Waters Under Earth

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfic by Alan Harnum - harnums@hotmail.com

All Ranma characters are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, first
published by Shogakugan in Japan and brought over to North
America by Viz Communications.

I am not subscribed to the FFML, so if all comments could be
directed straight to my e-mail address, I'd be very grateful.
C&C is not only welcomed but very much appreciated.  Thank you.

Chapter 5 : Best-Laid Plans (2/3)

     He couldn't see his father.  The old man had gone to the
washroom as soon as they'd entered the train.  Hopefully he'd be
with them when they got off at their stop.  

     "How far out is this place?" Ukyou said from behind him, a
hesitant note in her voice.

     "About five hours," Ranma said quietly.  "The train drops us
off at a town about a mile from the village at the base of the
mountain.  We'll have to walk from there."

     "But we'll get there before sunset, won't we?" Akane asked
from beside him.

     Ranma slowly nodded.  "That's why we left early.  There's
plenty of time if there's a train delay or..."

     He trailed off, not wanting to think of what would happen if
they didn't get there before sunset.  "We'll get there," he said
finally, trying to put as much conviction into the tone as he
could.

     "Of course we'll get there," Akane said soothingly.  He
nodded and closed his eyes, hoping that would make everyone stop
talking to him.

     There was a soft hum, as the motors of the train began to
work below them, and great wheels began to drive the machine
along the rails.  The ride was smooth, with no jars or bumps to
distract him.  A soft murmur of voices lulled him slightly,
conversation from the people around him.  None of them seemed to
be the voices of his friends.

     He felt himself drifting off, that single stretched-out
second between waking and sleeping that you only sometimes
experience.  He shook his head and snapped himself awake.

     "Can't sleep now," he said, opening his eyes and focusing
his attention out the window.  The city rolled by underneath the
long bridge the train rode on, small houses and scattered people
in the streets giving way gradually to the towering skyscrapers
and early-morning crowds of rushing salarymen.  They looked like
ants from up here, long trails of dark-clothed people shuffling
off with some destination in mind that he couldn't see.

     The train seemed to have gone strangely silent around him,
or perhaps it was just that he was no longer paying attention to
anything beyond what lay beyond the window.  The city diminished,
shrank in volume and size, as they left the suburbs of Tokyo and
entered the country.

     He closed his eyes again, and opened them to see that the
train seemed to have slowed.  The country outside was passing by
no quicker than as if he had been walking.

     "Weird," he muttered.  "Hey Akane, do you..."

     He trailed off, because he could see two figures now,
impossibly keeping pace with the train and walking beside it,
slow and leisurely like a stroll in the country.  He now saw
that the scenery was still flying past in a blur, though.

     "What the hell..."

     There was a tall man, with a small boy on his shoulders, and
he could not see their faces.  The boy pointed at everything in
sight, but never did he turn his head so Ranma could see his
face.  Occasionally, his father would glance up at him and make
some comment that would cause the boy's small shoulders to shake
with laughter.

     And as they slowed and passed from his view, he saw they
both wore white.  But before he could think about that at all, he
saw two more figures ahead, keeping pace with the train as the
first two had.  A man walking, and in front of him a boy running,
occasionally ranging ahead before falling back beside the man.

     Never did he see their faces either, and he saw that they
too wore white.  Then again, they fell behind, and there were two
more figures, a boy and a girl, walking hand in hand and dressed
in red.  And they too fell behind, and so too did he never see
their faces.

     And then finally, a single figure, a man, walking alone, and
wearing black.  And this time, he saw that the man was turning
his head as if to look at him, and he knew this time he would see
his face.

     And he did not want to.  He turned his head back the other
way, to look to Akane, to speak to her, to ask if she had seen
what he saw.

     And the seat next to him was empty, and the train had become
a boat, and the river ran on...

     ...and he was flying backwards, and everything was blurring,
and whose hand was that on his shoulder, and it all went dark,
dark as the last man's clothes had been, dark that seemed to suck
the light from the air and twist it in upon itself and give birth
to some new light, something glowing darkly bright beyond...

     "Ranma?  Ranma?"

