Bast stood once more with Shen Long at a window overlooking the encampment where tents were being prepared for the night. "Well, dinner was excellent, I must congratulate you. But what of your potential champions? I've looked on them, as you requested, and I grant you've caught my interest, so when begins your test?" She turned away from the window, molding her body to the stone wall as she watched Shen Long's face.
"The tests have already begun. The first has been passed."
Bast straightened, a look of irritation quickly smothered with practiced skill. "Ah, but Shen Long, you promised to let me watch," she purred, stepping forward and placing a hand on his chest, tapping it lightly with her claws. "You wouldn't be breaking your promise to me, would you?"
A deep laugh rumbled beneath her hand. "You have watched, for as we ate, did any food disappear other than that which we ate?"
"No... you mean your test was whether they would steal from a sacrifice? Lowering your standards, aren't you?" Her nose wrinkled as if she had smelled something disgusting.
"Not at all... the boy is the son of a craven thief who has more than once defiled temples and stolen that which belongs to the gods, and is ever ruled by his hungers. Shortly before they came here, the boy learned a technique his father intended for skilled thievery, that would keep him hidden from the eyes of the people outside. He could have slipped away and taken part in our feast, eating of the best they had to offer, instead of sufficing with rice and pork. He would simply have had to allow hunger to rule him, and to show no respect for the temple."
"Alternatively, all three are strong enough now to force their will upon the villagers outside, who are already weakened. They could have forced the villagers, as you know some would have done, to offer their sacrifice to them, to treat them as gods. In fact, after having heard their story, the boy could readily have gone away and come back in a draconic form and pretended to be me!"
Bast nodded, glancing back out the window. "So, that they did none of these things, threatened no-one, and accepted their offered hospitality without complaint, passes your test?"
"It does. That, and agreeing to aid these people, when they have no need. This is but a youma, far from being what they were granted power to defeat. They are not demon-hunters, they are here to defeat a far greater foe, one beyond all the demon-hunters and endowed champions yet present. Yet they do not shy away from this minor task. This shows that they take seriously the code of the martial artist, again something that is not true of the boy's father, who trained and raised him."
---
"Ranma?" Ryouga lay back in his bedroll, waiting while Ranma was laying out his own. They were sharing his tent, while Ranko took Ranma's, now that they had two tents to work with.
"Yeah?" responded Ranma as he slipped into his bedroll, sighing silently, and thinking how strange it was to be missing Ranko's presence after such a short time.
"You said you were going to see your mother, right?" Ryouga turned, propping his head up on his hand as he faced his friend.
"Yep, when we get back to Japan. I don't know where she is but I guess Fey does."
"What's she gonna think about Ranko?" Ryouga paused, wanting to say more, but not wanting to insult either of his new friends.
"I dunno, Ryouga. I don't even know what she's gonna think about me. I haven't seen her since I left with... since I left. Heck... I don't even remember what she looks like." Ranma was lying on his back, facing upwards, his eyes suspiciously shiny.
"Well... I reckon she has to be pretty traditional, right? I mean, you mentioned a seppuku pledge when you were fighting... fighting Genma. That's pretty old-fashioned, don't you think?"
"Maybe," replied Ranma, thinking again about the contract he had in his pack, with Genma's signature. Would his mother really make him kill himself if he didn't have that to protect him? Was that what a mother did?
"Well... I was... uhm..." Ryouga lay back, trying to think how best to phrase what he had to say. "Uh... when Ranko introduced herself, it was just as 'Ranko,' earlier... and..."
Ranma sat straight up, eyes wide and staring into nothing. "She doesn't have a family name! She's... she's rounin... no, worse, she ain't Japanese!"
"Whoa, not so quick, Ranma," Ryouga said, sitting up as well, and glancing nervously at the side of the tent, towards where Ranko must be sleeping or preparing for sleep, in Ranma's tent. "She is Japanese, you said that was your body she got, not her old one. And she's got your memories. So she's just as Japanese as you or me, really."
