Ryoga

Gentle chirping sounds echoed as P-chan rested on the Saotome's front porch, the little piglet's ear began to twitch, he lifted his sleepy head, facing the direction of his twitching ear.

"I hate chores..." Ranma said, wiping some sweat from her brow with the sleeve of her Gi.

P-Chan stood on all fours and trotted over to the tired red-head, looking up to her as he reached the corner of the porch, standing right next to the beauty of his dreams.

"Oh... hey, P-Chan..." Ranma said, casually taking a seat on the porch as well, closing her eyes before pausing as P-Chan kept staring at her lap. "Alright, I get it..." she sighed, patting her lap.

The eager black piglet squealed in joy, trotting himself up to his red-headed dream girl's lap and resting himself on his belly, smacking his piggy lips before closing his eyes. Ranma leaned back a little, resting her weight on her arms as she did, watching Ryoga for a moment, she reached her hand out and began to pet him, a small smile on her face as she continued to do so.

Happy was the best way to describe P-chan's expression, leaning his head into Ranma's palm as she began to pet him on the head, his ears twitching the slightest bit every second or so. Ranma sat up straight and now had one hand on Ryoga's back and the other still petting him gently on the head.

"Ryoga... please come back..." Ranma whispered, her voice sounded as if she were trying to sooth him, however, she spoke again.

"Come back to reality..."

A gravelly version of Ryoga's voice spoke out, as the figure's presence took form from a gathering of shadows from the porch shade. The figure appeared to be a dark silhouette of P-Chan when in human form.

P-chan's eyes widened for a second before he cowered and covered his eyes with his stub like hooves, the tiny animal refused to face the creature, too scared to leave the safety of Ranma's lap, who appeared oblivious to the spectator.

"Stop hiding from what you really are..." the voice paused, sounding as though it were gasping for breath when finishing. "leave, this girl..."

The black piglet could no longer stand to listen and turned to face the shadowy figure, shaking like a leaf but still standing his ground. The creature stared at him, now facing him directly.

Ryoga now stood before it, fists clenched as tightly as Ryoga's jaw was. "Wait?" Ryoga looked over his shoulder, no longer finding himself P-Chan but rather his normal human form but also noticing that he was no longer on Ranma's lap. "Ranma!?"

"Isn't real..." the shadow spoke, it's voice echoing as if it were a water drop rippling. "I'm not real..."

Ryoga took a step back, panic rising in his chest as he saw that the creature was smoking, as if it had been put out from a fire, its smoke was a dark tar-like color, the basic human form, however, remained visible the entire time. The smoke soon began to clear and that's when the person stepped through.

Ranma's female form stood before him, her delicate eyes looking as though they were on the brink of tears, "You're not real... I'm not real..."

Ryoga paused as he saw this, his heartbeat dropping from extreme fear to a need for comforting Ranma. "Don't say that... we're real! We're just as real as everyone else!" he shouted, placing his hands on her shoulders, gritting his own teeth as he appeared distressed, shutting his eyes as he took a deep but quick, shuttering breath.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked, appearing timid as her eyes were focused on the floor, "To think I'd want to be with another guy... especially one who's..." Ranma slowly raised her head before opening her eyes. "Going to die..." Ranma's female voice said, taking on the deep tone the spectator once had.

Ryoga gasped as he opened his eyes, sweating all over, bandages wrapped around his torso and one even wrapped around his head. "Where am I?" Ryoga asked, looking around and see that he was near a campfire, Happosai, and Chingensai sharing some saki.

"You're a quite durable man, you know that..." Matsu said, smiling at the boy. "A lot of people don't survive being bashed face first into a boulder... even with training..."

"And I still went for it..." Ryoga sighed, closing his eyes and letting that thought settle in.

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"I was secretly hoping you wouldn't but... I guess you're determined..." Matsu chuckled, taking a drink from a flask of his. "Want some?" he asked, shaking it. "Don't worry, it's just water."

"Sure..." Ryoga groaned as he sat up, he noticed Matsu reaching a hand out but stopped him by holding a handout. "It's alright... I just need the water."

Matsu handed it to him, the fang-toothed boy drank from it, drying his face with his forearm. Ryoga looked at the ground, sighing as he thought to how determined he must be to have had the dream he did. 'Damn it... go away...' he thought, trying to push such thoughts back. 'I have to believe... Ranma's girl half... my human half... please be real...' he thought desperately.

A hand reached out and patted Ryoga's shoulder. "Hey... it's okay, I knew something must have been up when I noticed you tossing an turning so much..."

"I'm okay..." Ryoga replied, looking to Matsu and offering a smile, one which looked half-hearted.

"You're terrible at hiding things... but I'll wait... when you're ready an all." Matsu offered a kind smile and patted Ryoga's shoulder. "Rest, supper is almost ready."

