On the way home, Miu was finding Ranma to be uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn. She knew the cause, but couldn’t see any way to help him aside from the comfort her presence provided. She wasn’t going to baby him though, no matter how bad Ranma seemed to be asking for it right now.
From the time Ranma had been a young boy, his father had raised him to be a follower, someone who does everything that another suggests and never looks behind the back of that person in the lead. Although he had been somewhat rebellious, in the end Ranma fit the profile of such people.
During his training at Ryozanpaku, Hayato had forced him to take a look around the world in the areas that he’d largely ignored. He’d been re-taught and trained to realize that part of growing up was taking responsibility for both the things you did do, and the things that came about as a result of inaction. While boys were allowed to hide behind things such as ignorance, men weren’t.
“Stop being so damn gloomy,” Niijima ordered when they got to the monorail train station, it being along the fastest route back to their neighborhood that Niijima had plotted rather than the roundabout way Ranma and Miu took.
Although Miu gave him a glare, Niijima ignored her and continued on. “What? You feel bad for what happened because you weren’t around? Okay, since I’ve been doing some calculations since we left that place, let’s examine what would have happened if you had stuck around,” the young man told Ranma.
“We’ll start with that Akane girl. Now since you were engaged and everything we’ll say its her you married out of obligation,” he began before punching his palm pilot again a few more times. “There’s a 78% chance you would have started having an affair with anyone to show you genuine affection by the age of 21, and by then you would have brought a child into a loveless marriage with, as you’ve put it: a violent maniac with no womanly skills whatsoever that jumps to conclusions and tends to snap at the stupidest things… if you hadn’t been killed or arrested by then I mean.
“Meanwhile, we’d all be dead,” he concluded.
Miu blinked at his assessment and looked over with a deadpan expression. “Say what?” she asked, not quite sure where the hell he got that idea from.
In response to her question, Niijima held up a picture of one of Yami’s associate members: Li Tenmon. “Remember when he came to the Shinpaku HQ?”
“… Oh yeah,” Miu drawled out. That had been a rather frightening time, Ranma first fight against a true master trying to kill him; and one with a style that had been a perfect counter to his usual habits of fighting. After shaking off the feelings the memories of that time gave her, Miu looked over to Ranma as the train got to their stop. “He’s right you know. If you’re going to start playing ‘what if’ then start thinking about the consequences of you not going to Ryozanpaku.”
Ranma didn’t say anything, and they boarded the train.
Miu frowned at being ignored and took hold of the upper handle right behind him. “Real men don’t sulk!”
It was then that fate decided to intervene.
Although, it should be noted that fate is a cruel bitch goddess that cheats at cards and always kicks you in the balls when you’re down.
The train came to its second to last stop before it was scheduled to leave the city, and the doors opened up. A man with a yellow bandanna and large backpack stepped aboard and turned around to face the exit as soon as the boarding stopped.
Ryoga Hibiki was an angry young man. Angry at everything and everyone. The cause of his anger: Ranma Saotome.
He could still remember how it all started, when Ranma had stolen his food in the junior high cafeteria, he could still see that evil child laughing at him before taking a bite, over and over again. He was a pathetic little thing, always coming at him from different angles, ambushing him, when Ryoga challenged him to an upfront fight, he fled the country rather than accept.
So Ryoga followed the coward to China, and by some miracle given to him by the gods of justice, he found the coward. But Ranma had hidden by changing into a girl. Rather than fight him, she knocked Ryoga into a magic spring that guaranteed Ranma wouldn’t ever have to fight Ryoga fair and square again.
Then he met the girl, a girl Ryoga knew he would have been able to spend the rest of his life with. But Ranma was already there, he stole her before Ryoga had managed to make her love him back. But he had done the right thing, he stayed with that girl every night he could to protect her, to keep Ranma from completing whatever monstrous act he’d been trying to do that first night so long ago.
Brokenhearted and lonely Ranma had tricked him into falling for another girl. But she couldn’t love him, not like Akane, not like the girl he’d met first. Then he wandered by one day and found out the coward had run off again. She welcomed him back into her life, and everything was perfect.
Then it happened. Ranma had told Akari where he was, she had always waited for him to get back before, that’s what happened. Ranma had come by and saw him happy in those few short days, so he got afraid and got Akari to trick Akane into hating him.
Ranma, it was always Ranma! He went into Ryoga’s dreams to deny him sleep. He took away Ryoga’s home by fooling Akane. He tricked Ryoga into falling for Akari. Then in his last masterstroke of villainy, he let Ryoga and Akane fall in love again, and then sent Akari to ruin everything. Ranma fooled the police into thinking he was a criminal. Ranma knocked down the school, killing all those people! He told the police it was Ryoga. He was always hiding, always around the next corner.
But Ryoga had been undergoing extensive training, both his mind as well as his body. Whether the reason for his constant misdirection was the fault of breeding, brain damage, or just his own idiocy causing the inability to follow basic direction and street signs, Ryoga had learned a few ways to help him deal. Things like trains always went to the same places, the same time. If he got lost, all he had to do was find a train station and go back to a place that looked vaguely familiar. If he was in an unfamiliar place, he could ask other people to take him where to go.
Ranma wouldn’t be able to hide from him anymore!
Ryoga looked to his left, and then to his right, and it seemed the gods were truly on his side.
Standing ten meters away on the other side of the car was the man he’d sworn revenge against. He had changed his clothes. His hairstyle was a little different, less poofy in the front where his bangs were hanging down, but Ryoga knew it was him. He couldn’t waste his chance, he had to kill him now!
“DIE RANMA!” Ryoga shouted as he released all his hatred for the past three years in one great explosion. “DIE!”
(Posted Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:15)
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