Ranma opened the door of her cabin. "My name is Agoyr," the man said. "Quickly, we haven't got much time."
The man really looked like Ryoga and sounded like him, but he was clearly much older than him - 50 years old at least. He wore some dirty old clothes that looked they were out of some garbage can, and he reeked of alcohol. The most noticeable thing that reminded Ranma of her old friend/rival was the yellow, black-spotted bandanna under his filthy hair.
Agoyr pulled a dirty envelope out of his jacket. "Here, take this! It contains a train ticket and some money. Your train is leaving on platform two in five minutes."
"Hey, what are you talking about? What train? Where is Mamoru? Is he all right?"
"There's no time!" Agoyr nervously looked to the door. "Everything will be explained to you. Just follow my instructions on the backside of the envelope." He stuffed it into her hand. "I've got to go! Good luck!"
----
There was truly a train leaving on platform two five minutes after Ranma's encounter with Ryoga's dimensional counterpart. She was afraid that he would have the same bad sense of direction as Ryoga and the train would leave on an entirely different platform, but it seemed like Agoyr was right.
She looked at Shampoo who was once again sitting in her lap and sighed. "We really don't know where this train is going. Why did we listen to him? Barring the fact that we know him in my home reality, we know nothing of this guy. We don't even know if he's really a friend of Mamoru."
"But it was the best lead we got," Shampoo pointed out. "Besides, he helped us get away from Miss Mizuno. You really wanna be stuck in that youth center?"
"Not really!" Ranma looked at the empty envelope in her hands. There was not much written on its backside. Only the following letters:
STP-13 CF-KTS TB-13 13-CLK
The number thirteen appeared many times, but Ranma got pretty used to the fact that she constantly saw it since she arrived in this reality. But she still couldn't make sense of the letters.
"Do you have any idea what this could mean?" she asked Shampoo.
Shampoo took a look at the envelope (and proved that cats could indeed read, at least mooncats) and pondered over it. "It's only a guess, but perhaps STP-13 means we should exit the train at stop 13."
"Oh! Well, makes sense, I guess. Okay, perhaps we can make sense out of the other letters when we arrive."
Shampoo nodded and Ranma leaned back in her seat. If only she wasn't that tired...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An hour after Ranma entered the room on floor 13 and met the girls (perhaps it was longer than an hour, none of them had a watch) they all had Ranma told their stories, how all of them ended up into The House.
Ami said that some guys did ambush her and drag her into a car, then they blindfolded her and drove her somewhere. Makoto told Ranma that five big, strong punks had attacked her in a back alley (Makoto seemed to exaggerate a bit) and threw her into a big van.
But what stayed the same in all of their stories was the fact that all of them fell unconscious at one point. And when they awoke, they were here.
The group haven't been like this all the time. Rei, who seemed to be their 'leader" of sorts, was here longer than the others, and she saw various girls AND boys appearing and disappearing in The House. Sometimes, one of them just disappeared while everyone else was sleeping, and shortly after, another boy and girl appears. It was like this for a long, long time, she said.
"And you didn't plan to escape this crazy place even ONCE?" Ranma asked in disbelief.
"Of course we did," Rei snapped. "But what we do know is that the corridors just go on endlessly. And every room we got in looks the same. At one time, a boy who was the oldest at that time got the idea to break down a wall with some tools we found. It took as days to finish the job, but we managed to do it in the end."
"And what was behind the wall?"
Rei laughed dryly. "Another corridor that looked exactly like all of the others. When everyone climbed through the hole in the wall, it just vanished. No, we're pretty sure that we cannot escape this place."
"So you just gave up hope?" Ranma asked. Rei shrugged.
"And what are you doing all the time?"
"Well, we try to survive. We are searching for food, supplies, something to kill time... Most of the time, we usually find what we are searching for. And sometimes we're playing tag with the Youmas."
"Did anyone of you try do go to the lowest floor and see if there's an exit there?"
"Some kids did, yeah," Minako said. "But most of them didn't return. It's dangerous down there, not only because of the Youma. And we really don't know how many floors there are."
"Swoop says this is the thirteenth floor," Ranma pointed out.
"Swoop is lying when she opens her big mouth," Rei grumbled. "I wouldn't believe anything she tells you."
"But just doing nothing and giving up? That's just... That's... Come on, you guys! That's no life what you're describing. That's hell!" Ranma angrily stood up.
"And what do you suggest we do?" Rei stood up as well. "It's too dangerous! I can't put everyone else in danger if we don't even know if we succeed or not. Sorry, but no!"
"That's all you have to say? You refuse to take an opportunity to save everyone just because you are a coward?"
Rei visibly winced under Ranma's words. When she answered, her voice sounded strained. "Call me a coward if you like, but I am responsible for the safety of everyone. I won't let you put the others in danger!"
"Says who?" Ranma snapped.
"I say it," Rei snapped back. "You are new here, you can't understand what it's like to be here. I won't let you put the others in danger!"
"Oh yeah? And how do you plan to stop me? By using force?"
Rei looked away. "No, I don't think that will be necessary."
Ranma couldn't stand it anymore. She took one last angry look at Rei, than stormed out of the room.
----
After running down the corridor for a few minutes, Ranma calmed down. She took a deep breath. She just couldn't understand Rei. Why just give up? Why just throwing away everything? The life is this place, how they described it, isn't worth it. Better risking your life by looking for a way out.
When she heard footsteps behind her, she turned around. It was Hotaru.
"Don't be angry with Rei," she said with a smile. "She believes she is responsible for us because she was here longer than the rest of us."
"Yeah, I think I can imagine," Ranma replied.
"Besides... I think she's afraid a little..."
"Afraid? Why?"
"Because of you..." Hotaru said with sad eyes.
"Because of me? Why?" Ranma couldn't understand it.
Hotaru sighed. "I'll explain it. Come on, let's walk for a while. "Don't worry, I'll find the way back."
After they walked for some time, Hotaru said: "You know, Rei was here the longest. When she arrived here, she was the youngest of us. Now she's the oldest... except for Michiru! And every time someone vanished, someone else appeared."
"You mean... because I arrived here, she thinks that..."
Hotaru nodded. "Yes! She thinks that she will disappear soon. And she doesn't know what will happen to her."
"Oh boy..."
"Now do you understand? When I told her I saw you, she got scared." She motioned with her head to one of the spiral stairs. "Come, I want to show you something."
Curiously, Ranma followed Hotaru up the stairs, expecting to enter another corridor.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:03)
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