"But... but she's rounin," Ranma whispered, feeling his heart clench in his chest. It felt like it would shrivel up and vanish in a moment. He clenched his hands into fists, staring at them. They were all he knew, before Ranko, the only tool he had, that and an insulting tongue. He could hardly imagine a future to begin with; he could certainly not picture his mother, nor what his home might look like. But he found that picturing any future without Ranko tied his stomach in knots. He felt a hot wetness trickle down his cheek. Am I crying? I haven't cried in years! He shook his head furiously, dashing the tear from his cheek, but his anger could not last in the face of the terrible depression that settled on him.
"Oh, man, what am I gonna do?" He turned to Ryouga, hands catching Ryouga's arms, gripping cruelly tight with the force of his emotion. "What am I gonna do, Ryouga? I can't... I just can't be without her! I..." He shuddered, dropping Ryouga's arms, not noticing the bright red marks quickly fading to white before darkening back to angry red bruises on Ryouga's arms. "I might as well commit seppuku, if I can't have her," he whispered, hopelessly. Fey had said he was going to take them to his mother, who would surely order him to have nothing more to do with Ranko, as a rounin. Would Ranko even want him, if he had nothing more than himself to offer her? She had said she thought she loved him, but that was when she knew they were going to see his mother. What if she didn't want him, if he had to give up his name, his mother, to be with her? He would be left with nothing. He collapsed into an unresponsive despair, his mind reciting a litany of losses going as far back as he could remember.
Ryouga was temporarily at a loss, unable to deal with the sudden and complete collapse of his new best friend. He had no way of knowing how hard Genma's final abandonment of Ranma had hit him, how hard it had been learning that Genma had never intended to allow him to see his mother again. Ranko and Fey had supported him, cushioning the blow. The prospect of losing his mother and Ranko, and the terrible thought that Fey might choose to keep Ranko as his champion if that happened, rather than him, since Ranma would lose the right to practice the Musabetso Kakuto Ryu if he was made rounin, while Ranko would still have the magic of an Amazon battle-mage to fall back on, the terrible possibility that all he had suffered truly would be in vain, had destroyed the last of Ranma's faltering hope.
He had spent most of his life buoyed by the knowledge that his father was training him for something, that all of his pain was for some greater purpose. He lost that at Jusenkyou, and had it replaced by something far greater, but something that seemed all too much like a dream. It was difficult for him to believe that Ranko's affection, something he had never had before, and Fey's respect, another gift he had never before received, could possibly be real. All the time it felt like something too good to be true, and he had unconsciously been waiting for it to be snatched away, even as his food had been for so long, as his friends had been, and as every comfort he had ever known had been. He had been unwittingly primed for Ryouga's words, and his mind had raced along the path of possibilities, finding in the barest of instants the path that led to the most complete loss for him, the path that his sixteen years of hard experience had taught him would be his.
Ryouga watched in startled fear as Ranma collapsed in on himself, falling into a silence that seemed to highlight the lack of life in his dull eyes, then he darted from the tent, bursting into Ranma's tent without the slightest concern for Ranko's probable state of dress.
She shrieked in surprise, snatching up a blanket from her bedroll to wrap about herself. The look of intense guilt and depression on Ryouga's face forestalled any adverse reaction she might have had, and in moments she was dressed again and entering Ryouga's tent, while he anxiously stood guard without.
She vanished from the entrance of the tent, appearing at Ranma's side with no sign that she had passed the intervening space, pulling him into her arms. Slowly she coaxed the story, mixed in with his fearful predictions and expectations, out of him.
He began sobbing uncontrollably, dry heaves that seemed to rise from great depths, though no tears followed the track of the first to fall in years. Ranko was not willing to wait until he was finished. She could not bear the thought of him actually believing that she would leave him, that she might want his name more than him, or only love him because he was the heir to a school of martial arts. She pulled him up and slapped him hard.
Ranma put his hand to his cheek, staring at her with wide eyes.
"Never," Ranko said firmly. "I will never leave you." She brushed her hand across the still glistening track of that one solitary tear, knowing from his memories how long it had been since he had last cried. "No matter what your mother thinks of me, I love you, Ranma."
His smile, if a bit uncertain, was one of joy as he embraced her fiercely. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I ain't never had nothing good that didn't get taken away."
