“My name is Diggers,” said the stranger, smiling reassuringly. “Theodore Diggers – you can call me Theo.” Inside, he was frowning. The altar was crude – a block of concrete, of all things, set out for the park authorities to install some statue on in the near future – and the inscriptions had been roughly daubed on the ground around it with household paint. Theo wasn’t an expert in this sort of magic, but he could certainly feel its residue, and what he felt gave him a distinct feeling of nausea. A good part of that was the distortions in the magic caused by the gross errors in the ritual.
Heaven only knew what the boy felt. And possibly Hell, too, thinking about it.
Another figure glided out of the dusk, and Ranma huddled into the borrowed trenchcoat fearfully. “Nothing I can see in the dark, Theo,” reported the figure. “A better tracker, or some light, perhaps…”
Theo nodded. “I’m not too surprised, Julia. If what I’m perceiving is correct, whoever did this managed to sacrifice themselves instead of their intended victim.” In his arms, the boy twitched, weakly tucking arms and legs into a smaller ball. Theo instinctively tightened his embrace, comforting the boy without being too confining.
“How do you manage that?” asked his wife disbelievingly. Then, quickly, “No, I’m sure I don’t really want to know. This is the intended victim, I take it?”
Theo nodded. “Yes. He says his name is Ranma Saotome, but he seems to be suffering from significant amnesia. Ranma, this Julia.”
Ranma looked out of the cocoon of the trenchcoat just as a passing car flicked its headlights across the park. In the moment of light, he saw a tall woman with red hair. A vague memory flitted briefly from the back of his mind. Stuttering, he said, “M-mother?”
(Posted Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:48)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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