What happened? Ranma saw Konoka fall beneath the surface of the water again as he raced toward the river's edge. Was it a current dragging her down? Did she lose her footing on the rocks? What problem hadn't he thought of?
On the river's other side, he saw Yue scrambling up. In the river, Setsuna had already thrown away the pole to thrash after Konoka. Setsuna wasn't getting any closer, and Konoka's cries as the river carried her away grew weaker. The two girls drifted twenty meters in a few seconds, and just by running to keep up, Ranma had already left Nodoka behind. Nodoka didn't look brave enough to wander off, but he couldn't be sure, so he had to resolve this quickly.
As Ranma sprinted with his pole in his hand, the noise of the river current began to grow louder, and the river became more rocky. Setsuna was pulling closer to Konoka now, but Ranma couldn't tell how Konoka herself was doing. She might hit something sharp before long, and no doubt Setsuna thought the same... if she was thinking too clearly.
However coldly Setsuna acted toward Konoka and the other girls, she still cared enough to protect them.
Ranma focused on the current problem. Setsuna might handle it herself, but Konoka wasn't athletic. He didn't know how badly she was doing, or why she had been dragged by the river in the first place, and with the river getting more choppy, leaving Setsuna to rescue Konoka had risk. He should intervene.
The river swept Konoka closer to the far shore, and Ranma hefted the pole in his hand. He threw it, like a spear, into the water in front of her. It was a long distance, so he threw the pole hard enough to pierce the riverbed, kicking up a high splash that resounded more loudly than the gurgling river.
The pole stood upright as the river swept Konoka into it. She didn't grab onto the pole as he hoped, and was immediately swept past.
Damn it. Was she unconscious?
Setsuna infused herself with Chi. Ranma could feel the tug of her leaked energy, and when he looked, he could see a milky white glow around her body that pushed aside the surface water around her in small waves. Reflexively, he scanned the river in the direction they had come, but Nodoka and Yue were nowhere in sight. Had Setsuna been waiting for them to get far enough ahead? Or had she been mustering her strength all this time?
Maybe it was all she could think of on short notice. Didn't much matter—as he watched, her swimming speed doubled, and she quickly caught up with Konoka. The energy use wasn't terribly efficient—she had already shut off the aura—but Ranma couldn't fault her for effectiveness.
Setsuna lifted Konoka's head above the water. To Ranma's distant eyes, Konoka's pallor looked awful, but she was still faintly struggling for breath. Setsuna's expression towards him was asking for help. She must've found it too awkward to support Konoka in these rough currents and still get them to the shore.
Alright. He could deal with that. Ranma dove in the river himself, and let the stings of the icy water cover him yet again. The current was indeed stronger underneath the surface, and less regular than the section of water they started from. Still, Ranma was fit enough to swim to Setsuna's side without trouble.
Ranma and Setsuna pulled Konoka to the opposite bank and let her shiver and cough for a few minutes. Setsuna didn't want to leave, but Ranma told her to go back and check on Yue and Nodoka, and to fetch something to dry for Konoka to wear. He stayed with Konoka as Setsuna ran off, and sat waiting while Konoka collected herself.
The coldness of the spring air did Konoka no favors. Normally, she'd be in trouble if Setsuna didn't return quickly. Ranma didn't think that was urgent though—he or Setsuna could fix hypothermia by warming Konoka with Chi.
Now that Konoka was safe, Ranma worried more about why she had been dragged away. He hadn't expected that, and if he made a mistake in taking them across the river, he needed to find and correct it.
Konoka sat against a tree shivering as Ranma knelt before her and measured the pulse at her wrist—an excuse to cover up feeding her a stream of his own energy through his hands. Not enough energy to ease her shakes, because that would be too obvious to the senses, but enough to slow the drop in her core temperature. He straightforwardly asked, "What happened in the river?"
"Huh?" Konoka looked up at him. She must still be distracted, though Ranma's quick examination had told him she wasn't in a fugue.
"When you fell in the river," Ranma said, "what made it happen?" He refrained from giving examples, since leading her might distort her memory.
"I... uh."
That was all Konoka got out before she looked away.
Ranma knelt there for a few seconds.
"Well?"
Konoka looked back up. "I'm not sure. It happened so quickly."
Ranma frowned. "What do you remember? Just describe whatever you felt."
The girl shifted uncomfortably against the tree, which didn't protect her from the breeze. "I remember walking in the water. Then I felt the water pulling at me harder and I fell all the way under the surface."
Then was it nothing more than a surge of current? "Huh," Ranma said as he considered that answer. If so, Setsuna, should've felt it and grabbed Konoka. Both of them being swept off would've been better than separating. "Looks like that girl wasn't paying attention to the current. I'll have to yell at her."
"What?" Konoka looked surprised at Ranma's comment. "Wait, it's not her fault!"
Ranma released Konoka's wrist and stood up. "I agree. Still, she could've done better, so she gets a lecture. It'll keep her from making the mistake twice."
