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Chapter Two: Ancient Powers
Many groups were interested in the obsidian cylinder that dominated the floor of the grove. Among them were mineral groups that simply wanted the rights to a cylinder of relatively pure obsidian. The scientific community wanted it because they were intrigued about the startling appearance of a large amount of obsidian suddenly occurring not only in an area where there was never any obsidian before but also miles away from any volcanic area which had been known to produce obsidian during their eruptions.
The JSSDF wanted to experiment with it. No one really knew exactly what they meant by that, but they were the military after all.
And finally, but perhaps most important, the Senshi wanted it. Just not for the same reason. One of the main problems though wasn’t the problem of digging it up and transporting it however. The problem was arriving at a consensus about what to do with it once they got it.
They were divided over the problem, in complete disarray. Rei wanted nothing more by to leave it where it was, seeing it as a fitting monument to what she had done, though she didn’t say that out loud. Usagi didn’t really want to do any digging, but once they got it up, she wanted to let the cats have it. A fact which Rei was adamantly against on all counts.
Ami was like the scientific community. She was simply fascinated by the sudden, apparently natural occurrence of the relatively rare crystalline substance. However, unlike the scientific community, she wasn't anywhere near as certain that it was entirely natural. A certain suspicion against all things which suddenly appeared lurked with in her azure head.
Minako and Makoto tried to stay remarkably neutral on the entire subject. They didn’t want to make Rei furious with them by siding with the cats. And yet, they didn’t want to cause Usagi to be saddened by obviously siding with Rei against her. Personally, they didn’t see what the big fuss was about. ‘It was just a rock after all’, to quote Minako.
The Outer Senshi were nearly as divided as the Inner over the matter.
Haruka firmly wanted to destroy the thing as a possible threat to the solar system. Michiru stood behind her partner in the matter. And Hotaru, though never consulted as it was assumed that she’d go with her adoptive parents on the matter, really wanted nothing more than to find out why it felt alive to her. Not evil, or dangerous, just simply alive.
And then there was Setsuna. The Guardian of the Time Gate had to be stopped several times from taking the cylinder to the Gate on several occasions. No one could tell why she wanted it. She just did. And every time she was forced to stop she seemed a bit more angry. Though that was probably a gigantic understatement.
Finally, a stalemate was reached. Usagi, in an attempt to patch over the troubles with their friendship, decided to adopt a wait-and-see policy. Given an option they could take without creating a massive problem, Minako and Makoto stood behind her on her decision. As they were no longer going to disturb the cylinder, Rei no longer had any problem with their choice of action. Ami didn’t really want to leave it be, but she didn’t really need to dig it up in order to do tests on the substance.
The Outers eventually fell into line, after a while. Though Haruka still wanted to blow it up for the most part. Only Setsuna had a real problem with the matter.
It was because of her and, in some small part, the other interested groups, that the Senshi as a whole decided to guard it in person. At any given time there was anywhere from one to four at the grotto around the cylinder, which kept away most intruders. Though they still found themselves periodically being forced to repulse an attempt from Setsuna.
But the most unique thing that occurred was the fact that despite all of the people around it. Despite the guard. Despite everything.
No one had noticed the Crack.
***********
"Moshi moshi. Tendo Residence." Kasumi answered the phone with her typically deceptively cheerful voice and manner.
"Hello, Tendo-san. I’m sorry to bother you, but is there anyway that I may speak with Tendo Akane?" the voice on the other end answered.
It was a feminine voice and very lovely. Kasumi, of course, assumed that it was one of Akane’s friends.
"Akane-chan?" she called up the stairs. "A young lady wishes to speak with you."
"One moment, Kasumi. I’ll be right down." Her voice sound sad, tired. Kasumi frowned for a moment at the voice, but then visibly brightened again as she realized that she sounded much better than she had for the past several days.
Akane padded down the stairs and accepted the receiver from her elder sister with a wan smile. "Arigoto, Kasumi-chan." She murmured, before raising the phone to her ear. "Hai. This is Akane."