"I know," she said, pushing him back until she could look into his eyes. "I forgive you. I forget sometimes that just because I know you completely, you don't know me the same way. I know, I absolutely know, that your heart, once given, will never be lost to me. I wish you could know the same about me, but please, Ranma, please believe me. I love you, and I'll never let anything take me away from you."
---
"Ryouga?" Ryouga snorted and rolled over. His name was called twice more before he finally sat up.
"Wha? Ranma? What's wrong?" It was late, too late for talking, he thought, but he did not say it. After seeing how much his careless... well, no, they had not been careless words, since they had been spoken out of concern for Ranma, but... ill-chosen, then, how much his ill-chosen words had hurt his friend, the least he could do was to sacrifice a little sleep. He had actually been surprised at how quickly Ranma had seemed to drift off to sleep after Ranko had left, and he had re-entered their tent. At the time he had thought it an indication that he had been right to go and get Ranko, rather than trying to muddle through and maybe make things worse.
"What do you know about getting married?"
---
With the rising of the sun, the three warriors set off, guided by a young man who introduced himself as Jun Lo Wen. Like most of the villagers, Jun looked haggard, his eyes darkened by remembered pain and loss, but he had not yet been affected physically, and he set a good pace.
As they walked with Jun, he spoke to them, with Ranma listening and commenting while Ranko translated for Ryouga. He described the village and its surroundings, and its relation to the hill they had spoken of the evening before, the hill where the sorcerer Jiaohou had built his new house, before he had summoned Yao Mo Wen, the youma of disease and sickness.
He also spoke of his own personal tragedy. His young wife had been pregnant with their first child when the child-killing illness had struck, and it had taken both mother and child. That was why he had volunteered to guide them. He had no-one to leave behind if he fell.
Ranko had little time to ponder his words, busy as she was translating for Ryouga, but Ranma took them to heart, stealing glances at Ranko and imagining her dead of illness. Finally he stopped them and took Ranko aside.
"I know we've got improved healing, and healing spells," he said softly, not wanting his words to carry, though Ryouga, standing with Jun Lo Wen, heard them clearly. "But do you think you can come up with a spell to protect against illness and disease? I've tried, but I can't think of how to picture it."
Ranko nodded thoughtfully, furrowing her brow. Finally she looked up and nodded sharply. "I think I've got it... go grab Ryouga and Jun."
Ranma brought them over to her just as she finished her chant. A green light flared from her hands, then a sparkling shell of translucent green formed around each of them before fading from view.
"What was that?" inquired Ryouga curiously, looking down at himself but seeing nothing different.
"A ward against this youma's main weapon," Ranko replied. "Ranma's idea."
Ryouga looked at Ranma and nodded. "Good idea. I don't really fancy getting any of those diseases Jun's been describing." He shivered.
Feeling better about facing Yao Mo Wen with the visible evidence that these warriors did in fact have the favor of the gods--Ryouga's wolf form being at their own admittance a curse and no gift--Jun led them with a lighter, if still heavy, heart towards his home.
He left them within sight of the village, reminding them that the villagers had food enough for only four more days.
Ranma, Ranko, and Ryouga stood alone now on the outskirts of a silent village. A faint stench seemed to hang over it, a mixture of the rotting flesh of animals and the rice, rotting in the fields. Ranma turned a bit green at the thought that he had just eaten that rice, until Ranko pointed out that they had doubtless been using stored rice, or rice purchased from elsewhere, as they would hardly be likely to continue eating anything that had the effects of the black growths they had described.
"Look, over there," interjected Ryouga, pointing across the village. Over the waving heads of what rice remained standing a building could be seen highlighted against the sky, standing on a hill. A cloud of patchy fog seemed to hug the hill, obscuring the bottom of the house in places.
"That would be the sorcerer's place," agreed Ranma. "What do you think, should we head straight in?"
Ranko glanced at him doubtfully. "We would be meeting him on his ground," she pointed out.
Ryouga nodded. "It would be better if we picked the ground, but do you think we can draw him out?"
"We could set fire to the house," offered Ranma. "That'd bring him out."
"I wonder why the villagers have not already burned the house?" Ranko mused.
