NeriMAn DIStortion
a Boogiepop Phantom/Ranma ½
fanfic by Zorknot
DISCLAIMER:
Boogiepop Phantom is owned by Kouhei Kadono, Mediaworks, and the Right
Stuff International. Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, Fuji TV, and Kitty
Film.
“Pone,” created
by Rei Harakami; “Penalty Taker,”
created by Audio Active; and “Happy End,” created by Flare are all copyrighted
for the Boogiepop Phantom OST by Mediaworks.
~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~
NABIKI TENDO-a
girl on a mission
AKANE TENDO-a
girl possessed
TOFU
ONO-a man searching for himself.
~~~~~yami~~~~~
In a dream, you pass them one after
another...these blurry lights overhead in the darkness. You hear a sound, but
it seems blurry somehow too. It’s vaguely human, only there’s something wrong
about it...in fact maybe it’s panting, like someone running... someone running
away from something... and those lights overhead...yes. They are street lamps.
A green and white sneaker splashes into a
puddle in an alley way, sending a chaotic crown of water into the air along
with a soda can and several paper wrappers that until this moment had lain
undisturbed. The owner of the sneaker, a young man with black hair maybe in his
late teens, is scrambling toward a parked white minivan. He slips and falls
backward into the gutter. As he gets up, he watches the alley in front of him,
panting, his eyes and mouth wide open in abject horror.
In the alley, amid the refuse next to an old
heating duct, a phantom fades into being. It is female, wearing a strange,
somewhat cylindrical cloth hat and a dark cloak decorated with two floating
bands of black and white triangle patterns. It has pale blue eyes locked in a
menacing half-lidded stare. One side of the mouth rises minutely as if in mild
amusement.
Gasping in fright, the young man stumbles to his
feet and runs down the sidewalk along the street. He runs...and he seems past
the point of exhaustion already, pumping arms and legs haphazardly by the
strength of his fear alone, as the street lamps shine watchfully, sentinels of
the night.
It’s a strange dream isn’t it?
~~~~~Vol. 02: Light in Darkness~~~~~
Where am I?
I’ve just been running... trying to get
away...all this construction...even if I’ve been here before I wouldn’t know
it...
~~~~~Scene001:
I need to rest. I can barely see a thing
here.
That ghost...was that Boogiepop? No, that’s
just a urban legend, right? It can’t be real. Just
another kid in a costume...I need to sit down. Get a grip on things...
Sitting isn’t helping. But I need to catch my
breath. That was just an illusion earlier. It had to be. Boogiepop wouldn’t
come after me anyway, I’m too weak. Frail. I’m not a
hero like Ranma was. It would make sense for Boogiepop to take him, but me?
But then what was it?
It doesn’t make sense! None of this makes any
sense! Fairy tale fox spirits out to get me, bugs that only I can see...I don’t
understand! Why is this happening to me?
~~~~~
~~~~~Scene002:
Elementary School~~~~~
I remember...
Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a hero.
When I was in grade school and I saw some
bullies beating on some kid, I’d fight them. Even if they
were bigger, older or tougher than me.
This one time a sixth grader was giving us
fourth graders all sorts of trouble during recess. Terrorizing
us really. He’d make us give him lunch money and push us around. I
wasn’t having it and so I beat the bastard.
“This is our playground!” I said, kicking him
while he lay in a heap on ground, “Don’t bother us anymore!”
I let him up, “Okay okay
damn it!” he said, his arm across his eyes. “But, I won’t forget this!” and he
ran off.
“You made a sixth-grader cry!” the other kids
cried.
“You’re the best, Dai-chan!”
Yeah. That was me. And that’s what I always
wanted to be.
~~~~~yami~~~~~
It’s so damn funny I’m laughing out loud. I’m
such a wuss now...such a weakling.
I feel so crappy inside. “Shit,” I say to
myself.
It’s not simple like it was back then. It’s
all twisted and weird...
I hear a sound and turn to see a fat white caterpillar
with red spots crawling on the ground next to some pipes leaning against the
wall. I edge near it, feeling that need I’ve been feeling well up inside me. I
pick it up. It feels all squishy and smooth. It excretes some kind of sticky
fluid on my hand. I’m laughing again, because I can’t help myself. I have to do
it. I have to!
I bring the thing closer to me...and I bite
off its head with my teeth. I shove it into my mouth, tearing into it, letting
its juices roll around my tongue before swallowing. But it’s not sweet like the
spiders were. It’s...bitter. I start to choke.
~~~~~omedetou~~~~~
It reminds me of the celebration dinner I had
after graduating out of grammar school into Junior high.
“Congratulations, Daisuke!” my mother
exclaimed after gracefully setting my plate down in front of me.
Mom was a wonderful cook, the meal she
prepared for me then was worthy of a medal, garnished with parsley and served
on rice...strangely enough though, it looked a lot like a large caterpillar...I
never got to taste it. Not that night anyway.
“You did great!” Dad beamed. He was the star
player on his High school’s wrestling team. He always was so energetic back
then, even though he was a heavyset man. He was a little intimidating to some
people. But he was cool, you know?
“But you’re going to a new school now,” Mom said, setting Dad’s
plate down, “aren’t you going to miss your old friends?” Mom was beautiful I remember.
She had a kind face and she was always so nice and pleasant, but she seemed to
have this hidden power.
I miss her. I wish she were here right now...
That night, Dad chuckled at Mom’s comment.
“You’ll be fine, right Daisuke?”
“Yep,” I agreed.
Mom sat down with her own meal. “Well, let’s
eat!”
“Down the hatch!” I
said happily...only when I brought the chopsticks with the morsel of food to my
mouth, an excruciating pain jangled the nerves all the way up my arm. It was so
sudden that I fell out of my seat. I cried out and cradled my arm.
“Daisuke!” Dad cried
Mom was out of her seat, squeaking, “Daisuke,
what’s wrong?”
I couldn’t respond. The pain was...too much.
~~~~~Scene003:
“A malignant bone tumor?”
My mother asked the woman doctor Kisugi-sensei in the
same worried squeaking voice the next day.
I was laying in a hospital bed overhearing
her conversation as Dad looked over me. They had one of those oxygen tubes
sticking in my nose and an IV sticking into my arm. I watched Mom and the woman
doctor as they talked under the glowing X-Rays that spelled out my doom.
