Irritable, alone, and discomforted by the prophecy -- which he still couldn't figure out how to apply to Ranma and Akane -- Genma set up camp. He respected the old buildings, and only gathered stone that had fallen far away from them to build a circle for his camp fire. There had been trees, at one point, and some branches remained for a fire. Then he'd studied the large walls of the great monastery that had been gutted long ago, and found the most secure corner to make his camp in.
The goat continued watching him with a surly demeanor, chewing his mouthful of weeds and making no noise. "Some company you are," Genma grumbled. "Who brought you here, anyway?"
At that, the goat seemed to smile, and turned away.
Shaking his head, Genma set up his tent, wishing he had brought Ranma on the trip after all. Still, after the China incident, he was reluctant to leave sight of Nerima, or any of his fiancees. He'd gotten a bit unjustifiably protective of the other girls, when Genma looked back on it. Sure, Shampoo had gotten involved, but she wasn't in danger, like Akane was.
Well, alright. There was that little bout of mind control, but even Genma had to deal with that -- and then got over it! So he couldn't see why Ranma was worked up about 'something bad happening' and stubbornly refusing to leave. Nodoka backed the boy up instantly, of course, wanting to spend more time with him.
Assured that Nodoka wouldn't let Ranma's sudden new protective instinct lead him away from Akane, Genma had gone in search of wisdom. And what did he find?
He sighed, starting his fire when the sun approached the horizon. It would be cold at this height when true dark fell, he reminded himself. And dark would come quickly, too. He eyed the goat for a moment, then decided the beast must find shelter in the buildings when things got really bad. It had lasted this long; it didn't need his help.
Once his fire was going, and controlled, he helped himself to a camp meal of rice and beef jerky. Not ideal, but he'd survive long enough to reach a town. With nothing better to do, and protected from the wind by the ancient monastery walls, he set his pack behind him as a pillow over a larger fallen stone, and watched the sky change color.
He was still puzzling out the meaning of the monk's warning, when he saw the hues of twilight deepen and change. A smile came to his lips. With the sun at his back -- on the other side of the wall -- he was given a fantastic view of the sky. And from here, looking east across Hokkaido, the world looked rugged, mountainous, and pollution free. He knew that was only an illusion, of course, but that had always been one of his favorite aspects of a training trip.
Next to being able to spend time with his son, of course.
But his vantage also let him watch the first stars emerge. The thin violet, almost purple band began to widen, deepening to blue, then darker, towards black. Before it became a fearsome, consuming well of inky jet, the faint pinpricks of light voiced their complaint against the darkness. No moon, he realized to himself suddenly. There would be no moon tonight.
If nothing else, he had given himself a prime opportunity to stargaze. More and more of night's warriors emerged, the air so still that they barely even seemed to twinkle. Not expecting to find one, even against the expanse of the milky way, he tried to find a red star. Where was Mars this evening, he wondered. Ah, not the right season for it.
Both he and his son had spent long nights studying the stars that made the roof of their camp. It was likely the only hobby they shared that didn't involve martial arts, though as soon as Genma could find a way to bring that into it, he would. He was ruminating on martial techniques based on the constellations when he saw it.
A bright, gleaming point of red that winked -- for just a moment -- on the horizon, climbing upward. He shook his head, rubbed his eyes, and then stared hard at it.
At where it had been. It was gone. The goat made a soft noise, but Genma couldn't take his eyes from the sky. A red star. Just as the prophet had warned? Then he saw it again -- higher, this time, though only slightly. He shivered, suddenly realizing that the anticipated cold had been allowed to sneak up on him regardless.
"That can't be," he murmured, squinting at the sky. Sure enough, at regular intervals, the red light pulsed. He tried to time it, measuring it against his heartbeat. Once he'd learned its rhythm, he pulled his almanac and watch from his pack. He usually kept track of these things himself, but here in Hokkaido, he wasn't sure.... But he checked the almanac. He tried to gauge the movement of the red star in those moments when it showed itself.
And what worried him the most about it was that it moved against the other stars, not with him. He knew math wasn't his strong point, so he tried to tell himself that it was nothing. A mere fluke, of course.
But the prophecy assured him that, somehow, the red star was exactly opposite the sun in Earth's night.
Unsettled, he finally crawled into his tent to escape its winking, suddenly malevolent twinkle. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but it would happen during the daylight, one way or another.
See other episodes by Sgt. Chibi De`Ohki
(Posted Fri, 13 Apr 2007 03:53)
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