Misty Refuge

Prologue: Through the Mist.

A light drizzling rain misted down from a seemingly open night sky. The clouds were not thick, so traces of the full moon and some of the stars permeated through the almost translucent clouds. The air was thick like trying to breathe through wool, stifling almost all sounds except for the soft pitter patter of raindrops hitting the soft wood ceiling of the Tendo Dojo.

A dark silhouette was seen through an open crack of the dojo door, jumping, leaping, gracefully. Punching, kicking, and rolling to recover from an imaginary blow from an opponent, stopping now and then as if trying to recall something in his mind.

He was a young man in his late teens, dressed in a red silk shirt, the iridescent moonlight reflecting off of his shirt, flashing occasional blotches of red onto the floor and the dojo walls, and a pair of black pants, making his legs almost completely invisible like his upper half was floating in midair, the only proof is the rush of air from the high speed of his movement causing whishes and cracks in the empty dojo. His hands can be seen to be calloused, when he struck with an open palm strike, in all the places that marked him as a fighter. His hair was tied back in a pigtail, and the occasional glimpses of his face as he weaved through darkness and light shown twin tear tracks on his boyish face, both dried and wet now completely indistinguishable which is which.

Another lone figure stood at an entrance of a door looking toward the young man in the dojo, her frame was not big, but delicate. The long somewhat baggy dress hid her figure quite well. She hid her face, unknowingly in the shadow, slowly she took a step forward to get a better look at the figure dancing gracefully in the dojo with a deadly art. The soft moonlight illuminated her skin, making her face practically glow. Her long flowing ebon hair stopped in the middle of her back, shaping around her almost alabaster face. Normally, this effect would cause the person to look ghastly and unwell, but for her it only enhanced her allure, because in her eyes there was no malice, just a caring soul. Her hands were tucked neatly in front of her, and concern flashed through her angelic features on her face when she spotted the pig-tailed martial artist in the dojo.

This was the third day, that Ranma had been practicing his art in the dojo this late at night, the wa of the house had woken her gently from her slumber. By nature, Kasumi was a light sleeper. So usually she would be able to hear the soft steps Ranma took when he went down the steps. However, that event which had happened in the past few days had taxed her both physically and emotionally.

Thankfully, the epicenter of the event that transpired a few days ago was not the Tendo Dojo and nowhere near here. The absolute fallout and structural damage was astronomical. Kasumi, absentmindedly, rubbed her wrist still remembering what had happened that had led to this currently frustrated Ranma.

The day right after that incident, Ranma was absolutely furious. That event was the straw that had broke the camel's back. Ranma, for the first time in the almost four years he was in Nerima, initiated attacks on all of his rivals. He attacked them on sight, and every single time he attacked them, he did not hold back, but was using his full strength as he pummeled and beat down on Mousse, Kodachi, Gosunkugi, and Tatewaki, absolutely mercilessly.

Unlike him, he had completely ignored Akane and Ukyo throughout the day, even when they tried to apologize to him multiple times. He was attacking Ryouga and Shampoo as well, even though their role was minimal.

The second day was not pretty at all, though Ranma himself was not attacking anyone. He was holding onto his rage, anger, and disappointment into a soul of ice. The soul of ice was so frigid that the occasionally stray water that would have hit him to trigger his curse were turned instantly to ice. Even though some of the ice had cut him, he had just walked away like nothing had happened.

Though Ranma himself did not fight during the second day, it was not to say that there was not any fighting. The second day also marked the arrival of the Phoenix, the Musk, and the Amazons. Kiima led a dozen of the Phoenix warriors, Lime led a dozen Musk warriors, and Soap led a dozen Amazons. As soon as this conglomeration of the Bakanyalan Mountain tribes saw Ranma, they had dropped to one knee and called him the Guardian of the Mountain. For the first time since the incident, Ranma had some other emotion on his face, other than pain, anger, and betrayal reflected on his tired countenance, a look of confusion. When they told him their mission, he gave them a sad smile then asked them not to kill any one that was involved. The beating of his Ranma's rivals that day was not a pretty sight.

The group of combined alchemist of three tribes had came up with a salve that would make the skin, subsequent organ and bone resilient enough to take any beating. Afterwards, each rival was then beaten to a pulp.

Ranma was cold and distant to everyone except for her, Kasumi. She saw the pain and defeat that he so wanted to surrender himself into. During those two days she had just looked on, a pain deep in her heart seeing the life in his eyes dying out a little bit every single day. She wanted to reach out so badly to him. But today, he was smiling again, it was as if he had finally found a solution to his problem.

Now, she looked on worriedly at the young man in front of her finally stopped his shadowboxing. When he turned his head, the moonlight reflected off of his face, a look of complete and utter desolation on his face. He slowly wobbled his way to a side of the dojo. She slowly took some steps forward toward the martial artist. She heard the pilling up of a floor board and saw him reached within and pulled out something wrapped in cloth. Ranma clamped the clothed wrapped item under his arm and slowly walk to the center of the dojo, kneeling down, he took off the cloth that was wrapped around the item, revealing a sheathed tanto.

