Yushujin.
Twenty one year old Ryoga Hibiki stood looking over the springs of
Jusenkyo with tears in his eyes. Holding him by the hand was a short man
in Chinese clothing. "Here is spring sir," said the guide. Ryoga looked
at him and jumped into the pool. He came up unchanged and checked himself
over.
"It's over, at long last it's over," he said quietly as he stepped from
the water and steadied himself against the man as he reached out to help
him out of the pool.
"No is cursed anymore sir," congratulated the guide patting him on the
back.
"I know, now I'm a whole man again, I can go back to my wife," said the
martial artist as he staggered away from the cursed grounds with a large
grin on his face. He was crying tears of joy as he staggered out of the
valley into the wilderness.
"Good luck sir," said the guide calmly as he watched him leave.
Almost a week later Ryoga found himself wandering through the wilderness
of China along the edge of a cliff. Nothing held him away from home now.
At long last he could continue leading his life as a normal human being
again. He gazed towards the night sky and smiled. "Akari." He smiled as
he looked out over the village that sprawled out across the valley below
him.
He paused and froze in place as he slowly turned his gaze towards the
sky above him again. What he saw chilled his bones to the very core.
Falling through the darkness above him was a ball of flame and rock. A
meteorite at least ten feet in diameter streaked towards him at a speed
he could not begin to comprehend. A scream failed to escape his lips as
he watched helplessly as the rock approached. He could see it would miss
him barely slamming into the earth in the valley below. "No."
Ryoga's mind began to work as he stood there for a precious few seconds
taking in what was happening. An impact like that would surely decimate
the village below, obliterating it from the world completely. If he was
lucky, the blast might miss him. His eyes bored into the flaming stone in
horror as a feeling of helplessness seemed to take over.
Then something happened, a single point of light appeared to him through
the flames. It wasn't much, but the feeling that overtook his body was
deathly familiar. He laughed to himself as he felt his legs push off the
stone edge of the cliff. "It figures, I finally become a man again and
this happens. Akari, please forgive me!"
The flaming stone rushed up against him and he felt an intense heat
unlike anything he had ever experienced before. The flesh on his body
seared as he met with the rocky surface full force intercepting it in the
sky, somehow he managed to jab his arm out and touch the burning surface
of the meteorite. "Bakusai tenketsu!"
The resulting explosion lit up the night sky for miles, a deafening roar
filled the air shattering windows and waking the inhabitants of the
village below as the rock surface of the cliff was incinerated and blown
apart sending a shower of stones into the houses below. Those lucky
enough to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon merely stared in shocked awe
as the remains of the once deadly meteorite sparkled in the night sky.
Akari Unryuu stared at the letter in her hands in shock; tears fell
freely down her face as she struggled to remain standing. "No! How could
this be?" she fell down to her knees and cried softly rocking herself
back and fourth holding her shoulders protectively. "It can't be..."
Ryoga Hibiki sat up and shook his head. "What a weird dream." He glanced
around at his surroundings curiously and blinked in surprise. He was
dressed in Chinese clothes and resting on a bed inside a small shack.
"Where?"
He paused when a young girl walked into the room with a bowl of water in
her hands. She gasped in shock and rushed back out the door she had come
in through after dropping the water on the ground. Several shouts in
Chinese echoed from outside and suddenly he found himself faced with a
large group of villagers. Immediately he was bombarded with questions,
unfortunately they were all in Chinese.
"Does anyone here speak Japanese?" he asked in confusion earning a bevy
of stares from the gathered peoples.
An old man stepped forward from the back of the room with a smirk on his
face. "Well young man, it seems you've survived."
"Where am I? What's going on?" he asked a little impatiently.
"Oh my, he seems to have lost his memory," quipped the old man
pleasantly.
"I haven't lost my memory! I just don't know where I am," countered
Ryoga a little angrily.
"Just a modest village in China, you took quite a fall. You're lucky to
be alive young man. After that blast I'm surprised you recovered so
quickly, or at all for that matter," the man scratched his chin and
looked thoughtful.
"You mean that wasn't a dream?" he gasped in disbelief.
"No, it was quite real," assured the man with a wary gaze. "Tell me,
what are you doing out here? Who are you? A young Japanese man wandering
through China? Are you on a voyage of training or something?"
