[Episode 31822] [Episode 31822]Ranma peeked from between his fingers. He wasn't sure what he expected to see, but this wasn't it. There was no monster, no eyeless beast with a thousand mouths and ten thousand teeth. No tentacles anywhere. Nobody was screaming, nobody was bleeding, nobody was dying or missing limbs or dead. There was just a man standing where a man was previously not.
It was just a man, an ordinary man. An ordinary man who could have been Japanese or Chinese or Korean. An ordinary man, wearing a bomber jacket upon which were thirty or more pins and buttons advertising concepts from "Take Back Manchuria" to "Free Tibet" to "Better Dead Than Red" to "Militant Students for Peace" to simply "Have A Nice Day". An ordinary man who made the back of Ranma's eyes hurt if he looked directly at his face. An ordinary man whose clothing stayed creased as if he had never moved after he'd put it on. An ordinary man who seemed to exude an aura of darkness that blotted out far more than just light.
Just an ordinary man. An ordinary, dangerous man.
"So," the man said, cracking his knuckles, "What seems to be the problem?" He turned to Ryoga. "Did you need something?"
Ryoga's eyes were wide. His mouth opened, but no speech came out -- just gasping.
"Cat got your tongue, eh?" He produced a cigarette from nowhere and lit it, though Ranma did not see a lighter. "It's all right. I know how it is." At this point, Ranma realized that Ryoga would be very, very lucky if he managed to live long enough to see the sun set.
Evenutally, Ryoga's stammers began to form words. "Sa-Sa-Saotome, he..."
"He what? Spit it out boy, I don't have all day."
"he-he ruined my luh-luh-life, he s-suh-stole Akane..."
The dark man nodded. "Lady troubles, huh?" He turned to Ranma, adressing him as a character in a play might address its audience. "We've all had more than our share of those, am I right?"
Ranma nodded slowly. His head felt like it weighed six hundred pounds.
"But I'm sure we can work something out, can't we Ryoga?" He paused. "Oh, I've just been so rude, here I've been talking and we haven't even been introduced! My name's Fuyutsuki. Ryoko Fuyutsuki." He looked at Ryoga expectantly, not seeming to notice or care when Ryoga dropped to his knees and let his arms hang slack like limp wire.
"Ry-Ry-Ryoga Hi-Hibiki..."
"There's my boy! Now, Mr. Ryoga, I take it this is Mr Saotome?" He swept his arm toward where Ranma stood like an obelisk. A moth flitted past, then fell to the grass dead as the dark man's arm passed by him. Ryoga nodded at the gesture, unblinking, never able to take his eyes off the dark man.
The dark man turned to look at Ranma. A lump formed in the martial artist's throat that felt about the size of a volleyball.
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(Posted Sat, 06 Sep 2003 02:45)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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