     "Hmm?"

     He opened his eyes.  Akane was looking at him, her hand on
his shoulder, concern in her eyes.  "You dozed off and started
mumbling.  Were you having a dream?"

     "Guess so," Ranma said, blinking and settling back into his
seat.  "I'm just stressed out.  I'm worried.  It's nothing."

     Akane squeezed his shoulder and took her hand away.  In
front of him, Mousse turned his head around and rested one elbow
on the back of his seat before speaking.

     "Don't worry, Saotome.  We'll get your mother back," he
said, and gave him what amounted to a friendly smile.  As he
didn't have his glasses on, he'd been talking to a passing
conductor, but it was really the thought that counted.

     Outside, the scenery rushed by the train in a dizzying swirl
of brown and green, and whatever other people Ranma saw were far
away, and gone so quickly that they hardly even registered upon
his mind.

**********

     In a dark place, a phone rings.

     A hand, wrinkled by age, traced with a crazed, branching map
of blue veins like an aerial view of a river system, reaches out
and picks it up.

     A few words are spoken, a few conjectures made from the
opinions of the two voices.  

     The phone clicks back down.  Long, spidery fingers steeple
themselves on the edge of a desk.  Sharp fingernails clack on
wood.  Blind yet seeing eyes in a young face look out into the
darkness at things no other eyes will ever have to see.

     A slow smile, terrible and humourless.

     A small thing for now.  An unimporant thing at this time.
Inconsequential to what is to occur soon.

     But not for long.  

**********
     
     The winding dirt road that led to the village at the base of
the mountain was exactly like Ranma remembered it from a few
months before.  Change didn't occur with the same speed in the
country as it did in the city; everything followed behind out
here, with a sense of calm serenity utterly unpresent in the
living entity of steel and glass that was modern Tokyo.

     Behind them, the town that the train stop was at was already
falling into the distance, as they trudged along the dusty road
towards the picturesque tree-lined slopes of the small mountain,
the one he and his father had precisely chosen all those months
ago because its isolation and small size made it a more private
spot than most.

     Now he glanced up at the rocky, forested slopes with a
growing sense of trepidation.  Somewhere up there was Cologne, in
a body a century younger, with all her skills honed by youth now
as well as by experience.

     Waiting.

     With his mother.

     With a mind finally given in to madness?

     His thoughts were turned away when he heard a rustling sound
from a nearby clump of bushes.  "What's that?"

     He glanced around, saw his father and everyone else casting
questioning looks to him.  "What's what?" Akane asked.

     "I heard something," he said, looking suspiciously over at
the bushes.

     "Well, no one else did," Genma said.  "Just an animal or
something, boy.  Don't worry about it."

     Ranma hunched his shoulders and glanced around again.
"Didn't any of you hear anything?"

     There was a general shaking of heads.  Ranma sighed and
hunched his shoulders a bit, thrusting his hands into his pockets
and staring up at the sky.

     He dropped a few steps behind abruptly, ignoring whatever
look Akane gave him, and began to walk next to Shampoo.  "Hey
Shampoo, I talk to you for a minute?"

     Shampoo, who'd been uncharacteristically silent the whole
morning, glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and nodded.

     Ranma glanced to the silent form of Mousse beside her and
coughed.  "Alone."

     He saw the robed boy's face go hard, but Shampoo cast a
fierce glare at him and he promptly dropped behind to stand next
to Ryoga.

     "What you want, Ranma?" the girl asked in a soft voice.

     "I never really got a chance to ask you last night," he
began.  "Did Cologne do anything strange before this?  Anything
that might indicate she was going a little..."

     He trailed off at Shampoo's sad eyes before picking up
again.  "Uh... crazy?"

     Shampoo shook her head and sighed.  "Nothing.  She fine
until..."

     Then she snapped her fingers.  "No.  That not right.
After... wedding, she go into room and not come out for nearly
three days."

     "And how long was that before she attacked the house?" Ranma
asked quietly.

     "She come out day before," Shampoo said.  "But..."

     She shook her head again.  "No.  She not seem very different
than from before."

