"Ranma," Nabiki said in a cautionary tone, laying a hand on Ranma's arm as the oni-onna moved to stand.
"I'll be fine," Ranma said. Akane frowned at the display and put in her own commentary.
"Ryouga," Akane said. "I'm trusting you, don't let Ranma goad you into a fight or anything." She shifted a supporting glance toward Ranma, though only Ranma's third eye enabled her to see the intended support. Then Akane moved closer and gave her ex-fiance a hug that was obviously more than comforting.
Ranma tensed in Akane's arms and left with a shaky, transparent smile and a friendly pat back to Akane. Akane looked back strangely, and somewhat suspiciously.
"Come on," Ranma said to Ryouga. "I think the dojo's clear."
****
As soon as the door slid closed behind them, Ranma broke down.
"What is happening to me?" she demanded getting right into Ryouga's face and seeming on the line between anger and despair. "Is this some kind of curse?!"
"Huh?" Ryouga said, confused at the question. He didn't know of any curses that could make someone an oni, but maybe this "flu" was something new that could get around it. "Being an oni? I don't know, just the flu I think..."
"But I was TOLD this was going to happen," Ranma said in a low voice meant not to carry out of the dojo but bordering on hysteria. Ryouga was one of her oldest friends, second only to Ucchan, and he was apparently an oni too. That fact, fortunately, hadn't driven Ranma away from Ryouga as her trusting nature was still mostly in place. "I've been sent nightmares about since I was twelve!"
"Huh? What happened when you were twelve?" Ryouga asked. Ranma looked around furitively and then sighed expressively.
"Pop...raided a temple, and we...got separated when we were running from the temple guardian," Ranma said quietly. "It...it...found me and...talked to me for hours before Pop showed up and rescued me. It told me...I'd be one of them sometime..." Ranma shivered visibly at the memory and held herself close.
"The temple guardian was an oni?" Ryouga said confused, mentally he made a note to talk to Genma. Certainly the man had only come back for Ranma to save his own hide from those various agreements.
Ranma nodded meekly.
"Look, Ranma," Ryouga said. "Sit down." When Ranma didn't immediately comply he firmly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down.
"Hey," Ranma protested angrily, glaring as Ryouga sat down in front of her and grabbed hold of her hands tightly and comfortingly.
"Does your family have any oni-blood?" Ryouga asked. Ranma started to shake her head firmly, brow furrowed tightly together in concern and all three eyes narrowed. Then she stopped, pausing as if she had never considered that before. "You see, oni-blood can lie dormant in a family for ages, but then something can set it off and a person will have the full blood awakened...well nearly full, more like it makes you a half-breed like me. That's what mom said anyway, and an oni can tell when someone is marked to have their blood awakened." He pointed to his third eye, indicating to Ranma the emotion-indicating auras they could both see now.
"So...I've been doomed to this forever?" Ranma said weakly. "Am I going to start turning into a monster in my head now?"
"Am I monster Ranma?" Ryouga asked.
"Sometimes," Ranma said after a long hesitation. Ryouga laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.
"Errr...yeah," Ryouga said. "Look, Ranma, there are three basic kinds of oni. The hell-guards that guard the prisons where most evil is kept trapped, the renegades that decide to come to Earth to wreak havoc, and the earth-bound that are either reformed renegades or have come here for other reasons and just don't want to be part of the hell-guard."
"You mean I don't have to go to hell?" Ranma said.
"Hey, its not that bad if you aren't one of the condemned," Ryouga said. "I mean the people aren't exactly the nicest when they have to deal with the worst evils of the universe on a daily basis, but they're not that bad...usually..."
"You've actually been to hell?" Ranma said disbelieving.
"Err, I was trying to et my Jusenkyo curse fixed," Ryouga said. Ranma blinked. Ryouga had been to hell...and it HAD been her fault...sort of. "There's also a lot of mixed breeds, like us. Lots of renegade oni have reformed or been reformed and worked their way into human society over the centuries. Most go back to hell eventually, I hear a few got jobs in heaven...but that can be hard on us Mom says."
Ranma stared at him blankly.
Ryouga made another mental note to check on Ranma's mother, if the oni-blood came from her then this virus most likely changed her as well. It was a funny sort of flu, only affecting females. Beyond that it seemed primarily targetted on Japanese. Every Japanese woman that caught the disease was affected all the way through to the change.
As for other ethnic groups, perhaps eighty percent of the other asians in Japan were affected all the way through. On the mainland of asia, however, only sixty percent failed to fight it off before the changing coma. Among Europeans, Africans and other ethnic groups further seperated from Japanese, it was more like only thirty percent were changed (though those Europeans and such living IN Japan still had a high percentage being affected). And that was just the percentage of people who changed that had caught the flu.
From what Ryouga could tell, this flu was designed to change every Japanese woman with an almost one hundred percent infection rate, but it didn't seem to care much about other groups. By the time it petered out to just an occasional occurence, less than ten percent of the non-Japanese women in the world would have been changed. It had all the marks of an attack of some kind.
On the plus side, if it awakened the blood every oni-descended girl in Japan, then Ryouga, and others, wouldn't have to hide any more. Of course, Ranma could still just be an isolated case.
Ryouga looked over Ranma, taking in her scent and viewing her aura. She was still confused, terrified, and she still wanted him badly and was having troubly controlling that instinct. To tell the truth, Ryouga has having equal troubles.
He could smell her readiness, and his body recognized the signals that she was ripe and fertile, hence the increased desire on both their parts. Oni were more emotional and instinctive than humans after all.
And her scent, copper and incense mixing sweetly into an strong aroma, was intoxicating even without that. He had not seen a female of his kind other than his mother before.
Ryouga cautiously, controling himself and trying not to startle Ranma, reached out to comfort Ranma.
"You aren't going to be a monster..." he promised as her eyes threatened to spill out with tears.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Fri, 06 Dec 2002 14:53)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.