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 Ending," created by Flare are all copyrighted for the Boogiepop Phantom OST by Mediaworks.

Happy Ending is has a peppy rhythm, but still manages to be rather melancholy. It sounds a bit like a dance remix of wind chimes moving while rain falls lightly to the ground.

Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. For those that enjoyed it, I hope you like this one as well. For those that were a bit confused, I don't blame you. Several things were left purposely unclear. Each of these chapters is told from the perspective of what would normally be an ancillary character. They don't know everything that's going on. The idea is that you're supposed to piece it together from all the different accounts. So it's kind of a mystery as well as a collection of weird, spooky stories. I should also say that if you like Ranma to be a paragon of strength and virtue, this probably isn't going to be your cup of tea. At all. If it helps, though, you can think of this as what might happen if Ranma wasn't as strong as he seems to be in canon. What if he finally cracked? What would be the fallout? That's kind of what this is about. That and there was an accident at a biotech lab that released a monster that killed people and took their form and whose tears made them psychotic...but we'll go into that later.

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

In a dream you pass them one after another ... these blurry lights overhead in the darkness. You hear a sound, but it seems blurry too, somehow. 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 streetlamps.

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 when 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 abandoned washing machine, 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 streetlamps 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: Old City Redevelopment Area~~~~~

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. 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? No it's not her.

But then what was it?

It doesn't make sense! None of this makes any sense! Fairy tale spirits out to get me, bugs that only I can see...I don't understand! Why is this happening to me?

~~~~~Furinkan High School Senior, Class 1: Daisuke Jounochi~~~~~

~~~~~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.

~~~~~darkness~~~~~

I'm laughing out loud. It's so damn funny. 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.

~~~~~congratulations~~~~~

It reminds me of the celebration dinner I had after graduating Junior High.

"Congratulations, Daisuke!" my mother exclaimed after 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... I never got to taste it. Not that night anyway.

Dad was beaming "You did great!".

"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?"

Dad chuckled. "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...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, screeching, "Daisuke, what's wrong?"

I couldn't respond. The pain was...too much.

~~~~~Scene003: Prefectural Hospital~~~~~

"A malignant bone tumor?" My mother asked Dr. Kisugi in the same worried screeching voice the next day.

I was 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 two or three years."

It wasn't until she said that that I realized what my illness meant. For two to three 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: First Year High School Spring~~~~~

I could hear them talking about me behind my back when School started again. 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.

~~~~~hospital~~~~

The prefectural hospital 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 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 older than twenty. 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, 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 laughed as well 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'd ever ran into Nabiki. Of course I heard stories. They said she was heartless, that even though she was only a Sophomore, she was a loan shark and the head of several gambling rackets across the high school, and a girl willing to sell out even her own sister if the price was right. Suddenly I was more interested. What was she doing in the hospital? What was she really like?

Of course after 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.

~~~~~Scene:005 First Year High School Fall~~~~~

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 tinniest 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 then 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 the hospital. 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 China. He turns into a girl when he's splashed with cold water. Test it if you don't believe me." Then she picked up her bento and moved to where some other girls were talking, pointedly ignoring anything else I may have had to say.

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...

~~~~~hospital~~~~~

I was almost late to my doctor's appointment that day I remember. Dr. Kisugi didn't seem to mind and I sat on the couch in her office. It's a brightly lit place, sunshine filters through Venetian blinds covering large windows that take up almost entire walls. You can 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 Ranma had told us that he had trained since he was a baby in the Art, that every spare moment of his life was spent perfecting his form, learning new techniques... There was no way I would ever catch up to him. "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 Ranma, that I was fighting Kuno or Ryoga, or anyone... "I'll never be good enough to be a master of the Art. I'll never be able to be a hero."

"Jounochi-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 angel of death 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?"

~~~~~darkness~~~~~

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.

~~~~~Happy Ending~~~~~

Over the next two 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 Cologne reprimanding Shampoo for her behavior and moving back to the village didn't seem to cheer Ranma up. Sometimes he would just show up at Hiroshi's or my house uninvited and not tell us why.

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. Taking drugs yes—maybe wanted whatever Kodachi was smoking—but dealing drugs...not Ranma. Even as down as he was, I don't think he'd ever do something so...ugly.

Things got real tense after the school found out about Ranma and Kodachi. He showed up to class a few times, wearing all black. I approached him once to ask him if he wanted to train me some. Real stupid I know, but I didn't want to just ask him the same stupid questions he was laughing at the other people for asking. All the same, he just said "Get the fuck out of my face," and walked on.

