Cracks
~By~Jerome
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author’s Notes- Again, I blame this on Math, and depression. This little
piece of my fic came after I failed a math quiz, so forgive me. Anyway a
small note at the end of why this has the supernatural listing. THERE is
a reason. You guys can expect the next part next time I’m depressed.
Also again first part is from a first point of view, Ryoga this time though
... Enjoy!
Also, disclaimer, I own nothing. Enjoy! And review!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was lost ... again. It was nothing new, but I had to wonder about
the timing of it. Kodachi had died a week ago, and now here I am, lost
on some god awful, empty highway. Luck, when I have any it has to be
bad.
I can’t things have gone smoothly after Kodachi’s ... demise. I
mean Ranma, my arch-rival, is in trauma thinking, partly right, that he
caused Kodachi’s death. I mean, in a way, we all helped push Kodachi
over the edge. I feel kind of guilty, but I was never really around her, so I
don’t think I did anything. Hmm... Pushing off guilt, we all seem to be
doing that.
The rest of the gang seems to have reverted to their old selves.
only Ranma had changed. The scary part is about all of it is ... He kept
apologizing ... to me! Me! Ryoga Habiki!
Anyway though, here I had ment only to take a short walk, now
I’m lost in the middle of nowhere.
Beep-Beep-Beep!!!
I turn around to see a small red car speeding towards me. I can
almost see myself reflected in the car’s headlights, but I felt like a deer. I
knew I should run, but my body wouldn’t obey. I had never felt so
scared! Never felt so helpless! Never felt ... SUCH PAIN!!!!!
I felt the car nail me, then felt myself flying. The last thing I heard
was the car wheels squeal and someone scream in fear.
"My God! I killed ‘em!!" I heard the driver scream. I ment to yell
out I wasn’t dead, well not yet anyway, but then I just blacked out,
completely out.
****
"Young man," the voice was fuzzy, but I heard it.
"Young man!" the voice repeated, yelling. I wish it wouldn’t yell,
my head already hurts, and all that yelling isn’t helping me any.
"Young man!!" the voice screamed, pushing me fully into
wakefulness. I blinked once, then opened my eyes.
The light ... My God! the light! It burned my eyes, and again I had
to close my eyes. A few seconds later though, I steeled myself and
opened my eyes.
Again I felt pain assault me, but it wasn’t so bad this time.
Everything was blurry for a few seconds, but then everything cleared
up. Standing above me was a doctor.
‘Great’ I think to myself. This is just what I, or everybody for that
matter, needs.
"Young man are you quite awake?" the doctor asks, their voice
soft now. It was a woman, with short black hair, and piercing green
eyes.
"Ya," I mumbled.
"Does it hurt anywhere? Especially below the waist? If so, I can
get you some more anapestic," the doctor says coolly.
"No, it doesn’t hurt ... Why should it?" I ask. The doctor gives me a
strange look, and then I remember the car hitting me. For a moment I
can only blush and feel stupid.
"Are ... are you all right young man?" the doctor asked.
"I feel okay," I say, feeling myself grow frightened the way the
doctor keeps asking that.
"Good, good," the doctor says writing something in a small folder.
"My name is doctor Aiko, and if you need anything, just push that
button," the doctor says to me, pointing at a small red button near my
bed side.
"I’ll talk to you tomorrow, till then just get some rest," Aiko says. I
think for a minute to take her advise but then call to her before she can
walk out the door.
"Doctor Aiko!" I call.
"Yes?" Aiko asks, turning to face me.
"How bad ... I mean, I’ll be okay won’t I? It’s nothing serious,
right? I’m pretty strong ... I should be fine ... Right?" I ask, a little scared.
The doctor only gives me a pitying stare.
"I’m sorry young man, but I’m afraid that, as you put it, you’ll
never be ‘all right’," Aiko says softly.
"Wha ... What do you mean?" I asked frightened.
"The car hit you, and when you landed you broke part of your
spine, I’m afraid that it is impossible to fix that particularly area of the
spine," Aiko mummers.
"How ,,, How bad is it?" I ask, horror filling my soul.
