The Blood is the Life II



His campfire had burned down to glowing 
embers which were just beginning to die out. A chill wind blew across the site, 
stirring a few tiny sparks up into the night sky to flash briefly among the 
stars. Ryoga huddled into his sleeping bag, pulling his head in and shivering. 
He didn't want to venture out into the cold to add wood to the fire, so instead 
he turned over on his stomach, curled his legs up underneath him and rested his 
head on his arms. He was just beginning to get comfortable in his new position 
when he suddenly felt something cold and hard touch his rump through the fabric 
of the sleeping bag. With a startled, angry gasp, Ryoga leaped up and wrestled 
his way out of the sleeping bag, peering into the inky darkness of the 
surrounding trees.
Poor little one, a Voice seemed to say from nowhere. But I thought you would 
never get up.
"Who's there?" Ryoga shouted. His voice seemed to be swallowed up by the night; 
he could barely hear himself yelling. He spun around, never dropping his guard. 
An icy touch trailed down his spine, but when he turned there was no-one there 
to be seen. He could hear the Voice begin to chuckle.
Yes, little one. Do struggle. Your feeble efforts amuse me.
"Feeble?" Ryoga bellowed, his voice still sounding oddly muffled. "No-one calls 
Ryoga Hibiki feeble!" He saw a shadow moving and leaped toward it, letting fly 
with a kick that shattered the unfortunate tree he landed against. The shadowy 
figure moved beneath the kick, grabbed his outflung leg while he was still 
airborne, and threw him back into the small clearing.
He landed face-down near his sleeping bag, and had barely begun to tense his 
muscles to rise when a cold, dense weight landed on his back, driving him 
forward. An icy hand grabbed a fistful of his thick hair and pulled his head up 
and back. His hands scrabbled vainly for purchase on the hard-packed, 
leaf-strewn ground, and his back arched painfully as his entire torso was 
dragged up into the air. He felt a cold tongue tracing his ear, and his 
assailant's free hand slipping down into his shirt. The sturdy fabric ripped 
away easily in one swift pull, leaving Ryoga to shiver, bare-chested, against 
the chill of the night and the deeper, more penetrating chill of sudden terror. 
He made some inarticulate protest as he felt the tongue trail its way down along 
his neck. Sharp teeth pressed against him, nibbling gently at his neck and 
shoulder, and then... And then...
 
"Ryoga, wake up already," a voice was saying. Not the Voice, just a normal, 
familiar human voice. "It's time to go back to the Doctor's."
"The red eyes..." Ryoga mumbled, shivering.
"Ryoga!" the annoying voice yelled directly into his ear. Ryoga's eyes snapped 
open to reveal that the owner of the voice was Ranma. Unfortunately, Ranma moved 
out of the way before Ryoga could properly thank him.
"Come back here so I can hit you," Ryoga grumbled.
"Geez, you're lazy," Ranma answered. "I've been up for hours." He didn't mention 
that he wouldn't have gotten up so early if he had been given a choice. He 
casually tossed Ryoga's clothes onto the bed as the Lost Boy struggled to sit 
up.
"Whoa," Ranma said as Ryoga finally managed to get upright and groggily started 
to gather up his clothing. "You look really bad today."
"Thanks a lot!"
"Heh, you're welcome," Ranma said with a grin. "Say, where's your mom?"
"She...went to go fix dinner."
"Think she's lost?"
"Probably," Ryoga answered sadly. He hadn't even gotten to really talk to her 
this time... "She probably won't be back for a couple of weeks, at best," he 
finally said.
 
