[PMFFML] [FFML2] [Crossover: R1/2 & TM!]Comfort in the Eye of Chaos: Pro. Chpt.'s 1 &2

FFML2 - http://ffml2.rcbooks.org

--------------------------- ListBot Sponsor --------------------------
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Comfort in the Eye of Chaos
By Troy Thomas <Silentnova@go.com>

Ranma 1/2 and its characters are the creations and properties of Rumiko Takahashi. Tenchi Muyo and its characters are the creations and properties of Masaki Kajishima. Excepting flames, if you have any comments or criticisms, feel free to send them my way.

***

Prologue

It was morning in the valley. The elderly priest sipped his tea as he watched a large crane fly low over the lake stirring the many swimming ducks into a frenzy. Katsuhito Masaki watched them take to the sky, their scraping shrieks scratching the morning's silent peace.

He didn't want to cry. He had been crying for weeks, his eyes red, and his face shallow. He only wanted the silence and loneliness to continue. Let the ducks shriek. Let the peace fly away, so long as it returned.

And then a hand lay upon his shoulder. Katsuhito smiled at its lightness, its un-strength, and its innocence. He slowly looked at the boy who held a hand on his shoulder. He paused, and then suddenly pulled Tenchi, his grandson, close, and they both cried.

The peace continued, but the loneliness flew away.

***

Katsuhito sipped his tea, three years away from the day he once confessed his heartbreak to his motherless grandson Tenchi. He sat on the porch to his home, which no duck swam in.

On the road his son-in-law cut in the earth so long ago walked two, hand in hand. Katsuhito's heart flew to the heavens, seeing the whole earth in a glance, seeing a mother and son.

He stood, and then ran towards the two.

Reaching the two, his heart quickly returned at a terrible pace, he slowly took the mother, his niece Nodoka Saotome, in his arms, hearing not her words she forced out between her forced cries of sorrow, but her sobs instead.

She had no husband, her son no father, and it was a pain Katsuhito too knew, so he brought the mother close, and spoke without words, his love and sorrow.

His great-nephew, Ranma, unknowing of Katsuhito, simply stood holding his mother's hand, as the three stood on a road, which lay beside a lake, in a valley underneath the warm sun and the great, blue sky.

And the peace continued.

End Prologue

***

Author Notes:
Thanks to Allyn Yonge for his help with this chapter. Thanks to Larry F for some helpful advice concerning prose, which still hasn't sunk in, but which I'm certain someday will (causing me to slap myself upside the head, realising how right he is :)

***

Comfort in the Eye of Chaos
By Troy Thomas <Silentnova@go.com>

***

Chapter One

The sun slowly rose lighting the cold valley. An elderly priest sipped green tea, gently smiling as he watched two young boys, the age of seven, from his home's front porch, sparring.

Time, it took too much and left too little.

A life, a daughter's love.

What is life anyway? Is it a smile?

He could remember her smile, peaceful and humorous, and her long hair, billowing in the warm breeze of summer, as the family walked to the great tree Funaho, his family's guardian, to give their thanks for long lives and endless moments.

And then his grandson, Tenchi, smiled and laughed, impelling the warm summer day back into his memory.

Memories, Time's only gift for the living.

Katsuhito, his smile growing, looked at the laughing boys and watched the two abandon the sparring in favour of hurly-burly. "Perhaps all life is, is memories." He winced as Ranma tossed Tenchi over his shoulder, but sighed in relief when Tenchi stood back up still alive and smiling. The boys continued laughing, suddenly grappling trying to force each other closer to the cold shimmering lake. "Moments we should forever treasure."

Katsuhito laughed out loud when Ranma out of the blue tossed Tenchi into the blue.

Nodoka rushed outside at the sound of splashing water. Quickly turning towards Katsuhito, she tentatively asked, "What happened?"

"Tenchi was tossed into the water by a brilliant throw from Ranma." Katsuhito answered. "It was beautiful to watch..." His words were stopped with a moan from Nodoka.

Standing up, Katsuhito took his niece in his arms, and held her from falling.

Wiping tears away, Nodoka sobbed, yet spoke, "Genma, my husband had been teaching him for the past few years away from home..." She stopped speaking, wanting to share something more, but could not for fear of her weeping overwhelming her senses.

Katsuhito timidly held Nodoka. 'Such a long life, and no wisdom to show for all my years.' he thought, sadly. 'No words to speak, I can say nothing to make anything better.'