“Luckily,” Dr. Kisugi
said, “we found it in its early stages. But even after the operation, he’ll
need therapy for at least five or six years.”
It wasn’t until she said that that I realized
what my illness meant. For five to six years, I’d be weak. Too
weak to train. Too weak to save anyone. Too weak to be a hero.
“I see...” Mom almost whispered, bowing and walking
over to me. She brushed her fingers through my hair, trying to comfort me, but
the life that I knew was over, and for some reason, I couldn’t look at my mom.
I could only watch Dr. Kisugi as she looked straight
at me, eyes cold, half-lidded. Her mouth was straight, emotionless. Still,
sometimes when I remember it, I can almost swear that she smiled...just a
little, as if she thought the whole thing was funny.
~~~~~Scene004:
Junior High School Spring~~~~~
I could hear them talking about me behind my
back when I started Junior High. Anytime I heard laughter I always thought it
was about me—that weird Freshman that’s sick all the time...who’s always
leaving class early to go to the hospital. Now, I figure I was being a little
paranoid, but I was right enough times for it to be depressing.
All through
summer break and a good portion of school I was too weak to do anything. I was
thirteen, and while other kids were coming into their strength, I was sick in
bed most the time. The only real exercise I got was when my parents took me to
the hospital.
~~~~~biyoin~~~~
Totsuyama General
has a large waiting area, with many seats lined up in rows, like in an airport.
Only there aren’t so many windows and at the front is the window where you make
appointments or get prescriptions for medication. One day, as I sat with Mom
and Dad, I heard a girl laughing while I was sitting in there and I listened in
as usual to see if it really was about me or not. She was two rows behind me
and talking to some guy.
“So what do you think, Sensei?” The girl
asked her companion in a more serious voice.
“I don’t know,” he responded, “Not many
people can do what they want to do.” I looked behind me. The girl was about my
age and had her hair in a style that looked sort of like a helmet. It didn’t
seem right for the girl to call the guy “Sensei.” He was kind of young to be
teacher or doctor but then again, he was definitely college age. He wore
glasses and what looked like a brown martial arts gi.
“But still,” the girl said, “that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t think about what they
want to do with their lives!”
The guy smiled. “So tell me, ‘Sensei’ Tendo
Nabiki, what would you like to be?”
“I don’t know just yet, that’s why I was
asking you! Have you ever wanted to be something else other than a Doctor?”
“Let’s see,” he said rubbing his chin,
“probably...a defender of justice.”
“Surely, you can’t be serious.” Nabiki
smirked.
“I am and don’t call me ‘Surely’” the doctor
said smiling a little himself. He sat down next to Nabiki. “I’m first and
foremost a doctor, but I am also a student of the Art. Sometimes, I would like
nothing better than to wander around the countryside helping those in need,
defending the weak...As a doctor, you can only help those that come to you,
after whatever’s been done to them has already happened, and you sometimes
can’t use something that you know will help somebody because it isn’t covered
by insurance. I’d like to not have to worry about insurance. I’d like to just
fight evil head on...a defender of justice. That’s what I want to be.”
“Then be one,” Nabiki said. “I’m sure you
could do it.”
The doctor laughed, “It’s not that easy!”
Nabiki giggled until Dr. Kisugi
came to remind her of her appointment. Nabiki said goodbye to the man and left
with Kisugi.
This was the first time I ever ran into Nabiki.
She was so positive and upbeat...it made me sick. Many things changed in that
year, I know. By the time she was in High School I began to hear rumors of her
being cold and heartless. Of how she would even sell out her own sister if the
price were right. I still didn’t believe them because of that day at the
hospital. Of course after I started High School and Ranma came I would run into
Nabiki more than enough times and I’d learn to accept nearly every rumor about
her. But I still remember that conversation...
Later, I found out the other doctor was Dr.
Tofu. A real friendly guy. Just a chiropractor and
general practitioner but very good at what he does. I guess he must have taken
Nabiki to the hospital. He was pretty close to the Tendo family back then. He
left like, two years ago though. I don’t think anyone’s seen him.
At that moment in the hospital, I hated his
guts. He could still help people. He could, if he wanted to, be just the sort
of hero I had always wanted to be, but he was a doctor instead. Meanwhile I was
sick, weak.
I clasped my hands together so hard they ached several hours
afterward.
~~~~~biyoin~~~~~
I sat in Dr. Kisugi’s
office, alone. My parents still sat outside in the waiting room. The office was
a brightly lit place, sunshine filtered through Venetian blinds covering large
windows that took up almost entire walls. You could see the trees waving
outside and it should be very pleasant, but I hated going to that office just
the same. After giving me a short physical, Dr. Kisugi
said that I was getting better, and that it would only be a little longer
before I could stop the therapy.
But every martial arts master or athlete that
I ever talked to said he had trained since he was a baby,
that every spare moment of his life was spent perfecting his form,
learning new techniques... There was no way I would ever catch up. “It’s
already too late,” I told Dr. Kisugi.
“Eh?”
“No matter how hard I try now,” I said
punching the air and imagining that I was fighting a bully, a kidnapper, or
anyone... “I’ll never be good enough to be a master of the Art. I’ll never be
able to be a hero.”
“Jonouchi-kun,
listen...” Kisugi said, “The human body’s abilities
are not limited to only the physical...”
“I know, I know. ‘Study hard and use your
mind to help people.’ Is that what you’re gonna say?
My mother says the same thing.”
Kisugi held her
head up with her hand, her elbow on the counter behind her where she kept her
potted plants. “You’re so weak, but your mother is so strong.”
I frowned, saying, “I already know.”
“Yes... but cowards live longer than most
people, hmm?”
I looked at Kisugi-sensei
in surprise. She was smiling lazily, and again I got that paranoid feeling that
someone was laughing at me.
“It’s when people are full of fear that the
death kami comes, and she prefers it when strong
people get scared; they taste better. Weak people taste terrible.”
It was a very strange thing for a doctor to
say. Strike that, it was an unbelievably freaky thing for anyone to say. Even now, I wonder if I maybe misunderstood her
somehow, but before I could ask her to repeat what she had said she continued.
