Realizing there would be no help from Yagami, as the other boy wasn’t given to sympathetic actions, Ranma Saotome walked over to the unconscious form of Ryouga Hibiki, who lay face down on concrete, in a small crater. Turning him over, he saw that Hibiki was bleeding from various cuts and scrapes. His face was also swelling up, and turning purple. Recognizing this for what it was, he decided Ryouga needed to be taken to the infirmary very soon. He lifted his attacker and began walking away. Yagami and Nabiki followed.
Carrying Ryouga was no small feat: not because he was heavy, for Ranma could lift much, much more; but because he was nearly Ranma’s size. Ranma did manage it though, and shortly Ryouga was on a bed in the school infirmary, while the nurse looked him over. After a short while she pronounced that he’d probably be unconscious for a couple more hours, but that he had no real injuries.
Ranma looked around the not-considerable room, and saw that while Nabiki was standing only a few feet away, Yagami stood by the wall, arms crossed and head down.
As if Yagami knew he was being watched, he suddenly looked up, and then straight at Ranma. He then shifted his eyes to Ryouga’s benched form. He walked over, and stood over him.
Yagami’s next actions surprised Ranma. The other boy opened his right hand, and slapped Ryouga’s chest with such force that it sounded like gunshot.
Hibiki sat up instantly, swearing a blue streak – but nonetheless awake. He then laid eyes on who had hit him.
“Yagami! What the hell?” Ryouga’s eyes widened.
He could have spoken for Ranma, for Ranma was wondering the same thing.
With one hand, seemingly taking no more effort than it would to carry a football, Yagami lifted Ryouga off the bench by his shirt and hauled him to his feet. He set Ryouga on the ground, and looked down into his eyes, turning a height advantage of about seven inches, into one that more closely resembled several miles.
“It’s never wise to ignore someone who tries telling you something”, Yagami said, his voice even.
“What are you talking about”, Ryouga asked.
Yagami shook his head. “When I saw you a few days ago, I told you I didn’t want you killing Saotome. And what do you do today? You try and kill him.” He slapped Ryouga again. “Either you forgot, or you remembered and ignored. So which are you: willfully stupid, or just denser than lead?”
Ryouga made no reply, so Ranma filled the space. “You saw him a few days ago?”
Yagami nodded. “Friday, walking home. Didn’t think it was important.” He turned back to Ryouga. “Well?”
Ryouga opened his mouth, and started to speak. “Ah...”
Yagami shook his head again. “Simple question, Hibiki: did you ignore me, or are you just thick as a brick?”
Ryouga said “Ah” again. Yagami shook his head, and then slapped him again. This time it knocked him off his feet. He got back up again, and threw a sloppy punch, which Yagami easily caught. Ranma watched as Yagami’s facial expression turned sour.
“Wrong answer.” And with that, he delivered a vicious punch to the fanged boy’s face. Ranma heard a crack as Ryouga fell to the ground. Yagami picked him up and put him back on the bench. “Broken nose”, he said over his shoulder as he walked out of the infirmary.
After a minute or so, when the nurse shooed them out, Ranma and Nabiki followed, and headed back to class.
The school day had ended before Ranma got a chance to confront his friend. “Why’d you interfere in my fight like that? I was beating him!”
Yagami took a few seconds before responding. “You were dodging his attacks, sure, but you weren’t closing in, either to disarm him or fight hand-to-hand. That air pressure move he used...he was putting more power into it. Eventually he might have hit you, or someone else, with it, and it would kill you or whoever it hit, instantly. I didn’t want that to happen.” He kept walking.
Ranma thought about this. “So you were protecting the crowd?”
Yagami shrugged. “If it suits you to think so, then yeah.”
Ranma shook his head. “What do you mean?”
Yagami didn’t answer, his expression closing off. Ranma knew it would do no good to continue asking. If Yagami wanted to keep some other reason to himself, he’d just have to go along with it.
None of the trio spoke again before they arrived at the Tendou compound. Ranma and Nabiki went in, and Ranma Yagami began walking home.
As he walked along the sidewalk, he said to himself, “Saotome...you can’t understand what it means, without being one of us.” He walked up to an ugly stone statue, and with minor effort, blasted it into burning shards with a purple fireball.
“We burn of our own making”, he said to himself as fire surrounded his right hand.
~_~
Miles away, on another of Japan’s many islands, a teenaged girl of about sixteen faced off against twenty men, each nearly twice her size.
It made no difference in the end: she knocked every one of them out with a single strike apiece.
The girl might have been a pretty sort: she was about 5’3 or 5’4, with long brown hair and deep brown eyes, and wearing dark blue clothes that accentuated a nice figure. But it was all marred by the ugly scowl she wore on her face.
“Genma Saotome”, she said to herself in a calmly furious voice. “Soon I shall find you, and then your head shall be mine.”
She raised her hands in front of her body, until they pointed straight out, facing a boulder. A dark red ball of energy formed between her hands, and with a yell she fired it, disintegrating the rock nigh instantly.
“Such do I promise.”
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(Posted Thu, 13 May 2004 00:24)
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