"You’ll never walk again. But your otherwise fine," Akio says, she
then turns and walks out of the room. My soul recoils in horror. I can’t
live like that!
How could this happen? My life ... God, my life! It’s ruined. I can’t
practice my martial arts anymore, and what about when I turn into a
pig? I’ll be completely helpless!! I burst into tears, I won’t, I can’t live like
that.
And will Akane say?! She’ll give me that pitying stare and go right
to Ranma, wanting a man, a full man! And Ranma? He’ll laugh at me!
Pity, mocking ... I can’t take! My heart’s broken enough as it is, I can’t
stand all that ,,, can’t stand any of it in fact.
I close my eyes and hear a soft sound. Raindrops hit the window,
in the darkened night. I can see it all clearly out of the window near my
bed. So close, and yet so far, knowing I’ll never be able to walk and
look out of it. A twinkle of a thought comes into my mind, like the spark
that lights a candle, an idea forms in my mind.
I can’t live as a cripple ... So why live?
‘NO!’ screams a part of my mind, but it is quickly covered up
behind the thought of Akane’s pitying stare, and Ranma’s callous laugh.
I lunge out of the bed and land heavily on the floor. The wind is
momentarily knocked out of me, but I recover quickly.
"What are you doing?!" Aiko screams, running back into the room.
I crawl quickly, faster then I would have expected and soon reach the
window.
"You have to get back to bed! You have to get some rest!" Aiko
yells at me, walking towards me slowly. To slowly.
"Bakusai Tenkestu!" I scream, easily shattering the windowsill like
glass.
"What on earth ...?" Aiko mummers, stopping dead in her tracks.
"My ... name ... Ryoga .... Habiki ..." I grunt.
"Stop!" she yells. To late. With a single heave I throw myself out
the window. I feel the cold water hit my body and feel the
transformation take place. Soon I am falling as a small black piglet,
falling from three stories up.
I land on my back and hear all the bones in it break like glass. But
still I live! God! Can’t anything ever go right for me?!
My head lolls to one side where I see a homeless woman looking
through a dumpster, looking for food no doubt. A wonderful sight to die
to.
My head rolls over and I see a little girl begging in the street, and
in my mind I feel a cold, ruthless, mirthless, laughter. Hearing that
hideous sound, I found myself facing blackness. And then, thankfully, I
felt nothing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Tendo’s all sat watching the TV.
"I’m worried about Ryoga," Akane said suddenly.
"Don’t worry, he’ll be fine," Ranma said, feeling though a sudden
feeling of dread.
"He’s been gone a week," pointed out Nabiki.
"Ya, so?" Ranma asked.
"Well normally he sends Akane a gift, or a lest a letter once a
week," Kasumi says passing out tea.
"He’ll be fine!" Ranma yells, not liking this conversation, not liking
it one bit.
"A martial artist ever makes it in a cruel world," Soun said, again
putting on the mask of being wise.
"Oh, so right Tendo," Genma agrees. Ranma though doesn’t feel
comforted and begins to stalk around the room like a caged animal.
"He’s fine!" he mutters to himself over and over, keeping an eye
on the door, He almost wishes P-chan would run in and leap happily
into Akane’s breasts.
"Ranma-honey!" comes a voice from outside. Ranma stopped his
pacing and looked at the door, in time to watch Ukyo burst through it.
"Ucchan!" Ranma said, blinking in surprise.
"Oh Ranma-honey! I came as soon as I heard!" Ukyo said
grabbing Ranma’s shirt and sobbing into it.
"Heard about what?" Ranma asks, but Ukyo was unable to
answer due to her sobs.
"Ranma!" another voice yells. Seconds later Shampoo bursts in ...
through the wall. "Hyah! Me come when heard!" she said, giving Ukyo a
glare.
"What happened?!" Ranma demanded.
"Oh, so you haven’t heard Saotome," Mousse stated more then
asked.
"What’s going on?" Ranma repeated, his eyes narrowing
dangerously. Mousse opened his mouth but a he was silenced by a
sharp wack on the head, curtsey of Cologne.