"They're scared to go near it," Ranma replied, and waved his hand in the direction of the hill, "if that fog's there all the time they probably think it is full of disease."
"Might well be, if there really is a youma there," nodded Ryouga.
"Well, we don't have to worry about that," conceded Ranko, "but what if Jiaohou is still in there?"
Ryouga shook his head. "Seems to me that the only way he'd still be alive is if he was working with it. Besides, he did summon the thing."
"We don't know that," Ranko protested. "He might have simply tried to bring his wife back, but she was in Wen's hands, or something."
"Alright," Ranma allowed, "we won't burn him out. So, how are we..."
Ryouga interrupted him, pointing down the road into the village. "There's something moving down there." He peered at it, but though his eyes had caught the movement well enough, the lack of color was making it difficult to recognize. He simply wasn't used to how things looked through his new eyes yet.
Ranko shaded her eyes and gazed in the direction he pointed while Ranma nodded. "Yep, I see it," Ranko replied, "look, there's another beyond it."
They watched as the movement passed across the road. Three or four creatures at most, they stood no higher than a dog, but when Ryouga ventured that they did not move like dogs, or indeed, any animal he could remember seeing, Ranko and Ranma were quick to agree.
"Lesser youma?" ventured Ryouga tentatively.
"That," agreed Ranma, "or diseased animals. The odd movement could come from sores like Jun mentioned."
The others considered this then agreed. "So, I guess the question that brings up is, assuming these are infected animals, are they under Wen's control or not?"
Ranma shook his head doubtfully, starting to walk down the road. "Either way they're likely to be dangerous." The animals, if that was what they were, had passed on across the road and out of sight, and the village seemed still and silent again.
Ryouga agreed, following Ranma but keeping a wary eye on the rice fields around them. "Some kinds of illness just make them apathetic, but my guess would be anything inflicted by a youma is more likely to make them rabid or drive them mad."
Ranko shivered as they approached the outmost building. She felt unclean, her background as an Amazon in an earlier time causing her to feel uneasy about breaking the taboo of avoiding places of illness and plague. She wanted to just wipe it clean, to just reach out... wait... that was it. "Hold up," she said excitedly, her eyes lighting up as Ranma and Ryouga paused to look at her.
"We want to draw Wen out still, right? And even after we defeat him, these people will have a lot of work recovering. So, what if we did some rather flashy magic to heal the area. That would be a pretty direct challenge right at his strength, right?"
Ranma nodded dubiously. "I expect he might respond, but it would have to be something pretty noticeable, and something that big might leave you weak."
"Oh, come on, Ranma," Ranko said, shaking her head and giving him a glare, "we're talking about one youma! You've been beating up on demons. You should be able to take him yourself. Ryouga can protect me if I am weakened too much by it, but I won't really be doing it. I'll call on Fey. Divine magic should make it an even more blatant challenge, it'll be less draining on me, and..."
"Not that much less," protested Ranma. "But you're right. This is just one youma. So, you going to try to clean up the town?"
Ranko huffed at his interruption but shook her head again and pointed past the town. Ryouga nodded and spoke before she could. "You'll clean up the rice fields leading up the hill," he said approvingly. "And hopefully at the same time, clear up some of that mist in case we do have to go in." He turned to look at her. "Right?"
"Yep," she said with a grin. "If I'm really lucky, the spell will go far enough to actually hit Wen and the house. It'll be a healing or purification spell, so we shouldn't have to worry about it hurting Jiaohou unless he really is evil."
They entered the town, Ryouga keeping a watchful eye out for any movement towards them, following the other two by scent in spite of the general reek that hung over the town.
He was irritated by Ranko's decision not to have him face off against Wen, but at the same time pleased that she had chosen him as her protector. He did not quite understand everything that was going on between her and Ranma, but he did realize that she had some reason for doing things the way she was. After all, her argument for why Ranma could face Yao Mo Wen alone applied equally well to the three of them facing him in his dwelling. He had not yet had a chance to face off with the demons, but given how quickly Ranko and Ranma had decimated them and how well he had held his own against Ranma, he had few doubts. So she must have some other reason for doing things this way.