"Akane-san? You don’t know me, but I’m a friend of Ranma’s." For a moment, Akane felt the familiar old anger and jealousy try to raise its emerald head in her. Then it was squashed down by the responding surge of worry that she felt as she realized how unlikely it was that someone was calling about Ranma.
"H-hai?" Her voice was shaky, but she managed to keep steady.
"Listen. I have to tell you something about Ranma. It’s important, so please don’t get mad and hang up. Ranma told me once that you tend to do things like that, so please don’t." The voice on the other end sounded rushed, like she was trying to get everything out before anything could happen.
"Hai. I’m listening." Akane responded after taking a deep, calming breath.
"Something happened to Ranma. Don’t explode or anything. We just don’t know where he is. His cousin asked that we call you. She said that you might be able to help find him."
There was a long pause as Akane let everything sink in. After awhile the voice spoke again.
"So, will you come?"
‘Will I go?’ Akane found herself asking herself. ‘I know I promised Ranma that I would stay away, but he’s in trouble. I know he is.’
A strange voice that sounded a bit like Ranma’s only older, maybe a bit wiser, and far more smart-alecky popped up suddenly in response to her internal thought. ‘Hey! What’s all this all of a sudden?! I thought you didn’t like him!’
‘I like him! I just don’t like how he treats me! Besides, I owe him at the very least for all the times he’s saved me.’
‘Good to see you coming to your senses at last. I’ve been saying you liked him for a long, long time.’ The voice sounded very, very smug at that. ‘So are you going or not?’
"Of course I am!" she suddenly spoke out loud. Realizing what she had done, she looked around nervously, but there was no one in sight. For a moment, she tried to figure out what that had been about.
"Good. We’ll be waiting for you." Then with a click the voice on the other end of the line was gone.
‘That... that was wierd...’
***********
Two days later found Rei and Akane meeting for the first time face to face in their mutual lifetime.
"You’re Ranma’s cousin? Wow. I was expecting someone a little bit more... small, I think."
"You’re Ranma’s fiancée?" Rei replied, in an off-hand fashion. "I was expecting someone a bit more... armed, I think."
For a time the two stared at each other.
Then, for the first time since Ranma had gone absent from their lives, their lips turned up into smiles and they laughed.
"It’s good to meet you, Akane." Rei shook the other girl’s hand firmly.
"And you, Rei." The two smiled at each other, much to the shock of everyone watching.
It just wasn’t like Rei to take to someone so rapidly. Nor was it particularly Akane’s technique either. So the fact that they took to each other as they did surprised most everyone except them.
They would be good friends. They just knew it. They didn’t know how they knew it, but they knew it was true.
***********
The troupe trooped all over Nerima with Akane at the forefront searching for the missing boy. They went in warehouses. Out across rooftops. Down into sewers.
"You know, I almost wish that Ryouga hadn’t decided to stop fighting with Ranma for whatever reason. He would be able to find him." Akane murmured, gesturing at the map held before her.
"Who’s Ryouga?" questioned a curious Minako. "Ranma’s mentioned him before in passing, but he never said much beyond them being friends."
"Ryouga’s a great guy. Strong, loyal, trustworthy. He just had a really bad temper. And he tends to hold a grudge for a long time, too." Akane explained, staring up at the sky as she remembered. "I first met him when he wanted to fight with Ranma. He just showed up out of the blue and challenged him to a fight then and there. Ranma didn’t even remember him. They were friends, I guess. Maybe. They were always fighting. Always. They even fought when they were getting along. Maybe there was just something about Ranma that told him to fight with his friends, I don’t know." She shrugged, and turned to the girls. "Then, one day, something bad happened and.. and I almost died. Then, Ryouga left and never came back. I haven’t seen him since."
She sighed and leaned back against a convenient wall. "I kind of miss him. He was my friend too."
At that moment a buff young man in camouflage gear suddenly landed in the center of the road in front of them. His olive green parachute floated slowly to the ground behind him. He looked around slowly and smiled.
"Japan. I’m home at last." He whispered, then turned and started gathering up his parachute.