"Ah, but—" Konoka looked absolutely stricken for some reason. "Secchan didn't do anything wrong. It's my fault for not being careful."
Secchan? That was rather cutesy a nickname for what he's seen of Konoka and Setsuna's relationship, but he set that aside. "It's not about who's at fault. You've had a hard enough time that you'll remember to be careful, but something like this isn't enough to get every kid to take notice. Better for me to emphasize it."
Konoka pushed herself half-way to a standing position against the tree. "I don't want you to ask Setsuna about why I fell."
She was pushing him away from this a little hard. Ranma's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"I..." Konoka looked away. "I don't want her to know I let it happen on purpose."
"You did what?!"
Konoka flinched as Ranma's yell overwhelmed the noise of the river, and she cowered back at his countenance. "I wanted Secchan to finally talk to me—"
Ranma reordered his priorities instantly. "Do you have any idea what kind of danger you were in?! You hurt yourself, you put Setsuna at risk—"
"I never get to talk to her at school—"
After living so many months in austerity, maybe he forgot what other people's stupidity felt like? Well, that just came to a crashing end. "You couldn't think of a better time than while you're fording a river?! Do you think this is a game?! When I walked both ways to test the trip and then made everyone cross in pairs, do you think that was for fun?!"
Konoka cringed further and further into the tree as Ranma advanced toward her. "I didn't think—"
"You could've drowned! You could've been knocked unconscious! You could've been cut on rocks! You could've swallowed dirty water! We don't have first aid for any of that! What the hell is wrong with you?!"
By then, Ranma had walked right up into Konoka's face. Her face already had tear tracks as she tried to stammer out a reply, but after the effort he put into leading these girls safely, he didn't intend to let her make excuses.
Konoka tried to slip away to the side, tripped over the tree's exposed roots, and fell on her back. Ranma hauled her back to her feet by the arm. His hand squeezed into her thin arm as if he was clutching only the bone, and Konoka cried out in pain.
Ranma released the girl and retracted his hand, a moment before Setsuna could strike his wrist.
He jumped back quickly as Setsuna interposed herself between him and Konoka. He said quite coldly, "Wait your turn, girl. I haven't start on you yet."
Setsuna was even more pissed. "How dare you?! No one injures my lady and passes unharmed for it!"
What the hell was she so touchy abou—
Setsuna spear-hand thrust to his chest was so much faster than he expected that he couldn't deflect it until after she touched him. The strike was laced with Chi, and unlike last night, he could feel real emotion behind it... and real intent.
As Ranma's left hand pushed Setsuna's right-handed thrust away, his own right palm settled over her left eye, and he shoved the girl to the side.
Setsuna fell upon the uneven ground and screamed as she covered the left side of her face with both hands.
Ah, dammit. As Setsuna clutched at her face, Konoka ran up beside her. He could hear Konoka's gasp easily, and even without Setsuna rising, he knew that he had bruised her face black. He acted on reflex before thinking, and swirled Chi in his palm without intending to.
"Stop touching it," he said to Setsuna as she continued to rub futilely at the blackened area. It was numb, he knew, and no amount of stimulation would speed the recovery.
Setsuna pulled her hands down with much effort, revealing the expected black smear that covered her skin. Konoka gasped again, and Setsuna forced out in a strangled voice, "My eye! I can't see!"
Before Ranma could tell her that the blindness would pass, a bit of movement drew his notice over to Yue standing at the shore. She must have accompanied Setsuna, and only now caught up after Setsuna ran ahead to confront him. In her hands Yue held a towel for Konoka, and on her face Yue held a look of slack-jawed shock. The feel of her silent astonishment almost made him confuse her for Nodoka.
Ranma was surprised when Yue quickly smoothed her expression from dismay back to its usual mask of slight condemnation. "Now do you see," she asked Konoka placidly, "that I was right when I said we shouldn't follow him?"
Yue glanced at him for a moment before averting her gaze, and Ranma realized she was defusing the situation. He could hear the tension beneath her words. She wasn't as composed as she looked.
He didn't know where this conversation would go, but if talking kept Setsuna calm, he didn't need to obstruct it. Ranma rested his hands at his sides, and Yue—seeing the motion—relaxed a bit. Konoka watched him with fear and not a little anger at hurting Setsuna. Setsuna... he couldn't see much besides the black on her face, but he could guess.
"It seems obvious that he can hurt us whenever he wants," Yue said, with suddenly formal tone. It was weird, but it matched her dispassionate face. "In light of this, I don't think we feel safe traveling together."
Ah, of course. Yue never liked him, and now she thought this was a good time to get away... and he had to agree, it was.
Yue looked him square in the eye this time. "Since you didn't want to help us in the first place, maybe we should just go our own ways right here. What do you say?"
Ranma glanced over at Konoka, who now looked uncertain. Setsuna was scowling, and still touching the bruise. Nodoka—well, that girl was on the other side of the river, and Yue probably hadn't thought everything through in the heat of the moment, but he doubted Nodoka had enough spine to go against the other three even if she had a reason.
Hmm. He should—
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(Posted Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:21)
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