     "Can you think of any reason she might be doing this?"

     Shampoo looked at him, and an almost bitter smile curved
onto her face.  "Other than get you to marry me?"

     Ranma sighed.  "Look, Shampoo, this marriage thing... I
don't want..."

     "It not matter what you want," Shampoo sighed.  "It not
matter what I want either.  Is law."

     "Would they really exile you?"

     Shampoo shrugged.  "Council choice.  Great-grandmother have
some friends on council, some enemies.  Friends not want to look
like they siding with lawbreaker, enemies look for chance to hurt
great-grandmother by hurting descendants.  Exile of chosen heir
hurt great-grandmother very much."

     Ranma closed his eyes.  "God, I'm so sorry."

     Shampoo clasped her right hand to her left arm and bowed her
head.  "I sorry too.  Never wanted it to be this way.  Supposed
to be so simple... come to Japan, kill girl, go home."

     "But you couldn't kill me," Ranma said pointedly.  "Even
when you thought I was a girl, even when you had me helpless."

     "Killing is easy thing to talk about," Shampoo said slowly.
"Harder thing to do."

     "I don't... feel the way about you that you do about me,"
Ranma said after a moment.  "You... you know that, don't you?"

     A slow nod of her head, a proud beauty that looked very
fragile in that moment to her face.  "Know that.  Not matter."

     "I'm sorry," he said again, because once did not seem to be
enough.

     Shampoo closed her eyes.  "Understand Mousse now.  Is
strange, you know.  Always so sure he realize I not love him;
never understand why he not go."

     "Shampoo..."

     He felt utterly helpless, because this went beyond him or
her, bound up in laws made centuries before either of them were
born.  It was not a thing he could fight or defeat; as much set
himself against a tornado or tidal wave.

     "Is alright," Shampoo said slowly, half-opening her eyes.
"It has been happy to know you, Ranma.  Little else happy, but
you... you never make me sad yourself.  You are good."

     "Thank you," he said.  "Look... we'll see what happens,
okay?  And..."

     He sighed.  "I don't blame you for what she's doing."

     Shampoo nodded and said nothing else.  Ranma sighed again
and stepped away from her, almost able to feel the force of
Ukyou's glare on his back.  He was fairly sure it was at least as
fierce as the one Akane was giving him as he came next to her
again; Mousse silently moved next to Shampoo again, his face
neutral and his eyes unseeable in the opaque lenses of his
glasses.

     "What was that all about?" Akane snapped.

     "Just talkin' to her," Ranma said.  "About Cologne.  Other
stuff."

     Akane nodded reluctantly and kicked at a stone on the
ground.  "At least she didn't grab on to you this time."

     Ranma shook his head and said nothing.  Up ahead, a small
collection of houses that looked as if they'd come from a century
ago was coming into view.  They probably had come from a century
ago.  Everything went along slower out here.

     The dirt road widened as it passed into what was probably
thought of as the village square.  It was about the lunch hour
now; most people were probably inside.  The few on the streets
glanced appraisingly at the unusual newcomers for a few seconds,
then shrugged and went back to their business with a calm
acceptance of this new, temporary intrusion into their lifestyle.

     Except one.

     "YOU!"

     The old man who strode from the door of the small shop,
making his way past crowded bins of vegetables and fruit, looked
very, very angry.  One arm was stretched out, the finger pointed
directly at Genma.

     "Me?" Genma said, pointing to himself and smiling nervously.
"I'm sure you're mistaken.  Really, we're in a hurry..."

     "I don't forget a face," the old man said in a tight voice.
"Not the face of a man who ripped my store off."

     Everyone except Genma came to a slow halt.  The older man
continued walking, until he bumped into his son.  He turned
around, only to bump into Ryoga.

     "Anything you'd like to explain, pop?" Ranma said coldly.

     "Yes, Mr. Saotome, get it off your chest," Akane said.

     "Uhh..."

     "Your father said he'd pay me back the next time he came,
and then he never came back," the old man said.  "Now, I want my
money.  With interest."

     "I am falsely accused," Genma said with total sincerity.  "I
believe you have mistaken me for someone else."