"Jusenkyo," muttered Ryoga a little distastefully.
This caused a reaction with some of the older villagers. The man stepped
forward and frowned deeply. "What do you want with that cursed place? I
advise you to stay away from that tragic place."
Ryoga smiled. "No, I was on my way home from there."
"Oh I see, tell me boy. What were you doing in a place like that?"
snorted the man distastefully.
"Getting rid of an old curse," replied Ryoga casually. "You sure ask a
lot of questions old man."
"I have the safety of my people to consider," replied the man with a
shrug.
"Well, I don't want to trouble you anymore. I'll just be on my way,"
Ryoga stood up from the bed and stretched his arms slightly. "Thank you
for helping me out."
The old man jumped back in shock. "How can he move around like that
after a month in that bed?" he thought to himself.
Ryoga looked at him and blinked. "Sorry to trouble you again, but which
way is the ocean? I'm kind of lost, and I'd like to get back to my wife.
I'm sorry I can't thank you properly, but I'm kind of in a hurry."
The old man smiled slightly as some of the girl's faces fell as a few of
the elders translated the phrase to them. "I see, I can understand that,
it's to the west of here."
Ryoga nodded and walked out the door before realizing he didn't know
which way that was. He paused when a scream echoed through the valley.
"What was that?"
The old man had followed him out and cocked his head. "What was what?"
"That scream! Didn't you hear it?" cried the boy in alarm. "There it is
again!"
"I don't hear anything," said the man giving him an odd look. "Are you
sure you're all right? You hit your head pretty hard."
Ryoga ignored him as the scream came again, he rushed towards the sound
as fast as he could. "It sounds like someone is killing her!" He didn't
even notice the sensation that coursed through his body, it was almost as
if he wasn't running at all.
The old man blinked at the spot where the man had once been standing.
"Gods!"
Ryoga rushed forward single mindedly tearing through anything in his
path as he rushed towards the sound, running through jungle not noticing
the speed he was traveling in his mad rush. He finally stopped and
glanced around as the sound stopped, he frowned as he still heard a
whimpering sound and looked towards the source. On the banks of a nearby
river a lone woman lay sprawled across the sand with three men standing
over her. Her clothing was torn and a vacant look filled her eyes as the
men laughed and spit on her body. A rage built up inside Ryoga as he
stood there motionless for a moment.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he managed at last causing
the three to turn and look at him. The ugliest of the three was bald and
had an eye patch over his face as he realized someone had been watching
them. He turned and said something in mandarin to his companions. The two
charged towards him and the man kept his attentions on the woman finally
tearing away the last remains of her shirt.
Ryoga wasted no time, he met the assailants head on spinning into a kick
that slammed into the nearest attacker's jaw sending him flying away into
the trees. Ryoga paused in shock, he had never been able to move so
freely or fluidly before. He had felt the man's jaw snap as his foot
connected. The distraction wasn't much, but it was enough for his
companion to get in a solid blow.
The man's fist slammed into Ryoga's face stopping cold as it met his
jaw. Ryoga smiled and glared at him with a fanged grin. "That, was a
mistake." His fist flew forward uppercuting the man and sending him to
join his companion in the woods. Ryoga smiled and stepped towards the
still unaware third man and tapped him on the shoulder as he held the
girl down by her neck in the sand. The martial artist smiled as saw a
glimmer of hope form in the girl's eyes.
The bald man slowly turned around and frowned at who he saw standing
behind him. Ryoga merely decked him sending him into the river. After a
moment the man surfaced clinging to a log somewhere near the center.
Ryoga merely smirked at this and lifted the girl into his arms as she
sobbed and clung to his neck.
"How the heck am I going to get her home?" He blinked and looked down at
her uttering one of the few words he knew in Mandarin. "Uh, Home?"
The girl looked at him and pointed behind them. Ryoga nodded and started
walking, in the wrong direction of course which caused the girl to panic
again. He sighed and released her. "Sorry." He pointed in a random
direction with a questioning look on his face.
The girl smiled and said something in Chinese. He shrugged his shoulders
apologetically and grinned back. She seemed to understand this gesture
and pointed in another direction. Ryoga nodded and started off in another
direction, the girl sighed and shook her head as an understanding seemed
to sink in.