"He...took sick one night, and for the entire week, he had tried to reach home, carrying Ranma on his back." Nodoka squeezed Katsuhito's sides with her arms, returning the hug. "And when he reached home, he..." Buried her face into his shoulder, she forced out the words she aspired to share, "And then he said, 'Goodbye my Nodoka. I'll always love you'..."

Her words muffled by her uncle's shoulder, Nodoka ceased to speak, instead allowing herself to be caught in her sobbing.

Is there anything to be said? Or, is silent love the lone contribution one can offer to assuage the suffering in the heart of someone close? 'I can say nothing, in any case. Wisdom is a distant star.'

Time past and they stood, nothing said, and neither moving.

Soon, he felt behind him the boys being ushered away towards the temple on the hill by his late daughter's husband, Noboyuki.

"Uncle," Nodoka said, when her tears were spent, "I must let you know of an agreement my husband had made with an old friend...The two had promised to join together their two schools by marriage."

Letting go, Nodoka and Katsuhito faced each other.

"But now, without a teacher, my son cannot...I regret..." Nodoka stopped, searching for the word she wanted. "I am deeply concerned my son cannot carry on the art of the school, since my husband...since he was the only teacher of Saotome Indiscriminate Grappling."

"Besides Ranma, was he the only practitioner?"

Slowly, Nodoka replied, "I was taught by Genma for the years while we had lived together. But..."

"Hmm, I think I understand." Katsuhito smiled. "Nodoka, whatever you have to offer your son, then I suggest you pass it on to him." His smile curled about, his face expressing wheels in his mind turning. "I am wondering, Niece, had you been left anything? Scrolls? Papers or books?"

"Yes, he had left for me his travelling backpack, and inside...I haven't looked inside it yet." Bowing her head, Nodoka's eyes filled, surprising her, since she had believed she'd no tears remaining. "I just couldn't bear..." she stopped, and stood straight.

"I'm going to start dinner, Uncle. The backpack is in my room, near the window."

When Nodoka had disappeared inside, Katsuhito sat down and looked at the lake. "The Saotome School of Indiscriminate Grappling. Genma must've been a fine teacher." He noted the cold lake's only constant. All over, the light of the sun shimmered brightly.

***

The boys sat under a tree, whose branches hung low, shading and cooling the grass below. It was the great tree Funaho, a sleeping spirit protecting the Masaki Shrine land from spiritual and living invaders.

All around the tree was a pond, its water crystal clear and clean, as though it was itself the spirit's tears, shed in its sleep for those whom Time had gently taken to the land of dream, forever and ever.

Rocks sticking out of the water's surface were the only access from the tree's lonely respite to land, which sat close to the unknowing spirit.

"Tenchi, I just got to let you know. Grandpa's a sadist! How can he take away a perfectly good school-free day like today?" said Ranma, a youth-filled boy, his hair long and braided in a pigtail.

He rested his head on the tree's trunk, his neck sore. "He knows my dad's school pretty well now. Almost as well as he does my mom's."

"I know, he's been teaching some of it to me also." Tenchi shrugged his shoulders. "It's tough though." Lying on his stomach, watching tadpoles swim about, Tenchi quietly lamented the pain in his legs. "Is it really rough for you Ranma?"

"Maybe a little, but..." Ranma smiled. "I'm glad he knows it. It'd be really hard, I think, if I forgot how to be a Saotome." He watched the branches of the tree, as the leaves lightly rustled in the summer breeze.

It had been five years, and Ranma knew he was a good fighter. Under the tutelage of his grandfather and mother, he knew he could be a great warrior in the future. "The best, in fact!"

"What was that?"

"I'm going to be the greatest, Tenchi." Ranma smiled. "Like my dad wanted me to be. That's how happy I am Grandpa knows the Saotome School!"

Tenchi had no reply. Silently, he watched the tadpoles scatter away when a sudden wind gusted from the right. He looked to the trees and the path through to the mountain's side, and shuddered, but quickly stopped panicking to hear Ranma's words.

"The Cave, Tenchi. It's the demon, waking up!" Ranma smiled, and beamed mischievously at his cousin.

Shaking his head, Tenchi stood and began walking home. "No, there's no demon."

"Ranma! Tenchi!" from nearby Nodoka called, her voice clearly nearing the tree.

"Lunchtime?" Ranma asked, happily, to no one.

Together, the two boys left behind them the tree, which gently swayed in the summer breeze, a song mournful and melancholy, which the tree could hear only, and the cave, its obscured shadow dying and amending for a mistake a legendary demon had never made.