“If you want it,” she crossed her legs and
turned her swivel chair more toward me, “I have a special medicine I can give
you, but I don’t know if it will work for you, understand?”
~~~~~yami~~~~~
I stagger and fall against a pile of pipes. I
feel sick to my stomach now after eating that damned caterpillar. And I still
feel the hunger...the need. The caterpillar didn’t help at all.
Dr. Kisugi’s
medicine didn’t help at all either when I took it. I had a high fever and was
in bed for a week.
~~~~~Scene:005
Two years later I started High School. I still had to go the
Hospital for checkups every now and then, but I had a different doctor from Kisugi.
I was pretty miserable most the time. My Mom...she wasn’t around
anymore. It was just me and Dad. And we weren’t living, just coping. And then
something happened that I had never expected.
Ranma came.
I gravitated to him so strongly I was worried
for a while that I was gay. And when I found out about his curse...There were
nights I wished he would stay female so I could be Ranma’s boyfriend. But the
attraction wasn’t really sexual. I mean girl Ranma was a hottie,
there’s no denying that, but that’s not why I hung out with him. Ranma was just
everything I ever wanted to be. Ranma was a hero. Ranma had adventure every
single day. Ranma had all sorts of people that admired him. I just was hoping
that somehow the tiniest fraction of that would rub off on me.
I wasn’t alone of course. Hiroshi hung out
with Ranma just as much as I did, though he seemed more interested in Ranma’s
fiancées than Ranma himself most the time. Hiroshi and I became friends through
Ranma.
I remember I sat next to Hiroshi during that
match girl Ranma had with Kuno’s sister. Hiroshi was
putting all the girls on a scale from one to ten. He was saying that Kodachi
was a nine and I said, “No way she’s a nine! She has to get negative points for
being psychotic!” Before I knew it, I was comparing other girls to female Ranma
and Akane based on breast size, cuteness, shapeliness...I’m telling you,
perversion is contagious.
At the time of that match, neither of us knew
that male Ranma and female Ranma were one and the same. Hiroshi roped me into
confronting Ranma about the girl that shared his name. We heckled him about
keeping the cute redhead to himself, but he got out of it somehow.
I was the one who found out first. I went to
Nabiki for information during lunch one day, and of course she wasn’t giving it
unless I paid a sum of money no mere human could possess. But then I had an
idea. No one knew anything about Nabiki going to the hospital. Maybe it was
something she didn’t want getting around? So I took a chance and said that if
she didn’t tell me about Ranma’s connection to girl Ranma I would mention
Nabiki’s visit to Totsuyama General. Nabiki got this
sharp look to her eye and peered right into me, and I knew that if she said no
I wouldn’t do anything. I knew that I had potentially made a very bad enemy.
But then she gave a smirk. “Ranma got a curse in
I got Hiroshi to help me and we did test it,
using a fire bucket to splash Ranma as he left the building for Gym.
Neither of us had ever come so close to
death.
Thankfully, I told Ranma where I got the
information before he pummeled us into pancakes, and I think he actually opened
up to us more once we both knew about the curse and didn’t totally freak or
anything. Some of the other guys in gym found out about it too,
and from then on Ranma had to take his showers in the coach’s private shower to
keep the would-be pranksters at bay, but after that day he never mentioned it.
Ranma just didn’t hold grudges. At least not back then. He was still friendly
to Hiroshi and me even when things started to get bad...
~~~~~happy
end~~~~~
Over the next three years, Hiroshi and I
still followed Ranma around like puppies, catching whatever scraps of adventure
or exposed female flesh we could get. But both of us could tell something was
up with Ranma. Last year especially, there were these times when he’d get real
quiet. We used to cheer him up by teasing him about his fiancées but more and
more that became a sore subject with him.
Of course I guess I really can’t blame him.
He had a lot of things pressing on him. First there was Ranma’s mom, who kept
saying she’d kill him if he wasn’t manly, then there was that stupid wedding,
where Shampoo and Ukyo went psycho and started throwing bombs at the guy.
Things just went downhill from there. Even
Then last year, Hiroshi had to go away for a
few months because his grandfather was dying. Looking back on it, I think that
I was maybe the only friend Ranma really had at that point. I mean, he had
other people, but they weren’t exactly people he could talk to. Not that he
talked to me either. I mean you can’t just tell a guy all your problems. Not
unless he’s a shrink or something.
I tried to get Ranma to train me a little,
and that seemed to cheer him up a bit, but he was still moody. I keep on
thinking about his most frequent complaint at that time, that everyone wanted
something from him.
I hate thinking about it...but if you had to
not want anything from Ranma to be his friend...then I really wasn’t his friend
either. Because I wanted his power, his strength, his
fearlessness...and when he stopped being powerful, strong, and fearless...I
didn’t hang around him as much.
I would almost talk to him during lunch when
I saw him staring out of the window forlornly. I would think about visiting him
at the dojo when I passed by. I would consider maybe giving him a call. But
each time I thought about seeing Ranma, I would think better of it. Or worse of
it I suppose. Ranma was depressing to be around then, and without Hiroshi’s
boundless enthusiasm, I just was not capable of dealing with it.
When the news leaked about Ranma and Kodachi,
I wasn’t that surprised really. Kodachi was after all, an extremely proud
person who didn’t give a damn about what other people thought, and I think
that’s what Ranma wanted to be.
I never really believed the part of the rumor
that said he was dealing drugs. I’m sure someone just saw Ranma and Kodachi
together and got the wrong idea. Even as down as he was, I don’t think he’d
ever do something so...ugly.
One day Ranma issued a challenge to Kuno.
Stick boy must have realized that Ranma marrying Kodachi would make him his
brother-in-law and decided that he could not allow it. Ranma was very serious
though. He was wearing an all black Chinese outfit and he seemed…I don’t
know…angry. Kuno had been berating him all day but Ranma wouldn’t fight him,
just ignored all the thwacks by Kuno’s bokken. And
then during lunch Ranma stood up and walked slowly to the window, lifted it up
and shouted down to where Kuno stood. The Blue Thunder was waiting by a tree,
his arms crossed. “I, Saotome Ranma, challenge you, Kuno Tatewaki,
to a martial arts match at
Kuno agreed to this and the match was on.
