stomach made a loud gurgling noise, and she felt the want for food in
her belly. “But sukiyaki does sound good right now... Damnit, Ranma, if
only you weren’t such an ass! No, I must take on this challenge!
Forward!” she shouted aloud, taking a strong forward step into the
threshold of the open doorway -- only to hear the whining again,
coming from within, which startled her back out of the door.
“Ok... it’s just a noise; remember, there’s no such thing as ghosts...”
she chanted to herself, but all the while stories of ghosts, demons
and other ilk engulfed her mind, seeing the faces of horrible creatures
and imagining her own demise. As she made her way, slowly, into the
shrine and through the halls, the noise became louder as it led to the
center of the building. The floor creaked constantly, at every step;
the walls were dirty, and some were on the verge of collapse, while
the once-beautful paper screening that looked out into the back
garden were in tattered shreds. Cobwebs, mice and other forms of
debris and animal life were evident in the old place, and the garden
looked like a young forest of unkempt grass and shrubs.
Finally, she found herself inside the innermost hall of the shrine,
where an altar with the charred remains of a long-since dead fire lay
in a heap beneath a clogged chimney opening. It was dark; she could
barely see where she was going, but the noise was at its loudest.
“Where is this coming from?” Akane said to herself, looking about the
room in almost a panic, her heart racing inside her chest. The floor
creaked loudly beneath her; before she could react, the dry wooden
planks broke and she fell, but caught the floor with one of her hands.
Her body engulfed in a cold sweat, Akane tried to grasp something
with her other hand, but to no avail; her other hand slipped off, and
she fell down to the floor below her.
She landed well, fortunately, on her feet, atop some of the debris. It
was completely dark where she had landed, and the only thing she
could see was the dull illumination coming from the hole she had fallen
through. The noise was there. She heard it behind her, creeping up
with an inhuman stealth and movement; she turned, and before her
were two glinting eyes.
“AGGGH!!!”
* * * *
“If that dope wants to go into that rickety old shrine, then let her; I’m
not gonna waste my time following around some uncute tomboy just to
make sure she doesn’t get in trouble,” Ranma mused as he stopped
and borrowed a kettle of water from a restaurant that was down the
street from the shrine that Akane had went off into. He hoisted his
school bag over his shoulder, having returned to male form, and
began to trod down the street back into the Nerima he knew.
“We could’ve avoided this problem if she had just asked me the right way
to the Senior Ball...” he went on in his head as he passed the old
houses and low-end businesses, “-- which isn't saying that I woulda'
gone with her! On the other hand, did she really want to go with me at
all...?” Right at the moment he thought this, he overheard a
conversation at a sake bar that he was walking next to:
“Yeah, he came by wondering where this “Tendo Dojo” was, and I
told him, ‘you’re on the wrong side of Nerima for that!’ and I pointed
North,” one man said loudly.
“I saw that, the guy with a yellow bandana and an umbrella?” the
barkeep said.
“Exactly. But after he thanked me, he went exactly the OPPOSITE
direction to where I pointed! What kind of moron can’t even follow a
simple one way direction--?”
“RYOGA!?” Ranma yelled, startling the sake drinker and the barkeep
together. “If that retard is heading away from the Dojo, then he might
just end up.... at that old shrine.... with Akane!!!” he continued in his
head, nearly falling to his knees in dramatics, the two men at the bar
looking at the martial artist as if he were a lunatic.
“If he finds her...” in his mind’s eye Ranma pictured Akane and Ryoga
sharing in a heated battle against some ancient Oni, Akane running to
him passionately afterwards declaring, ‘Oh Ryoga, what ever would I
have done without you!’
“And then...” he pictured the shrine, with the Oni defeated, returned
to an idyllic state of old Japan’s beauty, with pink cherry blossoms
wreathing the perimeter, and little birds singing happily, with Akane
and Ryoga sharing a bountiful picnic of sukiyaki. ‘Ryoga, it was really
you I wanted to take to the Senior Ball! I only showed Ranma that
flier to get him to go with someone else!’ Akane tells him joyfully.
“But worst of all...” he saw them laughing and running through a field
together, Akane saying, ‘Ranma was too afraid to come and see what
the noise was, afraid of the ghosts, but I wasn’t, and neither were
you, Ryoga! We must tell the world that Ranma Saotome is afraid of
old spooky shrines!!’ They laughed some more, but this time joined
by all of Ranma’s friends and enemies, all guffawing to the point of
tears that Ranma was afraid of ghosts and that Akane was braver
than he!