Moments later Ryoga found himself walking through the woods with the
girl holding his hand and leading him to her home. He was quite surprised
when they emerged into the same village he had been at before. Villagers
rushed forward with shocked looks on their faces. <Mei Lin! What
happened?> cried the old man who had been speaking with Ryoga earlier. He
was giving the boy a suspicious look at her current state of dress.
<I was doing laundry by the river, and some bandits attacked me. This
man saved me,> replied the girl. She burst into tears and rushed into a
nearby woman's arms. It was probably her mother.
The man looked at Ryoga and smiled. "Well stranger, it seems I owe you
some thanks."
"Not really, I just did what any decent human being would," replied
Ryoga as he walked back into the woods.
A few hours later he was cussing in frustration, lost again the
wilderness of China once again lost in the forest. "Where on Earth am I
now?" He struggled forward moving through the trees and glancing around
in anger. "I can't see where I'm going." Almost as a final thought he
jumped into the air.
Ryoga almost screamed in shock at what happened next. He had cleared two
hundred feet easily and was now floating in mid air above the tree line.
"What the hell?" After a moment he wavered about for a moment before
realizing he had complete control. "I can fly? How?" The answer hit him
like a ton of bricks. "That meteor! It must have done something to me!"
The martial artist spun around in the air joyously and spread his arms as
he rose higher into the air and saw the sea in the distance. "That way!"
he cried triumphantly. "Let's see you beat me now Ranma!" For the first
time in his life things seemed to be going his way, Ryoga Hibiki bolted
across the sky towards the Atlantic Ocean the happiest man on the planet.
Two weeks later...
Akari Unryuu swept the kitchen humming a tune to herself. She knew that
her husband might be gone for years, but still missed him. She sighed
longingly and pushed open a window revealing the fields of her farm
spread out before her. "A beautiful day!" She almost spun off her feet at
the amused voice that came from behind her.
"It is isn't it?" Ryoga almost laughed out loud when his wife almost
fell over as she rushed into his arms wrapped her hands around his neck
and kissed him deeply.
"Ryoga! You're home!" she cried. "What happened?"
"Well actually, that's one heck of a story," replied the boy sheepishly.
Akari sat in front of the fireplace wide eyed as she stared at her
husband. "You can fly?"
He merely nodded and grinned dumbly. "Looks like it, I'm not sure how
long it will be before this wears off; but I want to challenge Ranma
before it does."
Akari froze in place and hung her head as memories flooded back to her.
She began to shake and tears fell down her face.
"Akari! What is it? Did I say something wrong?" said the man with a
completely fearful look crossing his face. He rushed forward and pulled
her into his arms.
"Ryoga, I don't think challenging Ranma would be a very good idea right
now," said the girl with a small sniffle.
"Why? What's going on Akari," said the man with a haunted look on his
face.
The cry of anguish that followed could be heard for miles around.
Ryoga stared down at the small marker in a graveyard just inside Nerima
numbly. Not far away, Cologne's stone sat still polished and new looking.
His emotions swung between anger and sadness. "Damn you Saotome, I told
you to take care of her." The thoughts were short lived, over the years
his rival had become almost inseparable from his spouse. "I'm sorry
Ranma."
A short time later the pair stood in front of the Tendo Dojo. Ryoga
stepped forward and opened the door slowly wandering into the house after
knocking repeatedly and receiving no answer. He paused as an
indescribable and horrible smell met him at the doorway. Still he pressed
on with his wife beside him.
Akari was the first to react; she simply gasped and shook her head in
revulsion and sadness. Ranma Saotome sat motionless and unshaven before
them in the darkness with Soun. They simply sat and stared off into
space, neither acknowledging the presence of the newcomers.
"Ranma?" the lost boy waved his hand in front of his one time rival's
face and stepped back in horror. "He's gone." He hung his head and
started towards the door with his wife in tow.
Akari pulled at his arm. "Ryoga! We can't just leave them like this!"
He turned to look at her and gave a wistful smile. "I'm sorry Akari, but
he's already gone. There is nothing we can do, Akane Tendo finally
defeated him in the end."
Akari gave one last glance back at the house and simply stared at it.
She did not necessarily agree with him, but she trusted him enough to
know there was nothing they could do.
The next few hours were spent visiting old hang outs and familiar places
from the troubled past of their youth. Akari had seen most of it before,
but still listened with interest as Ryoga told her stories of his
adventures with Ranma and the insanity that followed him around like a
plague.