Almost everyone went to see it, and we all bet on how long it would take for
Ranma to knock Kuno out. Nabiki wasn’t in charge of the bets, but she was
there. I saw her go up to Ranma before the match and talk to him about
something. I still don’t really know what it was about but she seemed upset
about it whatever it was. She put a hand on his shoulder and he brushed it
away, turning from her and looking straight ahead at Kuno.
Akane wasn’t there. But then Akane had been
playing hooky a lot recently. She was pretty worked up over Ranma being with
Kodachi, though she would deny it whenever anyone asked. She put nearly all of
her free time into training, and she was always carrying this great big
Spalding bag full of stuff with her whenever I saw her. I talked to Akane’s
friend Sayuri about it once and she said she was worried Akane might be going
crazy.
But of course Akane was crazy to begin with.
Ranma’s always had a thing for the loonies, which is another reason why I
wasn’t really that surprised about Kodachi.
As for Kodachi, she showed up, but she was
strangely aloof. She wasn’t in her Rhythmic Gymnastics leotard or anything. She
just wore her St. Hebereke uniform and stayed to the side, apparently content
to let Ranma fight for her.
Ranma and Kuno just stood facing each other
for a good minute, and then finally, Ranma said, “I’m ready when you are, Kuno.
“
“Very well,” Kuno nodded, and he made the
first move.
I couldn’t believe how fast Kuno was. He
became a blur of blue and then he was right behind Ranma. I was beginning to think maybe I should have
put my money on the long shot, after all no one had seen Ranma so much as lift
a finger to do a martial arts move ever since he started going out with
Kodachi. But then Ranma squatted,
dodging Kuno’s bokken swipe and he dissappeared. Kuno looked around for a while swiping the
air with his sword. Calling
out things like “foul sorcerer!” and “dark fiend!” But the way Ranma dissappeared, suddenly these names weren’t nearly as
humorous as they were before.
Kuno’s eyes widened
and he seemed to stiffen, then he held his bokken by its middle, a move I would
have thought he would never do, and he shoved it into what appeared to be open
air behind him. Ranma staggered back, now visible. The way he held his arms…it
almost looked like he was about to break Kuno’s neck.
I didn’t really think about this too much
though. Mostly I was wondering what pretty much everyone else was wondering.
How did Ranma turn himself invisible?
Kuno turned and leveled his bokken at Ranma
again, his hands back in the right place. “You are indeed low, Saotome, to use
such tactics against me. I have trained extensively under the tutelage of one Kumon Ryu. He suspected you might
have reneged on your agreement concerning the Umisenken. No matter who falls this day, you have
revealed yourself to be an honorless cur.”
“Honor?” Ranma
raised an eyebrow. “Pshah.
Pops sold my honor for a pickle and a piece of fish.” Ranma settled into an
easy stance. “And when have you ever been honorable? When you grabbed my chest
in the swimming pool? When you bought those pictures of me and Akane? When you
tried to use my fear of cats against me? When you took what you thought was a
speed elixir from Happosai so you could beat me? Or how about
when you got that phoenix egg that worked out so well. Was that you
being honorable? I know. It was when you were seriously thinking of raping me
on watermelon island. You were Mr. Honorable then. How
could I forget?”
“You speak nonsense, foul one. I have always
behaved with honor. To both you and the pigtailed girl, to
both my rival and my paramoures. If you fail
to see this, it is a deficiency of your
vision, not of mine. I, Kuno Tatewaki, age 18, shall
correct this deficiency by this very implement if I must.” Kuno raised his
bokken above his head, “And may the heavens bring down their vengeance if I
should fail!” There was flash of lightening and a rumble of thunder as Kuno
said this, and I looked up to see a purple heap of cloud aproaching
on a high wind to the field.
Kuno charged toward Ranma and they fought in
a blur of swings, kicks, jumps, and strikes. They were a blur of motion,
exchanging their blows so quick I could barely make them out. Strangely they
seemed fairly equally matched. Kuno had stopped relying merely on his sword and
was using elbow and knee jabs as well as some judo throws when in close range,
and Ranma was much slower than usual. The rain started to fall in thick
droplets and I watched as Ranma flipped out of the melee.
He stood looking up into the sky, his hands
outstretched.
“An opening!” Kuno
cried and lunged at him with the bokken.
It was at that moment that Ranma changed sexes.
She kicked the bokken clear out of Kuno’s hands,
flipped over him and
jabbed him several times in his back with her fingers.
Kuno collapsed face first into the wet grass.
Ranma turned him over with her bare foot. Ranma had come barefoot to the match
I realized then. Had he planned this? Everyone was starting to head back inside
now out of the rain. Some of the freshmen had to have it explained to them that
Ranma changing sexes wasn’t all that strange, and of course they weren’t as
quick to go inside because, well it was
strange. I stayed as well, getting soaked so I could hear what Ranma said to
Kuno as she crouched down beside him.
“Open your eyes, you bastard, you’re only
paralyzed.” Kuno’s eyes slowly opened. “I want you to
look good and hard at this face. I want you to notice how much I, your
‘pigtailed goddess’ despises you. I’m not going to try and convince you that
I’m the same person as your rival. I don’t care about that shit anymore.
Besides maybe you’re right. Maybe we are two separate people. Because male
Ranma, he just finds you annoying, like a piece of gum on his shoe, but me…I
want you dead, Kuno. I want you to fucking die.”
After she said this, though, she simply stood
up, turned to Nabiki, who was watching everything with a furrowed brow under a
black umbrella, and said, “I’m going home. I’m tired. Kodachi?”
Kodachi looked up and then walked with Ranma, leaning into her. Aparently the change in sex wasn’t something she had a
problem with. They walked away, just as the dark clouds passed and the rain
faded into sunlight.
Nabiki watched them leaving and then turned
to me, folding her umbrella and sticking it in her satchel. “You want to take
care of some of your debt?”
I was taken a little aback that Nabiki was
talking to me, but then I realized we were the only people left on the field.
“Um… sure…I mean…I guess.”
She bent down over Kuno’s
body, “You take the feet; I’ll take the head.”
“But…I can’t…I’ve got a bone disease…I…”
“I don’t have any muscles either, but if I
don’t take him to the infirmary he’ll bake out here in the sun. No one else
seems to care. Now be a good little boy and help out and I’ll let you out of, hmm,
let’s say ten percent?”