     "You Genma Saotome?"

     Genma nodded.

     The old man hunted through his clothing and pulled out a
crumpled piece of paper, which he held out to Ranma.  Ranma
glanced over it and looked at his father.  "You know what this
is?"

     Genma was silent.

     "It's a bill, pop," Ranma said tiredly.  "For twenty-three
thousand yen.  Before interest.  Signed by you."

     "I am a little low on funds at this time," Genma said.
"Perhaps you could-"

     Genma's mouth snapped shut at the look on his son's face.

     "Hope you sort this out, pop," Ranma said, turning his back
on his father and walking away.  The others quickly followed him.
A large crowd of villagers had now begun to surround Genma.  None
looked happy.

     "Son, wait, how can you go to your mother without me?"

     Ranma looked back.  "I've had to do every other important
thing recently without your help, pop.  So I guess I can do this
one as well."

     So he left his father behind, and went with his friends down
the rough road to the mountain slopes rising in the distance.

**********

     Cologne tightened the last knot, not so tightly that it
would hurt, and then stepped back to look at the unconscious
woman bound to the tree.  It really was not a fair thing she did
to her; what Shampoo had said of her made her seem a kind woman.

     But sometimes you had to do things this way.  Cologne sighed
and walked away from the single tall tree rising in the middle of
bare, rocky ground until she was deep into the nearby forest,
with the trees rising above her in a canopy of leaves and dead
sticks breaking under her feet.  The past day or so had adjusted
her to the different feel of this youthful body, the different
ways in which it responded to things, the different sensations of
its existence.

     "Like riding a bicycle," she said softly with a slight
bitter smile.  "You don't ever forget."

     A flutter of black wings, and Shiso's heavy weight landed on
her shoulder.  His black eyes glittered in the afternoon sun
streaming down through the branches as he silently regarded her.

     She sighed and reached up to stroke his black-feathered head
in a tired gesture of affection.  "Soon, old friend."

     He rubbed his sharp beak against her palm as gently as the
touch of a feather and said nothing.

     "Second thoughts?" Kima asked as she stepped into view from
behind a tree.  Cologne frowned; for all her proud bearing and
distinctive appearance, the woman could move silently and quite
close to invisibly when she wanted to, wings or no wings.

     "Never," Cologne said.  "I've been prepared for this since
before you were born."

     Kima slowly nodded and touched the hilt of the short,
straight-bladed sword at her side.  "Do not think my devotion any
less, Cologne.  That would be a mistake."

     Cologne shook her head.  "I wonder if you even understand
entirely what we do."

     Kima raised one eyebrow and looked at her.  "I wonder if you
do."

     Cologne laughed, softly.  "I suppose that is a point.  I
think perhaps only Samofere knows for sure, as much as any of us
do."

     Kima smiled and brushed taloned fingers through short white
hair.  "If I had been told a week ago I would be doing this, I
would have thought the teller mad."

     "What was it in the end that convinced you?" Cologne said.
"The books?  Samofere himself?"

     "Neither," Kima said after a moment.  "I trust Samofere, and
I know that there is more in that library than I can ever hope to
know, but in the end..."

     "The true source," Cologne said.

     Kima closed her eyes.  "Yes.  More than anything else."

     "That was it for me as well," Cologne said slowly.  "I
trusted him, and there was too much in common between what your
people have written and what mine have to be a pure coincidence,
but it was when we went beneath that I was truly part of the
cause."

     "There are more, then?" Kima asked.

     Cologne sighed.  "Undoubtedly.  He... I have known Samofere
many years.  He would not rely upon only one or two people.  I
know not the names of any who may be our allies in this cause,
however."

     "He speaks fondly of you," Kima said.  "Was there..."

     Cologne said nothing, only looked away, her face unreadable.

     "I apologize," Kima said.  "I go too far."

     "A thing long past," Cologne said softly.  "Old regrets.
Nothing more.  Nothing less.  It does not matter anymore."

     Shiso called softly, a sound almost like a sigh, and hopped
off Cologne's shoulder, landing on the ground to stride
pridefully about at their feet, shuffling his feathers into place
with quick motions of his wings.