They stopped outside Dr. Tofu's office and walked in. Kasumi greeted
them at the door with a pleasant smile. "Ryoga!" She rushed forward and
bowed to him deeply. "It's so good to see you again! How are you?"
"Not good," he replied simply.
"I take it you've seen Ranma?" she asked uncomfortably.
Ryoga merely nodded at this.
"My husband sounds hopeful that he'll recover soon..." the woman's voice
trailed off slightly, it wasn't true and she knew it. Somehow Tofu just
didn't have the heart to tell her.
Ryoga could see the lie as well. "That's good to hear."
"Ryoga, how are you?" said the doctor as he emerged from the back room
cheerfully. Kasumi perked up immediately at his presence.
"Well enough, we came to pay our respects. I'm sorry I couldn't make it
to the funeral, but I was out of the country. I only found out about all
this a short time ago." Ryoga bowed in greeting and smiled
half-heartedly.
"Yes, it's been hard on all of us," agreed Tofu. "I really wish you
could have been there, it would have made Akane happy to see you there
with your wife."
The lost boy nodded somberly and sat down.
Tofu stepped forward and raised his eyebrow. "Ryoga, what's that strange
energy I see around you?"
The boy blinked and pointed to himself. Glancing nervously towards Akari
she gave him an approving nod. He sighed heavily and started to recount
his adventures in China.
Around a half-hour later Tofu smiled and Ryoga sat on the examining
table as the man prodded him carefully. "I can see why you would want to
challenge Ranma. The man nodded in reply. "You say you don't know when
the effects will wear off?"
"I can't really be sure, it kind of worries me," replied Ryoga with a
shrug.
"Don't worry, your body seems to be producing it somehow, I haven't
quite figured it out yet though. It certainly is strange though," replied
the doctor as he pat him on the back indicating he was finished.
Ryoga gave him a small smile and put his shirt back on. "Thanks doc, I
guess we'll be going now."
Tofu walked with them to the door and smiled as the couple walked out
into the sunlight. He gasped for a moment and jumped forward. "Ryoga
wait!"
The man turned and glanced back at him as Tofu rushed into the street
and grabbed his arm. He pulled the man into the building again and then
back outside. "Well I'll be..."
"What is it doctor?" said Akari in confusion. The look on her face was
only slightly worried.
"Ryoga, this energy is solar powered. The sun causes it to increase. I
noticed the aura jump slightly when you stepped outside."
The man looked confused for a moment and smiled. "I guess that's good,
I'll never run out I guess."
"Certainly not, I don't think this is just going to go away one day
Ryoga. If it does leave you, it will be a gradual process. You probably
won't ever get rid of it I'm afraid," said the doctor with a shrug.
"Who wants to?" replied the boy with a lopsided grin as he lifted his
wife into his arms and rose into the sky.
A few weeks later Akari dusted off the shelves of awards from various
agricultural contests. Ryoga's unusual style of plowing had been seen as
artistic by several organizations. The patterns he wove unwittingly were
quite articulate sometimes. She sighed in contentment and walked through
a room of souvenirs. At one time it had been filled with things from
across Japan, now it was full of things from around the world. Finally
she walked outside and smiled as Ryoga floated in the air pulling a large
plow behind him as he cut the earth of almost half the field at one time.
"Really Ryoga, I think you should do something more than farming with
those powers of yours. Think of all the good you can do!"
He sighed and dropped the ropes he was using to pull the equipment along
and floated down next to her sitting on the porch. "You aren't going to
leave me alone about this?"
"It's not like you to sit around like this for so long, I can tell
you're getting restless. You're too noble Ryoga, just like a pig."
The boy smiled slightly at the analogy and nodded. "Not so much
anymore."
"Well, we can't all be perfect I guess," muttered the girl. She still
had no understanding of why he would rid himself of such a wonderful
thing. She only wished she could turn into a pig that way. Still, he
insisted that life as a pig off the farm was far more dangerous than he
liked. Her train of thought stopped abruptly. "Oh, I made something for
you! You can wear it when you go around fighting evil! It'll make you
look so noble!"
Ryoga almost froze in shock at the giant pig costume she held up at him.
"Uh, Akari. I appreciate it, but no one is going to be afraid of a pig."