“Fifty,” I said out of reflex. I’ve bought
information from Nabiki too many times I guess.
She sighed, “Look, I don’t feel like haggling
right now. Let’s just say thirty and get going okay?”
“…Okay,” I said. And I picked up Kuno’s feet. We trudged back to the school with the Blue
Thunder for awhile, and it seemed to me that Nabiki was stronger than she let
on. I was already sweating after a few meters but she was still okay. “Hey,” I
said, mainly to distract myself from the exhaustion, “What did you say to Ranma
back there?”
“I’ll tell you,” Nabiki said after a pause,
“but you have to agree to tell me something as well.”
“Um…okay.”
“Ranma’s been acting strange lately. Stranger than usual. At first I thought it was a passing
phase or something, that he’d get over it but…well you
saw him today, does that seem normal to you?”
“No,” I said, re-establishing my grip on Kuno’s sweaty ankles.”It
doesn’t.”
“I’m worried about him.” My eyes snapped up
to hers at that, but Nabiki was too lost in thought to realize her Freudian
slip if that was what it was. “He’s becoming unpredictable. Dangerous.
I don’t see how he could have chosen Kodachi under his own free will…It
wouldn’t be the first time something had messed with his persona but...This is
something different. As far as I know you’re the closest one to him now…What do
you think?”
This threw me. I was the closest on to him? I
just talked to him every now and then. Had him train me in
the softer forms of martial arts maybe once or twice. Heck I annoyed him
more than anything. And now…I thought about all the times I saw him depressed.
I remembered in the beginning when me and Hiroshi
tried to cheer him up… how it stopped working. I thought about how every time I
saw Ranma the day seemed to get darker. It felt sometimes like a part of me was
dying.
“I don’t think it’s
magic,” I said, “at least not totally, and I don’t think it will go away
either. He’s loosing something. I…I don’t know what it is exactly but it’s
whatever it was that was keeping him happy under all that strain. I think it
would take a miracle to get that back.”
Nabiki nodded, and hefted Kuno so her hands
could find a better position. “And Ranma’s our only resident miracle worker now
that the Amazons are gone. Well, Mousse is still here…I wonder…”
“So what did you say to Ranma?“
Nabiki sighed, “I told him that I was there
for him…if he needed someone to talk to. Of course I only wanted information,
but…”
I felt a wash of guilt then. Why hadn’t I
done that? Ranma certainly needed someone to vent to and there weren’t that
many people who wouldn’t use what he said against him. I could see why Ranma
would suspect Nabiki, but for some reason I didn’t believe Nabiki when she said
she only wanted information. I had rarely seen this side of her…this human
side. It made me think back on that day in the
hospital…”Tendo-san?” I asked.
“What is it?”
“Why were you going to Totsuyama
General?”
There was a long pause and then she said,
“Congratulations, you have found the most efficient way possible to end this
conversation.”
She said nothing after that, no matter what I
asked her. When we had managed Kuno onto
one of the beds of the school infirmary, she reached into her satchel and
called the hospital on her cell phone so that they would pick up Kuno. I left
then and she didn’t even look up.
~~~~~traffic~~~~~
That weekend I found Ranma walking alone; so
I joined him. He barely acknowledged my presence. “Hey,” I said, “that was some fight with Kuno last Wednesday. Looked like
you turned invisible, how’d you manage that?”
Ranma walked faster down the sidewalk. I kept
pace, “Look, I know we haven’t talked in a while, but this cold shoulder shtick
is pissing me off. “ Ranma made no comment. I noticed we were headed toward the
movie theater. “Hey I heard there’s a new Jet Li movie out, you want to go see
it?”
“Oooh I know!”
Ranma said in an affected cutesy voice that he could pull off eerily well even
in guy form, “Maybe I could turn into a girl! That way it would be like a date,
and you won’t seem like such a pathetic loser!” His expression turned back to
stone and he kept walking.
I stood there for a moment, floored by what
Ranma said. Wasn’t that exactly what Hiroshi and I had asked of him over and
over? I ran up to him again, “Well I was just wanting
to see a movie but if you want to
turn into a girl sure go ahead. Or we could go bowling. You ever
done that?”
Ranma just walked, and I followed him
offering up suggestions of things to do and feeling stupid. But then there was
this bum, leaning against the wall in the alley ahead of us. At least, I thought it was a bum. Then I realized it
was “Ryoga! Hey it’s Ryoga!”
“Ryoga.” Ryoga
nodded emphatically. His clothing was in rags and he was filthy, but it was
definitely him. He staggered toward us lifting a shaking hand up, as if
reaching toward us.
Ranma’s battle aura flared into the visible
range. It was the ugliest aura I had ever seen, blood red with murky black streaks, it reminded me of rancid ground chuck. “Get out of
my MIND!” he screamed and he grabbed Ryoga’s arm and slammed him into the brick
wall of the nearest building. I heard a sickening snap before Ryoga made
contact. I’m almost sure Ranma broke his arm.
Ranma just kept on walking; so after a
moment’s hesitation, I stayed with him. “Why did you do that, Ranma? It looked
like he wanted something…like he needed help.”
“He’s just a useless piece of trash.”
“But that was Ryoga…your rival…aren’t you the
least bit curious what he’s been up to the last year or so?”
“He was trying to tell me things. Things I
already know.” Ranma stopped, he turned around toward Ryoga. “I already know
about her. I ALREADY KNOW!” He turned and walked in the direction he
was going in before “I’d stop it if I could. It’s too late now…it’s…DAMMIT! You
think I give a shit about Ryoga? Sleeping with my fiancee,
not that I care about that bitch, attacking me all the time ,
always trying to steal my cures…”
“Yeah, but he helped you out a couple of
times too right?” Ranma was ranting now,
but I thought maybe if I could just keep him talking, maybe he would be better.
Ranma turned toward me, stopping. “I could
explain everything to you, but it won’t make sense. It barely makes sense to
me. He’s looking for her, he wants to kill her, but I can’t let him because I love
her, only…I made a terrible mistake, Dai. And it’s too late to fix it. I wish I
could but… everyone around me is going to die. So get away from me. YOU HEAR
ME?” Ranma grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. “Get the FUCK away from me!”
