Looking over to the bedroll where his son Ranma had gone to bed, he wasn’t actually surprised to see it already packed away. This was something that he had gotten quite used to over the past eight years… eight long years since the Neko-Ken incident, which had changed his son so much.
Many times over the years he had taken his son to temples and shrines, hoping that some monk or priest would be able to purge the spirit that co-inhabited his son’s body… All to no avail, as each and every one sensitive enough to even see what the boy was, told him that two have become one, and even in death the boy may never be his own.
Slowly looking up into the limbs of a nearby tree, he caught sight of his son’s floating eyes and grin. A trick that greatly disturbed Genma because he hadn’t taught the boy that trick, and the boy wasn’t willing to teach him the trick in return.
“You’re finally awake,” the floating teeth spoke. “I was beginning to… worry…”
“I’m not that old yet, boy,” Genma growled as he got out of bed. “Not nearly that old.”
“Of course.”
“We should reach the training grounds some time around noon,” Genma continued. “Give us some good daylight to train in before we need to set camp again. If you do good here, I might teach you some new techniques.”
“Umi-sen-ken,” Ranma whispered from his tree.
Genma flinched.
“Not yet, boy… not yet…”
* * *
As they walked down the rocky dirt path towards their destiny, Genma took a few moments to note the changes in his son.
The boy was lean, athletic like a gymnast or professional swimmer. Beneath his smooth skin were muscles like corded steel, which Genma well knew were capable of breaking most of the bones in his body… if the boy felt like it.
One of the most disturbing changes the boy had undergone, however, were his eyes. Pure golden-yellow eyes with the pupils of a cat, thin and sharp almost all the time, except for those few times that the boy got truly angry… then the pupil grew, making his eyes seem almost all black.
The boy’s ears had changed as well, now coming to a slight point, and seeming to twitch sometimes to the occasional sound. This change had apparently come in conjunction with greater hearing abilities, making it more and more difficult for Genma to sneak up on his son.
Genma froze, noticing that the boy’s golden-yellow eyes were staring back at him, unblinking, piercing into his very soul. Breaking out into a cold sweat, Genma slowly turned away and continued walking.
Ranma smirked as his father balked beneath his gaze. Another small victory won against one of the greatest idiots in the world. As hallow as the victory was, it still gave him a sense of pleasure, a sense of accomplishment.
It was things like that he lived for.
“We’re here,” Genma said with a genuine smile. “We’re finally here.”
And ‘here’ was none other than Jusenkyo…
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(Posted Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:03)
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