The girl blinked and looked at the costume dejectedly. "You're right,
pigs are so noble. Not even a criminal would think one would hurt him."
She pushed the outfit aside. "I'll keep it for later though," she thought
privately with a small perverted smile creeping onto her lips. She stood
and went into the home again.
Ryoga sighed and shook his head in relief, he was glad he had managed to
talk his way out of that one. Flying around in a pig costume? The bad
jokes alone it would generate would be more than he could handle.
Several hours later the pair finished up their dinner. Ryoga sighed
contentedly and pat his belly. "That was great honey!"
"Thank you pig!" she chimed back. Ryoga twinged at this, her insistence
of using that pet name for him had always bothered him slightly. Not so
much these days though. He was surprised though when she placed another
box on the table. "I made this for you! Go try it on!"
Moments later Ryoga stepped out of the room in white tights with red
trim and boots to match, there was also what looked like red briefs sewn
on the outside of the costume with a yellow belt around them. A long red
cape flowed behind him as he strolled into the room with a blank
expression on his face. A golden 'S' was embroidered onto the cape and
chest of the costume. "Akari, what is this?"
"Silly! It's your super hero costume! Scary huh?" she said cheerfully.
"This is scary?" He looked himself in the mirror and smiled. He did look
somewhat noble in a ridiculous sort of way.
"Yes it's scary! See these designs I made?" the woman shoved a drawing
of the costume in his face. An ugly looking green monster of some sort
with fangs and horns was wearing it.
"I want you to start traveling again! Do the world some good!" said the
girl with a giggle. "You have a responsibility as a martial artist and a
superhero now!"
Ryoga paused at this and blinked. "Superhero?" Somehow that didn't sound
too bad.
The old man slumped to the ground in terror as two young thugs smirked
at him and pointed the gun at his head. "Sorry old man, can't have any
witnesses."
He stared into he barrel waiting for death to finally take him. It never
came.
A red and white blur slammed into the gunman sending him sprawling
across the garbage ridden alleyway out cold. The other assailant looked
on in shock at the imposing figure that stood before him. "Who the?"
Ryoga Hibiki was not a small man by any means, he floated about a foot
off the ground giving the terrified thug the impression he was taller
while showing off his power. His trademark bandannas gone from his
forehead his bangs covered his eyes almost now giving him a dark and
mysterious presence. The creep stepped back and pulled a knife from his
belt causing Ryoga to merely smile.
The old man's eyes went wide with shock as Ryoga lifted the young punk
by his collar. "A super man!"
Ryoga looked at him and smiled. He liked the name; the boy was shivering
in terror and had long since dropped the knife and wet himself. He merely
looked at the impossible figure holding him and whimpered. "You can call
me Superman. Now tell me boy, where is Nerima?"
The boy merely laughed nervously and pointed towards the east. He
slumped into unconsciousness finally. Ryoga turned towards the old man
and smiled. "Have a nice day!"
The old man blinked. "Nerima? Isn't that in Japan?" He sighed and
started towards his home, which was in a small town in central
California.
Ryoga found himself on top of Tokyo tower a few hours later. He landed
on top of it and glanced around at the familiar surroundings. "Now, where
is Nerima?"
"That does it! I'm swearing off the cheap wine Jouque!" snorted one of
the Frenchmen watching the scene from the observation deck of the tower.
Ryoga Hibiki floated into the air giving what would become his trademark
call. "Where the hell am I now?"
End... for now.
Everyone kept asking me "Where is Ryoga?" during Shadow of Nerima. Well,
here's my answer.
Originally I had planned to turn him into a villain, the Piglet or
something, a play on the Penguin. Then I realized; I couldn't really do
that seriously. I also realized that I'll eventually pretty much ruin
everyone in the Nerima crews life, so why not give someone a break?
I've got a few ideas for him, but nothing that would make a complete
story yet. You might see him for a short time in SON, but not for a long
time yet. The story is still to dark for something like this to get
thrown in, and I don't have any real plans to make it any lighter.
The red and white costume was chosen because those are the colors of
Japan's flag. Superman used red and blue as a sort of American flag motif
so it seemed appropriate.
And yes, I know that Japan is in the Pacific Ocean, remember who we are
talking about here.
As with before I'd like to know when you caught on to who Ryoga was.
C&C to Carrotglace@juno.com