I should have stayed. I should have tried to
figure out what he was talking about, who “her” was. Who “he”
was, anything. I should have found out why, when told me to leave so
forcefully, he
was crying. But it was too much. I was a coward. I ran.
I came across Ryoga again, but there was a
cadre of people surrounding him now. They were surrounding him and this short
guy in a black cloak and a stovepipe hat. The guy looked like he was cosplaying
or something but he shouted to everyone in a piping voice that sounded like a
young boy’s. It could have been a girl for all I knew, he was so completely
covered in black, but the inflection was all wrong. “Have the morals of this
city sunk so low” The short guy asked, “that you would all pass a man in need
and not give aid?”
It was rediculous
for this kid to be out in broad daylight. He belonged in a mental institution.
Still, the words dug into me, and I found myself watching, transfixed. There
was something magical in how he crouched down, lifted the silk mask from his face
and spoke something to Ryoga as an airplane flew over head. He had his back to
me, I couldn’t see his face, and after that the cops came around to see what all
the fuss was about. So I decided I had seen enough and left.
I never talked to Ranma again after that day. It wasn’t hard
to avoid him, he was doing all the avoidance himself.
When I talked about my run in with the cosplay kid on
the street, some
people told me about Boogiepop. It seemed rediculous
that such a thing could exist. It certainly couldn’t have been the guy I saw.
I’ve seen the real Boogiepop now, and I know that Mr. Black Hat wasn’t the real thing. But there
was something about that kid.
Not much happened for several weeks after the
whole deal with Ranma and Kuno, and then just last
month…
~~~~~screaming~~~~~
I was standing on the second story terrace of
my house, watching the cars as they traveled under the street lights, as if
nothing was happening, as if everything were still normal.
I heard it before I saw it. This terrible inhuman sound of pain, anguish that somehow carried
through the night. Then there was the light coming from Furinkan
shooting up into the clouds and the sound was even louder, a mix between a
pulsating crackle of electricity and a haunting moan, like from a ghost. It
resonated with my insides like the bass line of a rock concert. Then I saw this
ball of energy come from the beam directly toward me...and through me, jazzing
my nerves like a high voltage caffeine pill.
I turned around to see the energy pass
through the rest of the house without affecting anything. I looked at my
shaking hands for a moment not sure of what just happened. Then I went inside
through the sliding glass door, suddenly feeling violently ill.
Once again, I had a high fever and was laid
up for a week. It felt almost as bad as when I took Dr. Kisugi’s
medicine. But this time, after the fever broke, something happened.
~~~~~asa~~~~~
After waking up for the first time without
throwing up, I got dressed and walked downstairs, sliding the wooden door to
the den. Dad was on his knees on the tatami, praying
to Mom’s shrine. Hearing me enter, he looked back to me. Judging by the bags
under his eyes he had been up all night. “Are you alright?” He asked wearily.
“Yeah,” I looked at the picture of Mom. She
was smiling in the photograph, but it was a sort of Mona Lisa smile. I could
see the sadness in her bright eyes, the frown in her gentle smile. It was taken
after I got sick, a year before she died. “I’ll be fine.”
He got up creakily to his feet, “I was
worried about you, it’s been almost a week.”
There was something on his chest. A giant green spider, right over his heart. I gasped in
shock.
“What’s the matter?” Dad asked.
“Dad, there’s a bug...”
“Hmm?” he walked over to me and felt my
forehead with the back of his hand. “No, your fever’s dropped.” He sighed as he
walked past me, “I’ve got to go to work now. How do you feel? Do want to take
another day off?”
“N..no,”
I said. “I’m going today.”
“Good.”
I thought I had to be hallucinating or
something. Why couldn’t Dad see that giant spider? Still, I went to school. On
the subway, on the street, everywhere I saw people with spiders on their
chests, walking around completely oblivious. Then, for some reason...I started
salivating...the spiders began to look tasty.
~~~~~kurasu~~~~~
“Oki?”
“Yeah.”
“Tamura?”
“Here!”
~~~~~Scene006:
Omo-sensei was
giving out test grades in history class. Of course he wouldn’t be calling my
name, because I had been sick. I just watched as the other students got their
grades.
“Sasaoka?”
“Yes...” this one said quietly as she got up
to and walked to Omo-sensei’s podium.
“You scored the highest with a 98” Omo-sensei informed her.
She took the test with her head bowed and
started walking slowly back to her seat. She was fairly pretty, with her rich
brown hair curling all the way to her shoulders, she seemed depressed though.
“You did great Yuka!” Akane praised her
friend as she passed several rows ahead of me. “Just like always!”
As Sasaoka Yuka
approached me, I saw it though. A purple spider, right over
her heart. As Omo-sensei called out the other
students’ names, I kept my attention focused on Yuka as she sat in the back row...
I remembered she usually sat in the front.
~~~~~soto~~~~
I talked to her after class and asked her to
meet me at the back wall of the school during lunch. She was a little late. I
almost thought she wouldn’t come, but she did.
“What do you want?” she asked,
her voice barely above a whisper.
I lifted myself off the wall I’d been leaning
on before I spoke. “About the test...”
Yuka’s eyes widened and she let out an
involuntary gasp.
I stepped in front of her. I was almost
certain now of the answer to the question I was about to ask but I asked it
anyway. “Did you cheat?”
Her fists tightened on either side of the
blue skirt of her uniform and she started sobbing, tears streaming down her
face. I look at her chest. The spider grew to twice its original size, speckled
now with red spots.
I couldn’t help myself! I undid her tie and
slipped my hand underneath her blouse and grabbed the spider.
I held it out in front of my face for a
moment. It felt warm on my hand; it smelled vaguely of vanilla. “You may go
now,” I told Yuka, who had collapsed into a sitting position by the wall.
She blinked and stood up. “Yes, you’re
right.” She said and started to walk away. “Daisuke,” She stopped and turned
around, looking at her feet, “I don’t know why but,” She looked me in the eye
just then, “Thank you.”
Once she was gone, I bit into the spider with
gusto.
It tasted... pretty sweet.
~~~~~yomichi~~~~~
The next spider I ate was yellow, with red spots.
It came from a woman on her way back from work that night. She was wearing a
black skirt and blazer with a maroon blouse. She had just given her boss a blow
job so she could get promoted.