Seeing the glinting scabbard of the tanto, Kasumi slow steps turned into a ran, as she saw Ranma slowly unsheathing the sword and slowly turned the blade inside. Completely, not caring about the drizzle of rain that was slowly soaking her night gown, the moisture causing the gown to stick to her figure.

Ranma closed his eyes with fresh tears streaming down on his face, a decision finally made slowly push the blade in, he heard a scream which jolted him to a stop.

"NOOO RANMA!"

Ranma looked up and saw Kasumi standing in the entrance of the dojo. In a flash, she was beside him and tackled him to the ground, knocking the tanto out of his hands.

Kasumi did not know when she started crying, but she did not care. Her arms wrapped tightly around Ranma, and she was raining soft kisses all over his face.

"Don't you dare kill yourself, Ranma" she said while alternating between kissing his face and pounding his chest with her small fists. Too stunned to do anything, Ranma just waited for her to calm down. Her tears and chest pounding slowed down and her hands splayed and flattened against his rigid muscles. Calming down a little, Kasumi snuggled closer into Ranma instead of getting off him.

After a while, Ranma spoke up, "Why, Kasumi? You saw how everyone was just using me, like my pop. I am so tired of the fighting, of the yelling, and most of all I am tired of being alone with just my honour. I do not know how to keep my own honour and the honour of everyone else. At least this way, I can still have own hon..." A look of complete and utter resignation on his face.

What happened next was completely unexpected, Kasumi looked into his eyes with a look of indignation, and slapped his face as hard as she could, cutting his line of thought off quite effectively. After slapping him, her hand lingered gently on his face and caressed it gently. Ranma didn't feel any pain from the slap, but it shocked enough to keep his mouth shut.

"Ranma, if you kill yourself what about me?" asked Kasumi

"You have Tofu" Ranma answered immediately.

"He has been gone for almost half a year. I don't know when he would be back, and I don't know if I want to wait for him for the rest of my life." Kasumi responded.

"I am sorry, Kasumi" Ranma said as he forcefully pushed Kasumi away and reached again for the fallen tanto by his side. Kasumi, with strength born of desperation, wrestled the tanto away from Ranma and threw it to the other side of the dojo. The blade cluttered to the ground, the metallic clink echoed hollowly within the dojo walls.

"Ranma, please just let me tell you of a story" Kasumi pleaded, "once this story is finished, if you still want to kill yourself I will not stop you."

Ranma let out a long sigh of resignation weighing his options, and slowly nodded.

Kasumi slowly kneeled down in front of him, "There was this little girl whom after the death of her mother gave up her dreams to become a doctor and became the surrogate mother for her own two younger sisters and the housewife for her father. She took care of the chores on a daily basis and had to raise her sisters as well day in and day out. Her life was just one big monotone, until a young brash martial artist came into her life." She licked her lips to moisten it before continuing.

Adjusting the front of her nightgown a little bit, Kasumi continued. Ranma ,looked on, finally noticing how the moist nightgown was sticking to her breast and he can clearly see her nipple protruding from her night gown, "At first his unruliness and his curse to become a girl scared her off completely. Even at first, this girl liked the boy, but for the sake of her family she chose to put up a face of obliviousness to hide any possible connections that can be formed. However, as the days turned into months, and months into years, this girl started to feel alive again. Not from the livelihood of the household but from the livelihood that this young brash boy had brought to her house."

A gentle smile blossomed on her face, "As she watched this boy selflessly helped his friends and his rivals, she started to regret turning down the engagement. For her, the happiness of her family came first. Even though when she was regretting that she turned down the engagement more and more each day, she still was helping this boy with her youngest sister. The foolish girl squandered every opportunity she had with this boy. For every step they took closer, she took five steps back. She watched helplessly as they grew further and further apart. She then somewhat ashamed of herself hoped the engagement to her younger sister would not work, so that she could have a chance with this boy because she had fallen in love with the boy from watching him given out so much but only ever wanted friendship in return."

Kasumi looked down demurely at her lap, and then adjusted her nightgown some more a soft blush formed on her face, "So you see Ranma, I need you to live. I don't want this household to go back to the way before. I know that it is selfish for me to ask, but please don't."

Ranma looked up not knowing what to say at all, Kasumi looked so cute while she fussed with the hem of her nightgown. Wait, cute? When did he start to think she was cute? He sighed and looked down again not knowing what to say, but as he looked up at Kasumi, not able to say no to her.

He slowly nodded and said, "Okay"

Kasumi responded by tackling him to the ground, he was too shocked to say anything. He opened up his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by Kasumi's soft tender lips planted on his.