Akane looked at the sight and blinked. The other girls were doing the same, but Akane had a different reason.
"Ryouga?" She pushed off her wall and walked over to him. "Ryouga is that you?"
He straightened and turned to look at her. "Yes. Yes that’s me. Can I help you, Ms.. Akane?"
"Ryouga! It’s been so long! How are you?" she crowed, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a fierce hug.
"Better. Much better, now that I’m back on my home turf." He replied, hugging her back then setting her down.
"Everybody, I want you to meet Ryouga! This is who I was telling you about. Ryouga, I want you to meet... well, everybody..."
After introductions had been offered all around, they crowded into a nearby cafe to find out what was going on.
***********
"Ryouga, what happened? You were gone so long."
"I hopped a ride to Europe and spent some time traveling around. Seeing the sights. I had to get away so I could clear my mind."
"Seeing the sights? You? I would have thought that someone with your little problem had already seen all the sights."
"What? My getting lost?" He didn’t even mention the pig problem.
"Well... yeah. What happened?"
He shrugged. "I stopped getting lost. Turned out it was me that was getting me lost."
All the other girls exchanged a sort of ‘no, duh’ expression amongst themselves.
He smiled, definitely used to that reaction. "Akane, do you remember how I was always so angry at Ranma?" When he got no response he continued. "Well, I was. I was always angry at him, despite the fact that he had helped me out so much. And I was always chasing after him while I was blinded by that anger. Turns out, that’s why I couldn’t find my way. Blind rage."
Ami’s expression was interested, but Akane and the other’s looked more like totally disbelief.
"So, I took some time, sat myself down and tried to seriously figure out why I was so damn mad." He shrugged. "It took some time to work it all through. But I managed. Turns out, Ranma never really did anything that should have made me mad at him as far as I can remember."
Akane looked at him like he was nuts. "What about the bread feud? You challenged him to a duel over that. Then you got mad cause he didn’t fight with you."
"The bread was stupid. Sure, he got it before I did, but he also shared it with me everyday. And the duel was a bad idea from the start, but getting mad because he didn’t wait a week was childish. I mean, he did wait a lot longer than I would have. But, anyways, I’m over that now. Wanting to kill him isn’t really in me anymore. Besides. I already saw him die once."
"What?!" The entire group was screaming at him, but he ignored them to stare at where his hands were folded on the table top.
"He died that day at the cursed pools. Maybe it wasn’t a physical death, but he definitely died. Spiritually maybe. Then you came back and it was all alright again. Ranma was back." He sighed. "I came back to apologize to him and the others. But I’m not ready to face him yet. I’m heading back to Juuban. Maybe the others will talk to me." He stood suddenly and pushed his chair in. Swinging his pack back up onto his back he strode from the cafe without even bothering to say good-bye.
"He’ll be back." Akane whispered as she watched him go. "He still has to talk to Ranma."
***********
The search had been exhausting, but it finally ended in the one place they hadn’t searched yet. The park. In a small, out of the way clearing where people went when they wanted peace and solitude.
***********
Akane rushed to the cylinder, ignoring all around her and fell upon it’s once more still though cracked surface.
"Ranma!" she cried, as she curled upon the six foot wide surface smooth of all but the Crack tracing down the center.
As she laid upon the center of the disk, a single tear trekked its way down her face and slowly dripped off her cheek to land with a splash upon the glass-like surface. It traced its salty path over a slight ledge to fall down deep into the earth through the medium of the Crack.
***********
Deep within the bowels of the earth, the human figure which lay entombed under the obsidian cylinder had grown still again. The fires raged about him as he lay there. However, he no longer thrashed. No longer raged against his imprisonment. No longer sought to free himself.
Then a single droplet of slightly salty liquid trickled its way free of the long cylinder by way of the Crack. It fell down and dropped with a splash upon the being’s face.
And the being stirred.
And began to shift.
He reached upwards, placed his hands upon the cylinder.
And pushed.
***********
High above the being in the nadir of the earth, Akane suddenly scrambled back off of the disk as the cylinder trembled again.
And began to rise upwards out of the ground.