The spider was large and messy, but it tasted
so good, so sweet, I wolfed it up, tore into it. Its legs dangled from my mouth
as the juices from its body ran down my chin.
Regret...guilt...remorse...Those feelings
turn the knots in one’s heart into the spiders. I’ve removed these bugs from so
many people...
~~~~~delirious~~~~~
Just a few days ago, I went to the Martial
Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics Tournament. It was held at Furinkan this year, and it
was actually a lot more interesting to watch than I would have thought, but
still I was restless. Those spiders tasted so good...I wanted more. I got out
of my seat after this one fight between Ukyo and another girl I didn’t know.
Ukyo was really intense and she somehow learned a weird ki technique...The
spider on her chest almost covered her leotard. It was frightening...but it
made me hungry.
I left the Gymnasium and I wandered around
the halls of Furinkan, trying to find someone with a spider by themselves so
that I could take it from them. I saw the school nurse heading to her office.
She had a big one on her heart. So I followed her inside.
She looked up at the ceiling, sitting on her
chair as I grabbed her spider. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I had to have the
abortion...I had to!”
I didn’t really care what she said though. I
just tore into the red and green spider, ripping off its legs, then its head, then finally eating the rest of it.
~~~~~penalty
taker~~~~~
Then she blinked, got up, and asked me if I
could watch the office for a little while.
Then I heard the door slide open and shut
again and a quiet female voice say “Please excuse my rudeness.” I looked behind
me. The girl who came in wore a Hebereke High jogging suit and had her hair in
large pigtails that fell on her shoulders and seemed somehow conservative. They
looked a little like the collar of a coat turned up. I realized this was the
girl that had fought with Ukyo in the last match I saw. And then I saw that she
had a spider of her own on her chest.
She threw a tissue or something into the trash
and looked up. She seemed a little surprised to see me there; so I said, “The
nurse isn’t here.”
That was all, and then I went for the spider
without really thinking. The girl stepped back though, then she seemed to want
to get past me but I advanced on her again, knowing that once I ate the spider
she wouldn’t remember anything I did. I had her pinned against the medicine
supply cabinet. “Don’t move!” I said, reaching for her chest.
She stepped back, startled, into the
cabinet, knocking over two bottles of medicine. One crashed into the floor, the
other hit and rolled toward my foot. The sound seemed a little louder than it
should have been...distorted.
If I hadn’t just eaten a spider I might not
have notice it, but there was something different about this girl. Almost as if
she wanted her spider to be there.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I never had to explain myself before; so I just tried the
truth. “There’s a bug attached to your heart. I understand if you don’t want me
to touch you, but if you let it, that bug is going to completely devour you.”
The girl eyes went wide “Huh?”
I tried to explain: “It’s that knot you feel
inside your heart. I’ve been able to see these things recently.”
This made her more frightened though and she
started backing away from me, toward the door.
“You’ve been keeping your feelings bottled
up, haven’t you? For a long time now.” I smiled,
giving up. “I’m Daisuke Jonouchi, a senior.” I moved
past her, sliding open the door to go out. I turned back, though, to say, “Let
me know if you ever want me to grope your chest. It’s better than letting that
bug eat you up, right?” I chuckled and left her in the office.
Yes, I thought as
I left her there, I’m helping these
people. I stepped outside onto the stairs leading to the roof and looked
out across the city. I’m a savior to
them.
I was a hero, I realized. And I laughed in
joy.
~~~~~pone~~~~~
That night, when I got home, I ate the spider
in Dad’s chest. The sunset coming through the window onto the tatami in front of Mother’s shrine, I told him, “Dad,
you’re better now.”
He got up from his knees turned and, as if
caught in a reverie said, “Oh yeah, time for dinner...” and walked to the
kitchen.
I glanced at my mother’s picture, thinking of
how proud she would be of me if she knew what I was doing, and then I tore into
Dad’s spider.
~~~~~sirens~~~~~
Five years ago, my mother was late picking me
up from the hospital; so I walked home. When I got there, I found a large group
of people standing around my house behind police tape. Lights from ambulances
and police cars flashed blue and red at me, and I knew something was wrong, but
I still had no idea what.
I pushed through the crowd to the police line
where an officer told me to stand back. I saw my father watching as the
paramedics wheeled a stretcher into the back of an ambulance. He turned, and
seeing me, said out loud, “Daisuke...”
Then I saw Mom’s car. The windshield was
covered in blood, the passenger window too, and her shoe...I saw her shoe on
the pavement blood splattered all over it, and I knew... “Mom!”
I screamed... “Mom!”
The next day the paper read “Afternoon
Murder: Serial Killer Strikes Again” The article explained how my mother’s
gruesome death fit the M.O. of the serial killer that had been murdering people
in broad daylight. She was her way to pick me up from the hospital... My father
never forgave himself for letting her go alone.
We had a traditional Shinto funeral. Father
kept looking at Mom’s face during the viewing and crying anew. I knew, though,
that Mom would have wanted me to be strong and so I helped Dad remember his
duties to our guests at the viewing—greeting each one and thanking them for
coming and asking if they would like to see the body—even though I just wanted
to go to my room and cry my eyes out myself.
~~~~~higure~~~~~
I ate Dad’s spider. And I ate several spiders
the next day.
I remember I ate a woman’s spider underneath
a bridge on the canal. Outside, above the power lines there was the aurora that
had been there since that light a month ago...
That day I came home to find my Dad looking
at Mom’s picture again, only this time it was in his hands and he seemed to
have a confused expression on his face.
“Daisuke...” He said, “This woman...who is
she?”
I gasped. Something wasn’t right...
~~~~~kurasu~~~~~
I saw Yuka the next day, in Math class,
cheating on her practice exam...
~~~~~yomichi~~~~~
I went to the arcade that night and watched all
the people there, playing games, going on dates, trying to forget all their
troubles when the reality finally hit me. What I had been eating...was their memories.
“Isn’t it better for bad memories to simply
be forgotten?” I asked one girl in an alleyway when she thought I was molesting
her. Of course she didn’t say anything.
I was eating her spider that night...or maybe
it was somebody else’s...when a light shone on me in the dark. It was a cop. He
had a broad face with chiseled features. “What are you doing here?”