Ranko and Ranma were startled by a sudden yelp of pain and a thud and stopped to see what had happened. Ryouga walked between them and stopped a moment later. "What's up?" he asked. Ranma looked back the way they had come then at Ryouga. He grinned and pointed at Ryouga's umbrella.
A thick slime mixed with blood marred one portion of it. Ryouga blushed, realizing that he had let himself get so deep in his thoughts that he had lashed out at an approaching animal without even realizing it. He glanced around for it, when Ranko pointed, gagging.
Ranma grimaced, shaking his head. "Man, you hit hard when you aren't looking, don't you?"
On the wall of a building across the road was painted a smattering of bloody body parts. Ryouga shook his head. "I don't think so, Ranma," he replied, looking around. "I've reacted like that to dogs that attacked me before, and they were just knocked back. Could they be zombies?"
Ranma snorted. "You weren't a wolf-man then either, were you," he said, punching Ryouga's arm.
Ryouga paled slightly, looking at the thickness of his bicep, then up at the wall. "Oh, man," he groaned, "I'm gonna have to completely retrain!"
Ranma just grinned, grabbing Ranko by the shoulders and turning her to face back up the street as he got them moving again. "Don't worry about it, Ryouga, we'll take care of that."
Ryouga nodded, glanced back once more, then strode resolutely forward. Just as they were nearing the other end of the village, his fur tipped ears pricked up and he glanced back again.
"Huh. I guess that answers the question, eh, Ranma?"
Ranma turned to look and nodded. Behind them a number of dogs, several cats, a pig, and two goats had filtered into the streets and were following them. All moved oddly, as if every movement pained them. "Don't think they'll be too much trouble though. They're probably most dangerous because of the disease, but we're protected from that. Still, you and I'll have to keep them away from Ranko while she figures out the spell and casts it."
"Figures it out? She doesn't already know it?"
Ranko glanced back. "No, we've not had to do anything quite like this before, Ryouga. I just need to get the visualization and words right."
The first... or second, considering Ryouga's earlier ingrained reaction... attack came just as they were reaching the last few buildings before the road began to curve away to slide around the base of the hill.
Ranma looked around as Ryouga sent the diseased canine flying with his umbrella. With a quick leap, Ranma landed by a wooden fence and caught up a sturdy pole leaning against the inside of it. The muddy wallow in one corner of the fenced in area gave a hint to the staff's purpose, but it would serve well enough in his hands.
He jumped back towards Ryouga and Ranko, snapping the staff down like a pole vault to continue his leap, testing its strength at the same time. It bent slightly, but held, propelling him forward to where Ranko had set herself, standing calmly facing the large house upon the hill while Ryouga swept a wide arc with his umbrella, keeping the diseased animals back.
Ranma landed beside him, staff already sliding down to get below a cat and then whipping up, sending the mad feline flying. Ranko behind him joined him in the Neko-ken at the sound of the cat's pained yowl. The pained movement and hairless patches had kept the cats from triggering the fear earlier, particularly when viewed from a distance, but the disease had not hampered this cat's ability to screech.
Ryouga did not notice the change in his companions. The slight feeling of unease that his wolf-side felt at the presence of two powerful felines was more than overwhelmed by the fear and anger it felt at being attacked by disease-maddened animals.
Though more animals arrived to swell the ranks of the rabid mob attacking them, Ryouga and Ranma had no difficulty keeping them at bay. They were moving swiftly and easily, and had more than enough strength to send the smaller animals flying without slowing their motions, while their attackers, though maddened, were weakened by disease and slowed by pain.
Finally they heard Ranko chanting behind them. When she began to glow, sending their shadows into the pack of animals, the beasts drew back fearfully, and Ranma and Ryouga were able to turn enough to keep an eye on them while watching Ranko's spell.
She was glowing with a pure white light, and as her chant reached its crescendo, the light flared out, pouring liquidly into the fields before her, and rolling and crashing like thundering surf against the hill, sending spumes of light to spray against the house. The mist was washed away by the glittering light, peeling back to leave the way forward open, even as Ranko collapsed back into Ranma's waiting arms.