     "It was not forbidden," the raven said after a moment, with
an almost regretful note to his tone.  "No law of Mount Phoenix
or the Joketsuzoku forbade it."

     "It might as well have been forbidden," Cologne said softly.
"Speak no more of this, old friend.  I would not think of it now.
Too long has it been past."

     Shiso nodded and began to preen one wing without saying
anything further.

     "I think they may arrive soon," Cologne said after a few
long seconds of silence.  "Ranma would have left as soon as he
could have."

     Kima sighed.  "I will get hidden."

     "Let me say one thing before that," Cologne said.
"Something my grandmother told me, when she chose me as her
heir."

     Kima looked at her.  "Yes?"

     "Never think you are so smart than any plan will go off
exactly as expected."

     Kima slowly nodded.

**********

     They'd stopped to rest at a clearing that Ranma judged was
roughly halfway to the spot where he and Ryoga had dueled months
ago.  They'd left the village, and his father, behind about an
hour ago.

     Now he rested with his back against a tree, hands behind his
head.  He hadn't wanted to stop; the need to put an end to this
was urgent within him.  But he acknowledged also that he was
going to want to be rested for what was to come.

     "Here."

     He accepted the canteen from Akane gratefully, and drank a
long swallow of water.  It wasn't very cold, but it still served
to cool him.  "Thanks."

     "Do you really think we should have left your father
behind?" she asked when he passed it back to her.

     Ranma frowned.  "I don't really care.  Too much to deal with
on top of all this.  He got himself into the jam, he can get
himself out."

     Akane sighed and glanced around at the other members of the
party.  Mousse was standing next to Shampoo where she sat, legs
folded, under the spreading branches of a tree.  They didn't seem
to be together so much as that she was tolerating his presence.
He didn't seem to be saying anything, and neither was she.

     Ryoga was some distance off, looking up the slope of the
mountain with his head tilted slightly back.  He reached back
with his hand and idly tugged at one side of his bandanna, a
nervous gesture he sometimes made.

     Ukyou was sitting by herself at the edge of the clearing
they'd found to rest in, her back to all of them.  She appeared
to be involved in an intense study of the ground.

     "Do you think you should go talk to her?" Akane said,
indicating Ukyou with a slight gesture of her hand.

     Ranma shook his head.  "I don't know what to say, and if I
did, I dunno if she'd wanna listen.  I... I hurt her pretty bad.
More than Shampoo, I think."

     Akane nodded silently.  "Ranma, I..."

     "Please," he said, closing his eyes.  "Nothing more.
Nothing more, Akane.  Until we see how this day turns out,
nothing more."

     "But what if..."

     "What if what?  Maybe it's better we just don't say nothin'
more then."

     "That's not-"

     Ranma pushed himself to his feet.  "I gotta go talk to
Ryoga, Akane.  Then we should get on the move again."

     "Ranma, you wait!  You-"

     He was already striding away.  She stood up, as if to go
after him, then sank helplessly back down to the ground.  "Oh,
Ranma..."

     Ranma walked so silently to come behind Ryoga, the other boy
started when he placed a hand on his shoulder.  "Hey Ryoga?"

     He felt Ryoga slowly relax under his hand and turn his head
to look at him.  They hadn't spoken more than a few words to each
other since the fight yesterday; there had been too much between
them until now, too many things said and unsaid.

     "Yes?" Ryoga said, as Ranma withdrew his hand from his
shoulder.

     "Uh... about yesterday..." Ranma said.  They were not the
words he wanted, but he did not know what other ones to say.

     "What about it?"

     "I'm sorry."

     Ryoga laughed softly.  "I'd think I'd be the one to have
something to apologize for.  I almost broke your damn neck."

     "Isn't that what you've always wanted to do?"

     A long silence, Ryoga glancing back for a moment up the
slopes of the silent mountain as if for an answer.  Finally, he
said nothing at all beyond a sigh.

Continued in [Ranma][Fanfic] Waters Under Earth - Chapter 5 (3/3)


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