This one day a new girl showed up. She had straight pitch black hair with two white streaks. Her face was as pale as a corpse, and adorned with a good seven piercings, heavy black eye shadow, and black lipstick She wore fishnet stockings with her school uniform which was ripped and ragged.

When the teacher called Ranma's name, she raised her hand.

She was laughing the rest of the day. It was Ranma's laugh, not nearly as bone rattling as Kodachi's, but it had some of the same mania, and just knowing that it was Ranma and not Kodachi made it even scarier. She came up to me that day. She asked me if I wanted to have sex. "I'm offerin my virgin pussy. One time only!"

I refused. It was just wrong...but now I wonder...maybe if I went with Ranma even then and just talked to her...And Ranma was dead serious. After I declined she called me a limp dick and asked where Kuno was. She said she figured she might as well keep it in the family.

Kuno never showed again after that. No one even saw him. I guess he took "the pigtailed girl" up on her offer.

She showed up in the same get up all that week. One time, Ukyo splashed her with hot water and she didn't change. She smiled and said "I'm pregnant."

Then a week later Ranma showed up as a guy. I asked him what happened. He smiled and said "I got an abortion."

That was the last time I talked to him. I could have maybe understood if he gave some indication that the decision was hard for him, really any lame excuse for not having the baby would have worked for me, but he just didn't care. It was like he got the abortion on a whim, like he could have just as easily had the baby and tortured it to death. He wasn't a hero anymore. No, far from it.

I avoided him after that. It wasn't that hard really; he only showed up in school once or twice a week and sometimes not even that. I'd sometimes see him talking to girls in the hallway. Those girls never came back to school. I kept telling myself that they just quit, but...

Then about a month ago...

~~~~~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 High School shooting up into the clouds. 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.

~~~~~morning~~~~~

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.

~~~~~class~~~~~

"Oki?"

"Yeah."

"Tamura?"

"Here!"

~~~~~Scene006: Furinkan High School~~~~~

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 hair 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.

~~~~~outside~~~~

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.

~~~~~nightstreet~~~~~

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 it's legs then its head than 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.

I stood there for a while looking out the window, thinking. Something was nagging at me about the woman but I couldn't tell what.

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 Jounochi, 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'mhelpingthesepeople.I stepped outside onto the stairs leading to the roof and looked out across the city. I'masaviortothem.

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 a my mother's picture, thinking of how proud she would be of me if she knew what I was doing and tore into Dad's spider.

~~~~~sirens~~~~~

Several months ago, I came home to find 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...I knew... "Mother!" I screamed... "Mother!"

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 slain people five years ago. He had just started up again recently.

On her way to pick me up from the hospital...my mother was murdered by the serial killer who had been terrorizing the city. 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.

~~~~~twilight~~~~~

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...

~~~~~class~~~~~

I saw Yuka the next day, in Math class, cheating on her practice exam...

~~~~~night street~~~~~

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 better for bad memories to simply be forgotten?" I asked one girl in an alley way 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...

~~~~~morning street~~~~~

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.

I had tried to forget it, to erase it from my mind, but when the butterfly touched me I was brought back to that night I saw Ranma...

~~~~night street~~~~

The girl with the glasses was dead, bleeding profusely from a deep bite mark on her neck. Cradling her, smiling predatorily as she knelt on the ground, was Kodachi. Smiling exactly the same way...was Ranma, standing over her...as if he were proud...

"What the...What the hell is this?"

~~~~~delirious~~~~

I was back on the street looking at Asuza sitting there smiling at me...

"What was that?"

I didn't wait for an answer. I ran away.

I'm such a coward.

I ran to the business district, where strings of people were coming and going. It started to rain, I was soaked and tired and weak...I needed bugs...but when I saw a woman with a spider and I called out to her...

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 angel of death. The Grim Reaper. The Black Hat. Boogiepop...But that wasn't what scared me...what scared me was the face it wore. The face I could not drive out of my memory...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. It was Death!

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 angel 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.

"No, 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...

~~~~~cathedral~~~~~

"I'm just here to take you there." 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.

I'm laughing now. Tears of joy stream down my face. "Everyone's here," I say, and I join them...forever.

~~~~class

You're eating lunch when you hear the news. "Did you hear?" a girl you know starts, "Jounochi 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