“Nothing,” I said and walked off, but the
look the cop gave me...it was like he knew...
~~~~~asa ~~~~~
I didn’t go home that night. I stayed up
looking for spiders all along the city streets. By that morning I was weak,
worn out, exhausted. I needed spiders...bugs...
I leaned against the side of a building to
rest for a while, when I saw a girl sitting in the sidewalk in a very pink,
very frilly skirt. It was Shiratori Asuza, I
remembered her from the “Charlotte Cup” but she seemed even less coherent than
usual.
She laughed and smiled at me. She lifted her
hands up palms together with the tips of her fingers pointed toward me. When
she separated her hands there was a glowing butterfly that fluttered toward me.
“A bug...” I murmured hoping this would be as good as a
spider...but it wasn’t.
It wasn’t good at all.
~~~~biyouin~~~~
Kuno Tatewaki was
dead in the hospital room, bleeding profusely from a deep bite mark on his
neck. Cradling him, smiling predatorily as she knelt on the ground next to the
bed, was Kodachi. Smiling exactly the same way...was Ranma, standing over
her...then, slowly at first, his expression changed...Like he was just
realizing what was going on. Then his eyes went wide, he started shaking, and he
ran through me, yeah through me out
of the room.
“What the...What the hell is this?” I asked.
~~~~~delirious~~~~
I was back on the street looking at Asuza sitting there smiling at me...
“What the hell was that?”
“ I made a terrible mistake, Dai. And it’s too late to fix it.
I wish I could but…”
“What the hell was that?” Asuza mimicked
me. She smiled up at me. Her eyes, it was as if they were both younger and
older than they were supposed to be. It was all too weird. I ran away.
I’m such a coward.
I ran to the business district, where strings
of people where coming and going. It started to rain, I was soaked and tired and
weak...I need bugs...but when I saw a woman with a spider and I called out to
her...
“Have the morals of this city sunk so low that you would all pass a man
in need and not give aid?”
There was that cop, across the street,
looking at me...watching me...
The woman asked me what I wanted.
“Nothing.” I said
and walked off.
Night again and I needed bugs.
I found another woman with a spider and I was
eating it...eating her memories... when out of nowhere it appeared...no materialized in front of me.
The death kami. The Grim Reaper. The Black Hat. Boogiepop...But that wasn’t what scared
me...what scared me was the face it wore…the face of Kuno Kodachi.
“What the...? What do you want?” I demanded
as I started running, scrambling down the street.
The street light seemed to drift past me as I
ran through the mist and then, right in front of me Boogiepop materialized in a
flash of light, again blocking my path.
That black shadow followed me everywhere, chasing
me all night, and now here I am in the dark, not even sure of where I am,
trying to hide from what I thought until now was just an urban legend. An urban
legend that wore the face of Ranma’s seducer of the murderer of so many girls
that I did nothing to help...
Why would she eat me? I wonder, I would taste
terrible! A coward like me...
“Is there anybody there?” The voice is sweet,
human, recognizable... And I realize that I am sitting between the kami of death and...
“Tendo Nabiki?” The apparition asks in an odd
voice that seems to come from several directions at once.
“Boogiepop?” Nabiki
asks in kind. She has longer hair now and she’s dressed in elbow and knee pads
and holding some sort of rectangular device in her hand. “No! You’re the Manticore!”
She reaches behind her and brings out a crossbow and aims it at the ghost-like
figure.
“No,” the figure says, “I am Boogiepop.”
Nabiki turns her head to me: “Daisuke, get
the hell out of here! Now!”
I do what she says. I run as fast as I can,
but I’m nearly out of breath after two steps. All I’ve had to eat for two days
are bugs, and I haven’t had any sleep and I’ve been running all night...
I trip and fall face down on the concrete. I
remember the conversation between Tofu and Nabiki:
“So tell me, ‘Sensei’ Tendo Nabiki, what would you like to be?”...“I’d
like to just fight evil head on...a defender of justice. That’s what I want to
be.”
“Then be one! I’m sure you could do it.”
I get up from the ground, chuckling in spite
of myself from the irony. Is Nabiki a defender of justice? It hardly seems
fair...
I feel a rush of air and an electric charge
as Boogiepop—or is it the Manticore?—
materializes in front of me.
“Have you been waiting long?” she asks coolly
in her strange, organically electronic voice. “It took me a while to get rid of
her.”
“Are you going to kill me?” I ask.
“I’m not going to kill you.” She points a
finger at my chest and I look down.
Every spider I’ve ever eaten is there. Ever color,
every variety, they’re all there eating me up inside...
“I made
a terrible mistake, Dai. A terrible mistake…”
Ranma had watched as Kuno was killed by his own sister...somehow
he had been tricked, manipulated, into helping to murder someone. That was his terrible mistake. And what
could he have done? What can I do now? These spiders, these terrible, but
precious memories, they don’t belong to me. How can I give them back? How can I
give back what I took from those people?
Even if I could, would it matter?
~~~~~cathedral~~~~~
I look up at Boogiepop and she must have read the question on my
face, because now she’s shaking her head.
No.
“I’m just here to take you there,” she says
now in her electronic voice. A brilliant light envelopes me
and the apparition. Inside the light I see...my classmates... from so
long ago...when I was still strong...when I was a hero.
“Dai-chan! Over
here!” they beckon, all of them, smiling, loving me...
I’m laughing now. Tears of joy stream down my face. “Everyone’s
here,” I say, because there they are, all my old friends that I lost when I had
to go to the Hospital, they are there, their eyes bright. With a sigh, I let go
of everything.
And I join them...forever.
~~~~~kurasu~~~~~
You’re eating lunch when you hear the news.
“Did you hear?” a girl you know starts, “Jonouchi
from Class 1...He disappeared!”
“It’s been awhile,” another girl says.
“Since what?” you ask.
“Since anyone disappeared.”
You pass by Class 1 on the way to the bathroom
and you notice an empty desk. It seems eerie, but...it couldn’t be the same
person that was in your dream...could it?
~~~~~[END]~~~~~
People who
accept the world...
In this world,
everything exists...
Anything can
happen...
And...
Everything does
happen...
All
the time.
Next Chapter:
Life Can Be So Nice
Thanks go to
Nemesis Zero and Aondehafka for prereading.