And behind the two boys came a breeze, both warm and cool at its touch, which raced ahead past the boys towards the lake, through the valley, and onto the world.

End Chapter One

***

Comfort in the Eye of Chaos
By Troy Thomas <Silentnova@go.com>

***

Chapter Two

Ranma Saotome was going to Nerima. He smiled, reading the invitation, and smirked, looking up at his cousin, Tenchi, who was sitting across from him at a table in the school cafeteria.

"Isn't it unbelievable?" Joyfully, Ranma shoved the heavily decorated paper towards his cousin, and sat back after Tenchi had taken the document, crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm finally on my way, Tenchi. Finally going somewhere where a fight matters."

"Maybe..." Tenchi sceptically perused the letter. "But didn't you find this in the classroom?" he asked, as he was finishing reading and levelling his gaze at Ranma.

"Yup. Right on my desk, just as I was sitting down." Ranma sat forward. "But Tenchi, this is Nerima! Who cares about where I found the stupid thing?" He leaned over the table, waving his arms outward expressing the subject's size. "Nerima! Where Soun Tendo lives!"

"Who?"

Ranma pounded the table. "What? You don't know who Mister Tendo is?" Re-crossing his arms over chest and again leaning backwards in the table's seat, Ranma shook his head at Tenchi. "My mom told me he's the master of the other half of the Indiscriminate School of Martial Arts, the Tendo form."

"Humph, I never knew the Saotome School was only one half of a pair of schools..."

"Well, now you know." Ranma reached for the invitation. "There are two schools for this art form..."

He reread the letter first line, which said, "Ranma Saotome, you are invited to the first Nerima Martial Arts Mixed Tournament in Nerima, Tokyo at Furinkan High." He again smiled.

On the table's other side, Tenchi frowned. "Ranma, in my opinion, that invitation is pretty damn cryptic. Maybe a little too cryptic..."

"Perhaps...but I can't back away from it." Ranma placed the letter down on the table. "A Saotome never refuses a challenge."

In resignation, Tenchi sighed. "Okay then. Well, when is it?"

"This Sunday."

"Now I'm even more worried. Sunday is only two days away..."

"Hey Saotome!" said someone, from Ranma's left. A young man, brown hair and brown eyes, stood by the table. Around the young man, stood more people, each with large smiles plastered on their faces. "Heard it was your sixteenth birthday!"

Ranma blushed. "Who told you?" he asked, looking at each of the other student's faces. However, their faces revealed no clues, each having a unique smile. "Spokes-Man, who told you guys?" Ranma asked.

Spokes-Man replied, "That's not my name, Ranma. It's..."

Suddenly, someone in the back, off key and tone-deaf began crooning, "Happy birthday, to you!"

Soon, the entire group, including Tenchi, was singing. Ranma, on the table's other side, could only smile an upbeat yet embarrassed smile. Halfway through the song, the whole cafeteria was alight with a song of joy and celebration, and at the centre sat Ranma, reddened his face over.

At the song's end, Ranma stated, "Yeah, yeah. I'm sixteen now. So what?"

Tenchi smiled at Ranma, and his reply was, "For he's a jolly good fellow!" And the cafeteria erupted in song.

***

Two young men in school uniform walked home, each carrying a backpack filled to its maximum capacity and a bokken in hand.

The road they travelled, uneven and winding, ran uphill and down into valleys, each hill and valley turning the road behind trees and climbing earth, so it seemed hidden from sight.

Other ways joined it, and paths were born from it, but the two followed the one they had started on.

They knew its direction, and their destination. However, they soon came upon a bridge, or rather, a raging river where once reigned a bridge over calm water.

"What?" Ranma asked. "Where'd it go?" He turned to Tenchi, who looked confused as he. "Where's the bridge?"

"Uh..." Tenchi scanned the area down river, and pointed. "There's a bit off it right over there..." He smiled, his expression both perplexed and humorous. "But, Birthday Boy, I think the question is, how the heck are we getting home using this road?"

Ranma didn't answer, instead looking over the river, both up and down, searching for anything stretching from one side to the other.

The river, storming onward over its path, was a major distraction though. A boulder, followed by more, some larger and some smaller, was carried away the furious water.

Ranma sat down on the grass, which bordered the road. "I don't think we're going home tonight."

"Why don't we use the other road? The paved one?" Tenchi asked. "I don't think the bridge for that one has been washed out, and we can reach it through a shortcut that I saw a little ways back."