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Saotome Home

The three family members sat around the table, a whole roasted chicken out in front of them, along with various sides Nodoka had prepared. The table was relatively quiet, very little conversation really going about. "Thought I asked for pork..."

Nodoka's eyes suddenly looked over to Genma, giving him a very serious look before relaxing her expression. "I thought I told you I'd never make anything with pork in this house,dear..." she replied, keeping a sweet tone as she lifted her chopsticks.

Ranma glared at Genma, wanting to lash out just as much as his mother did. Genma only started and then huffed, placing his bowl right in front of his mouth and proceeding to eat as he had before. The pigtailed boy decided to dismiss this, he wasn't really looking forward to. "Ow!" Ranma screamed a little, feeling the sting of having stuck in his hands in a fire.

"Ranma? Are you alright?" Nodoka questioned, concern in her voice as she saw Ranma's chopsticks falls from his hand.

"Yeah... j-just got burned a little trying to master this new technique is all..." Ranma grumbled, showing how stoic he could be sometimes.

"Oh? What kind of technique involves you burning your hands?" Nodoka asked, however, her eyes were not cast upon Ranma but Genma instead. "Please, Genma... what training involves burning Ranma's hands?"

Genma leaned back and looked to the side, mouth still full before swallowing deeply, "Uh well... you see... he'll need it for the fight Ranma being forced into!" Genma exclaimed, drawing attention away from himself.

"Wait? What?" Nodoka's eyes widened as she turned to Ranma."What do you mean being 'forced' into?" she questioned, hand close to her chest as she leaned forward on the table, causing Ranma to lean back. "L-Look it ain't cause I like him or anything but!" Ranma gulped, holding his hands out in front of him, averting his eyes from his own mother. "That mummy offered me a chance to save Ryoga... if I lose my fight to Shampoo, I'll have to marry her on top of that, Ryoga gets to live as long as a normal person... if I win, I'm free from the kiss of marriage Shampoo put on me..."

Nodoka sat in silence, letting this all sink in, Ryoga could be saved but at the cost of Ranma's happiness, however, that also meant that Ranma would be betrothed to a woman. Ranma lowered his hands, honestly shocked that Nodoka hadn't just started crying. "So... you're telling me our Ryoga has a a p-pig's life span?"

Ranma looked down and Genma lowered his head, appearing to be more in thought than saddened by the news. Nodoka without saying much went into a trance and stood up from her seat, leaving the room as quickly as she could, devoid of any emotion the entire time.

Genma sighed, shaking his head as he reached out for Nodoka's and his food, taking some of it in his mouth and shaking his head. "She really didn't need this... my poor Nodoka..." Genma commented.

Ranma sighed, staring at his food and for once, pushing it away from himself.

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Happosai

The following morning came, the three master's hard at work, constructing large huts that would seem natural in the amazonian village, Ryoga however, was busy elsewhere, preparing himself for some more training."That should do it..." Ryoga said to no one in particular as he fastened the rope around the boulder.

Out of curiosity, he looked towards Matsu and the others to see what they were doing, what he was was Chingensai kicking various logs into place, setting a base for a wooden frame. Happosai smoothing out mud-huts at an alarming rate and Matsu carrying various supplies at breakneck speeds. It was rather impressive, to say the least.

"Man... I need to become a... wait... what's?" Ryoga squinted his eyes and noticed Matsu taking a coat and a briefcase, waving to Happosai and Chingensai, then finally at him. He awkwardly waved back and immediately began to unfasten himself from his training equipment.

"Well...think he can get us that raise?" Happosai asked, turning towards Chingensai.

"He's really the only one who can... since you know..." Chingensai fake coughed, both feeling as though they should hang their heads in defeat.

"She doesn't know we're here and we'll make sure she doesn't know..." Happosai commented, then noticed Ryoga approaching and forced a smile.

"Oh hey! Ryoga! I bet you're wonderin' where Matsu's gone off to?" Happosai asked.

Ryoga blinked and nodded his head. "If you don't mind..."

"It's alright, boy, he's going to see our contractor about getting us a raise, we're making so much progress that we think it wouldn't be too much trouble to ask," Chingensai said.

"I wonder who it is..." Ryoga said, looking off into the distance, where he had last seen Matsu.

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Matsu

The small man once getting out of eyesight, jumped up the trees and dashed his way through, his body enduring a somewhat lengthy trip to the amazon village. Once he was close enough, he landed onto the ground and began walking his way through, even going as far waving to some of those passing by. He eventually approached a large traditional looking amazonian building. Maintaining his smile, Matsu walked on up to the door and knocked.

"Yes? Oh, Matsu... I take it you have some news on the site?"

"Yes, everything is going well. I just wanted to talk to you about something, Cologne."