"Channel 59," the ancient amazon said, a bit of sorrow in her own
voice. Ranma grabbed the remote from Akane, who strangely did not
resist the interruption of her favorite soap-opera. Soon the TV was on
the requested station. Soon a blond haired reporter standing next to a
woman doctor in a ally-way came on.
"So miss Aiko, did you learn anything about the young man?" the
reporter asked.
"For the third time, No! Only his name, and if anyone out there
knows about this ..." the woman said, closing her eyes for a minute.
Ranma knows true fear, and terror in those few seconds. "Ryoga
Habiki, please call me at the number below,"
"No," Ranma said.
"’Fraid so sugar," Ukyo said wiping her eyes.
"It could be okay. He could only be hurt or something," Akane
said, trying desperately to cheer up Ranma.
"With our luck lately ... no," Nabiki said. Everyone shoot her
glares.
"Nabiki!" Kasumi said angrily.
"Don’t get his hopes up. You know how he was after Kodachi, we
can’t sugar coat this for him," the capitalist girl said.
"Ranma you call number, you find out," Shampoo said.
"Yes son-in-law, perhaps it’s best to call and find out about
Ryoga," Cologne mummered.
"He’s dead. Just like Kodachi," Mousse said.
"Wha...?!" hissed the Tendo family.
"There is something wrong about this, this is no mere
coincidence," the boy with glasses said.
"Call son-in-law," Cologne said, casting her glare on Mousse. With
a trembling hand Ranma picked up the phone and dialed the number.
"Hello?" said a soft, female voice. The voice of that doctor on the
TV Aiko. or whatever.
"Umm... Ya ... About Ryoga ..." Ranma began worriedly.
"Are you his friend?" Aiko asked, her voice sad.
"Ya," Ranma said.
"Have you heard from him lately?" she asked.
"No," Ranma said, terror welling inside of him. "Why?"
"He jumped out a three story window, after he was hit by a car
and crippled. And we couldn’t find his body, we thought he might have
gone home, but we can’t find his parents..." Aiko trailed off.
‘No surprise there’ Ranma thinks to himself. Then fear wells inside
of him again.
"Was it raining?" he asks. He hears a long silence, like the doctor
was considering his question, finally she answered;
"Yes,"
"My God," Ranma whispered, the phone falling from numbed
fingers.
"Hello? Hello?" the doctor asks over and over again, only to be
ignored by the pig-tailed marital artist.
"Ranma-honey?" Ukyo asked.
"Ranma?" Shampoo questioned.
"Son-in-law?" voiced Cologne.
"Son?" Genma asked.
"Saotome?" Mousse mummered.
"Ranma?!" Akane yelled. Ranma though only fell forward, in a
dead faint.
Cologne then grabbed the phone.
"Hello?!" Aiko screamed into her ear.
"Yes," Cologne said.
"Where’s that boy? And what did rain have to do with anything?"
the doctor questioned. Cologne’s eyes widened.
"Can you repeat the story?" Cologne asked, and Aiko did
impatiently.
"Now what does rain have to do with anything?" the doctor asked.
Cologne gulped in fear.
"Was a dead piglet found?" the amazon asked,
"What does that have to do with anything?!" asked the doctor.
"Answer me!" Cologne yelled. There was another long pause.
"Yes, a black one, with a ..." the doctor trailed off, putting the
pieces together.
"Thank you, please ship the body to Nerima," Cologne said.
"OK," came the shaky voice of Aiko. Cologne could look down at
her future son-in-law and feel all the pity she could in ancient heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A day later wicked laugh filled the small cave, covered in pictures.
The laugh was cold and ruthless, and utterly mirthless.
"Sssssoooon Saotome you shall feel the I have felt!" the voice
said, again laughing it’s mirthless laugh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End Author notes- Whelp I’m bored so for those of you who like to
review, anyone who can figure who’s behind all this (And why) I’ll write
any kind of poem for them and they’ll get a special place when I end
this fic. But ya can only try for it once per chapter (Starting with this
chapter folks) and due to the time I have (Or lack there of) Only the first,
and maybe second person will get the prize.
Later!