“NOOOOO! NEVER!” a determined Ranma declared, immediately
sprinting back to the shrine where Akane lay. The men and other
people on the street tried to ignore the strange shouting man that
came running through their normally quiet streets.
* * * *
He could see the ramshackle rooftop of the shrine from down the
street, still in a dash, when he saw whom he had feared would end
up there: Ryoga Hibiki, looking as lost as ever, shuffling down the
sidewalk looking around nervously for the Tendo Dojo which was
nowhere to be found on that side of town.
“At least he made it to this side of the country...” Ranma mentioned to
himself as he watched the perpetually lost young man keep heading
towards Ranma’s destination. “If he gets there before me, there’s
sure to be trouble, but if I run in front of him, there will be just as
much, if not more. Hmm...” seeing a consecutive row of rooftops
leading to the back garden/jungle of the place, he made a quick leap
and began to hop from roof to roof, and finally landing on the shrine
property, just as Ryoga stood at the gate of the place.
“C’mon, you dope, move along; this isn’t the Dojo!” Ranma spat in
whisper, watching Ryoga size up the building from a hiding place
among the overgrown grass and weeds.
“Is this it?” Ryoga asked himself, scratching himself on the head, “it
looks like the Tendos haven’t been keeping up the place since I last
visited. In that case, I shall go to them and offer my assistance in the
repairs!” he cried, valiantly, and strode onto the dirt path to the
door. Ranma fell flat on his face.
“Idiot...”
“AGGGH!!” a female cry rang out from inside the shrine, alerting both
Ranma and Ryoga.
“Akane-!” Ranma cried, an image of her being carried away to a dark
world by an evil spirit flashed through his mind, “I knew I shouldn’t
have left her here alone!”
“A scream -- that sounded like Akane!” Ryoga said, and took to
running towards the shrine, “Saotome is probably responsible for--”
*THUNK*
Face to face, Ranma and Ryoga met; the two of them had run
straight into the other, making a sort-of Ranma-Ryoga sandwich.
They fell to the ground after a few seconds, parted, and once Ryoga
gained his bearings, realized that he had run into the man he most
wanted to hurt at that moment.
“RANMA! What did you do to Akane!?” he bellowed, bashing Ranma,
who was still on the ground, in the stomach, knocking the wind out of
him.
“Stupid... pig!” Ranma sputtered, as he tried to get back up, glaring at
Ryoga. “What exactly makes you think that I’d do something to her?
You’re the pervert who sleeps in her bed!” Ranma stuck his tongue
out at the fanged man, who then swung his weighted umbrella at
Ranma’s head, to which he easily dodged, and in the same motion,
tripped Ryoga down onto his face.
“Listen, bacon breath, I don’t have time to play right now; Akane
might be in trouble, and I don’t need your ‘help’, so butt out!” Ranma
told Ryoga, tauntingly yet serious. Leaving his adversary on the floor,
he walked into the shrine, examining it as carefully as he could,
keeping all of his highly-honed skills of perception tuned to any signs
of danger that might sneak upon him in this place. He almost felt silly
fearing that some sort of monster resided in this old shrine -- but, at
the same time, he had seen some incredibly strange things in his
travels and travails over the past few years, so it wouldn’t be a
complete surprise if there was something malevolent keeping home
there.
He looked behind him; Ryoga had not followed. “Maybe he’s gotten it
through his head no one wants him around here. I don’t see why he
keeps chasing Akane -- he has Akari, and she KNOWS about his pig
problem. He shouldn’t pass that up,” Ranma thought, right before he
heard someone running atop the roof. “Nevermind... he’s looking still,”
Ranma shook his head and kept going.
The halls kept on winding, and it kept on getting darker and darker,
and for some reason, Ranma kept feeling a strange twinge of... fear.
“What’s wrong with me? I have no reason to be afraid... unless there’s a
cat... but the dark? It’s something else, something... something I can’t
quite put my finger on,” he said to himself as he neared the innermost
hall, from which shone a small glint of light from what was left of the
hole in the chimney part above the fire altar. He shocked back
suddenly, bracing himself against the creaking wall.