Ranma looked up towards the blue sky, a melancholic smile on his face. "This is the road my mom and I took to the house..."

"Hmm?"

Looking at his cousin, Ranma shrugged. "You really want to know?" Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he continued, "After my dad died, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the wind...He doesn't have a grave, so, I wanted to take this road." He closed his eyes and leaned backwards, his face, facing the warm sun. "In a way, it's like visiting his grave."

His story continued, "I can remember, when my mom and I were walking to the house, it felt like he was with me...He was there with me, in fact." Ranma's smile grew. "Every step of the way there."

"So it's a pretty special place then." Tenchi said, with a small smile. An eternal moment later, he added, "It's like Funaho then. I go there, whenever I'm thinking about my mother." Tenchi said. "And whenever I'm feeling lonely too."

Ranma watched the river. Branches of trees and trees themselves tumbled through the water, down the hill and out of sight.

"What is a father like, Tenchi?" he suddenly asked.

The Eternal Moment, which only Wisdom in its isolation, can overcome, beset Tenchi.

His lips pursed, and his mind raced with thoughts, most irrelevant and only few of any insight.

"My dad, is who he is." said he, after the passing of the Eternal Moment.

"He certainly is." Ranma said.

And the river, it raced downhill as though it were a thousand horses, dashing madly over cliff, fleeing the great enemy known only as Time, which took everything, youth, love, life, and eventually memory.

And the river, though it madly continued its course towards the valley's bottom, it too would be taken by Time, forever forgotten when the last star's light died out.

"I think, I always wanted my dad to come back, Tenchi." Ranma shifted uncomfortably over the grass, the ground underneath suddenly cold and hard. "My mom had a picture of him. She hung it in her room, between both of her windows."

He stood up. "And I would run into her room, to ask her about my dad, who he was, where he had gone, and where he wanted to go with me."

Time past, and left the moment to be. Smiling Ranma turned towards Tenchi. "My mom's answer was always, 'I loved him, forever a guiding light in my heart and in Heaven'. And then I would get this picture in my mind of a guy who likes to eat, laugh, and travel. He's a little greedy, and not too smart around people, but at his core, he's basically a nice guy."

He laughed. "Once, my mom said to me, 'Ranma, frail Time takes away everything, but cannot hold the memories and feelings most important to us, for they burn too fiercely.'"

Time returned, and the moment began to vanish, a shadow in the memories of boys onto manhood.

Like all memories, the shadow seemed large, because it was the time of youth, but somehow, the two knew as the sun travelled through the blue towards the night, it eventually would lengthen, weaken, and wither until night came and take the memory forever into itself as the earth would a boulder, the ocean an iceberg.

Eventually, Ranma Saotome walked towards the river, and whispered to it, his voice drowned out by the loud roaring of the wild and untameable blue. "Dad, I hope I'm what a son is like."

Behind Ranma, Tenchi quietly stood, watching his cousin nearing the wild river. He spotted, to his surprise, floating gently amid the chaotic white water a golden feather. And he knew Ranma had seen it too, for the young man had mysteriously smiled.

End Chapter Two

***

Author Notes:
I usually don't write notes. However, it seems there is much I need to say as I work my way towards the meat of the story.

I never realised how long the introduction of this story would take. In fact, I had previously foolishly believed by the third chapter I would already be introducing new characters and plotlines left and right.

Actually, I exaggerate, but not by much.

Perhaps my growing patience for writing the moment can be blamed on or attributed to Allyn Yonge. Personally, I wouldn't know.

Anyway, I notice how much I've grown as a writer, and I'd like to thank everyone who is reading, and I'd like to encourage anyone who has time, to share with me their thoughts and comments concerning this chapter.

And sorry about the ending for this chapter, the story seemed to want to take a break before I wrote anything else.

The third chapter should be out soon. Hopefully, people will read it.

***

Check out my webpage:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~silentnova/index.html

I archive, write, link, and do almost all the wonderful things fanfic writers like. Check it out, today.
___________________________________________________
GO.com Mail
Get Your Free, Private E-mail at http://mail.go.com

______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to FFML2-unsubscribe@listbot.com
-
.--- Patch Monkey's FFML ---.
| Administrators - owner-ffml@patchmonkey.net |
| Unsubscribing - majordomo@patchmonkey.net |
| Put 'unsubscribe ffml' in the body of your e-mail. |
-------- http://www.patchmonkey.net ----------