“I... I swore that I just saw the altar blazing...” he looked about, but
nothing was aflame, nothing even bright enough to create an image
of fire. The only thing that he saw now were a few broken metal
pipes, the ends jagged, rusty and sharp, probably broken by a
collapse in the floor where the pipes had been for gas to help fuel the
fire. He nervously scanned the room the best he could before he
forced himself to go in. The floor creaked, and he felt a slight slant in
one direction, as if there were a hole in one side. He stepped along
carefully until...
“Hello?!” someone’s voice yelled from beneath the floor.
“Akane!?” Ranma replied, recognizing the voice, “where are you? I
heard you scream from outside; what happened?”
Below, Akane was overjoyed that he had found her, but at the same
time was disappointed that she had to be saved by him. “The floor
broke, but I found what was making the noise,” she was interrupted
by a little bark.
“A puppy? THAT’s all that was???” Ranma said, disgusted.
“It was trapped down here; it must have fallen through the roof,”
she said, looking at the cute little gray puppy’s face and held it close
to her.
“So... why don’t you just get out?” Ranma said, peering down the
hole, where he could just make out Akane’s form. “Too clumsy to get
out of your own mess?”
“Jerk -- I twisted my ankle when I fell! Anyway, I have to be able to
the puppy, so one of my arms is occupied right now,” she said
gruffly. Ranma could almost see her face turn red.
“Fine,” he stretched his arm down the hole, holding onto the floor
with his other, and found Akane’s outstretched hand, and began to
pull her up. “Hurgh... have you gained weight?”
“JUST PULL ME UP!” she retorted furiously, unable to hit him due to
the bundle in her other arm. After a bit of strain from the awkward
position, Ranma pulled Akane and the puppy out of the hole. Akane
coughed from the dust, and patted down her school dress, caked with
dust, and set the puppy on the floor. Seeing that it was free, it gave
Akane a good-bye yip, and scuttled off to exit the shrine. Ranma
stood silent waiting for her.
“So, why did you come back?” she said while examining her twisted
ankle, rubbing it a little. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
“I’m sure that your beloved sukiyaki is cold by now, if daddy and
uncle Saotome haven’t eaten it all,” she added provokingly.
“I couldn’t just let you go ‘n hog all the glory... if this is what you call
‘glory’. I couldn’t have you spreading rumors that I was afraid to go
into some old abandoned shrine -- which I might add, I am not,” he
said bluntly. Akane looked down.
“Oh, that’s all..?” she said, unguarded for a moment, until she
realized that Ranma had perceived what lay beneath her words.
“Well then -- you should have just gone home! I didn’t need you, and
you had to come back just to prove that you were better than me, a
girl. I came here on my own will! I could have gotten out of there
just as well without you, so don’t go feeling special!” she threw her
head into the air spitefully. Ranma grew heated.
“That’s gratitude for you -- I come to help and you tell me to take a
hike. Should’a expected that much from a girl like you,” he said,
turning to leave. Akane stood and glared at him.
“What do you mean, ‘a girl like me’?”
“Nevermind,” he said drearily, not turning around.
“Not ‘nevermind’; what are you insinuating!?” she beganto raise her
voice.
“You asked for it,” he mumbled under his breath, turning around
angrily, “an over-reacting, thick-headed, jock-chick! Sometimes you
try to act more manly than a real man! I know I’ve told you this
before, what, a thousand times if not once, but I still can’t stand it!
Why can’t you just be a normal girl for a while, instead of acting like
some macho, uncute, ditz?” he blurted out to her, waving his hands.
They stood staring at each other in silence for a few moments,
Akane’s face blank. Slowly, she turned her head down.
“A-Akane?” Ranma said gently, realizing then that he said something
that had truly hurt her.
*WHACK*
He almost flew across the room, she even left a mark of his face,
which was amazing since he could usually take ten times that and not
bruise.
“RANMA!” she screeched, tears flowing down her hurt, angry eyes,
“you high and mighty jackass, you don’t know what it is to be me!!!”
she swung at him again, this time, with him dodging, just barely. In
the swing, her blouse caught a nail on the wall and ripped, her
sleeve almost gone. “You’re always the strongest, the best at
EVERYTHING!! You even get better grades than me!!! Sometimes...
sometimes I HATE YOU!!!” she cried.
“Akane --!” he tried to get a word in, but she turned to him and
interrupted again.
“You BAAAAKA, you.. you... PERVERT, you HALF-MAN, I HATE YOU!!!”
she spat in all of her most hurt feelings, all of the teasings and little
comments that he had made to her over the last three years coming
to a head. “RANMA... I... I... I WISH YOU WERE DEAD!” she finished,
right in his face. She remained there for a second, and the turned
away weeping, beginning to run.
“Akane!!” Ranma yelled, half angry and hurt himself, but half
genuinely guilty, and went after her. She kept running until she ran
into something -- someone. Ranma saw a pair of eyes full of rage and
a sneer from a fanged mouth. It pushed Akane to the side gently,
then without saying anything, gave a shocking blow to Ranma’s
stomach.
“Saotome...” the voice of Ryoga trembled in anger, “YOU HEARTLESS
ANIMAL!!” he stared down at Ranma, who was doubled over,
clutching his abdomen, and prepared to strike again. “First I find you
here alone with her, and then you have the audacity to insult her AND
rip her clothes! I WILL NOT ALLOW IT!!”
Having to recover quickly, Ranma leapt backwards, avoiding Ryoga’s
impending fist. Ryoga took to chase, and sought out his enemy
amidst the shadows of the old hall. Akane, who had reeled back after
bumping into Ryoga, watched, nursing her hurt feelings. “I hope he
really hurts that idiot...” she thought, seeing Ranma dodge yet another
blow, and stomp Ryoga’s head in the process. “Fat chance...” she
added, remembering how Ryoga was always getting trounced by
Ranma on a fair playing field.
The fight continued, with Ranma tying to get Ryoga off of his case, all
the while leaping, ducking and just plain moving fast to avoid Ryoga’s
steely fists, which angered the fanged man all the more.
“Stay still, Saotome, and let me punish you!” Ryoga bellowed,
frustrated.
“You think I’m as stupid as you look?” Ranma came back, flipping over
backwards and ending up behind Ryoga, where with a swift sweep
with his leg, brought Ryoga to the floor.
“Curse you!!”
Akane remained in the corner, near the broken-down altar, growing
bored of a routine battle. “You stay here, Ranma; I’m going home,”
she said aloud, feeling her way through the darkness, trying not to
trip on anything lest she inflame her already sore ankle. The floor
creaked loudly, just as, Ranma having yet again ducked a blow, Ryoga
smashed a supportive pillar to splinters. Ryoga kept on going at the
his rival, not noticing the impending danger of the roof that was now
noticeably sagging; Ranma did.
“Pork brain, let’s get out of here! The roof’s gonna collapse!” Ranma
shouted to Ryoga, leaping around the room.
“I’ll not listen to any of your distractions!!” Ryoga yelled, his eyes
clouded by anger. Ranma saw it starting to fall... near Akane!
“Akane!” he shouted across the room, “don’t go that way!” he
pointed to the ceiling, but she only stared at him with the same hurt
look on her face; she didn’t believe him. “Damn it...” he cursed, and
ran from Ryoga.
“Get back here, coward!!”
“I told you...” he said while running on a crash course with Akane,
“get out of the way!!!” swiftly, and a bit rough, he collided with
Akane, sending her skidding through the doorway.
“Ranma--!” she shouted in rage, then she bumped her head against
the floor and stayed down for a moment, dazed.
“You bastard!!!” Ryoga, all the more angered by the “attack” upon
Akane, rushed at Ranma, who was off-guard thanks to his deferment
of the girl, and they connected, Ranma being thrown to the floor.
Before Ryoga could make another move, or Ranma could leap away,
the ceiling gave up and came down on the both of them, crashing
loudly, jostling Akane back to full consciousness just in time for her to
see Ranma and Ryoga engulfed in debris, making the floor collapse
below each of them.
As quickly as it had happened, it ended, the dust creating an eerie
silence after the commotion had been so abruptly stopped. The late
day sun beamed down gently from the huge hole in the roof, and half
of the floor in the hall was collapsed down into the base floor. She
scrambled to her feet, coughing as the dust and dirt got in her mouth
and nose, barely able to see down through it to see what had
become of the two men. When the everything came to settle, she
could see a huge pile of rubble, but neither of the boys were visible.
*End Part One*
If I get good enough feedback, I'll send more, and try my other story
too. Thanks for reading.