Ranma led the way to the Doctor's office cheerfully. Akane hadn't been angry 
last night, thanks to Dr. Tofu's phone call. She had been concerned for Ryoga, 
and had even praised Ranma for being such a good friend. As a reward, she 
prepared breakfast for him, which he had actually managed to avoid tasting. So 
on the whole he was pretty happy, although hungry.
Ranma stole another glance at Ryoga as the two of them made their way slowly to 
Tofu's. Ryoga was definitely paler today; the shadows under his eyes were much 
more pronounced. His cheeks looked slightly hollow, as though he had lost 
several pounds. He trudged forward, doggedly placing one foot in front of the 
other, looking for all the world as if he were going to meet his executioner... 
or as if he had just lost a loved one.
Dr. Tofu didn't seem too happy, either. He frowned as soon as he saw them, and 
quickly ushered Ryoga to the examining room to lie down.
"So, Doc, whadya find out?" Ranma asked. Tofu adjusted his glasses and looked at 
them both gravely.
"There doesn't appear to be any cause for the anemia," he said finally.
"What?" Ryoga asked.
"Something has to be causing it. He wasn't like this before," Ranma said, his 
eyes drifting to Ryoga's throat, where the edge of the bandage was peeking out 
from under his shirt collar. Ryoga unconsciously covered the spot with his hand, 
then, when he realized what he was doing, he rubbed the back of his neck 
awkwardly.
"There are none of the usual signs," the doctor said. "The blood samples showed 
nothing unusual at all - in fact, judging from the quality of the sample, Ryoga 
should be enjoying vigorous, good health."
"What about that bite mark?" Ranma asked, pointing at Ryoga, who quickly covered 
the bandage again.
"As I said before, a wound of that size shouldn't cause a significant blood 
loss. May I examine it again, Ryoga?"
With some reluctance, Ryoga nodded, and fidgeted uncomfortably while Tofu 
removed the bandage. The wound had begun to heal - a lot of the ragged edges 
were already mending. There were two deep punctures that still looked raw, and 
although Tofu had to agree with his earlier assertion that a wound of that size 
couldn't possibly be causing any great blood loss, something about the puncture 
marks bothered him. He vaguely remembered reading something about a wound like 
this...
"You look a lot less chewed-up now," Ranma commented tactfully.
"Shut up!"
"I'd like to take another blood sample for testing," Tofu said, trying to hide 
his irritation at having his thoughts interrupted. "And then I'll let you go." 
Ryoga sighed and pushed his shirt-sleeve up.
"Now," Tofu continued as he began preparing the needle to draw blood, "I want 
you to go home, have a good meal, and rest. You don't have an iron deficiency, 
but it won't hurt if you try to include red meat and spinach or broccoli."
"No pork!" Ryoga cried.
"Beef would be fine. Also, I don't want you doing anything strenuous! No 
training today - "
"Yes, sir," Ryoga said unhappily.
"...And absolutely no fighting." At that, he gave both Ranma and Ryoga a pointed 
look.
"I better call home, and let them know you're staying with us," Ranma said. 
Before Ryoga could voice his protest, Ranma continued, "No telling when your 
family will be back."
"You definitely do not need to be alone," Tofu said emphatically.
"I..." Ryoga started, but then had no idea what to say. He couldn't bear the 
thought that Akane might see him as a weakling, but he really had no other 
suggestion. Ranma waited a moment for him to continue, then shrugged and left.
"Ok, all done now," Tofu said a few minutes later, quickly pressing a gauze 
square to Ryoga's arm as he withdrew the needle. Ryoga wondered briefly why it 
had taken so long this time, but then he decided that he'd had less blood to 
start with. He sat up slowly and thanked the doctor, and promised him that he 
would rest.
"We're all set," Ranma said as he walked back into the room. "Akane says to tell 
you that they're happy to have you. I mean...the whole family's happy to have 
you."
"I'll let you know when the new test results are in," Dr. Tofu said, then turned 
to face his bookshelves as Ranma and Ryoga left. He was certain there was 
something in one of those books about a wound like Ryoga's, and pernicious 
anemia...
 
They stopped at Ucchan's on the way to the Tendo house, and had beef okonomiyaki 
because, as Ranma said, it was the doctor's orders. Ukyo commented that Ryoga 
looked terrible, and he nodded glumly in response. He was really starting to get 
tired of everyone telling him how bad he looked.
 
"Oh, Ryoga," Akane gasped as they walked in the front door. "You look just 
awful!"
"Hello... Akane," Ryoga said with a wince.
"Well, come in and sit down," Akane said, pulling Ryoga away from a frowning 
Ranma and leading him by the arm towards the dining room. "You really look 
exhausted."
"I...uh..." Ryoga stumbled slightly and tossed Ranma a slightly panicked look. 
The blood was starting to pound in his ears again, and he could see black 
splotches crawling across his vision, keeping time with his beating heart. In a 
flash of insight, Ryoga realized that he was about to faint again.
"Sorry..." he gasped, and then his knees buckled. He dimly heard Akane's voice 
calling his name, and then there was nothing but the darkness and the laboring 
of his heart.
 
"You OK?" Ranma's voice asked. Ryoga took a deep breath, then squinted up at his 
rival.
"Ngh," he said intelligently. He was lying on a futon in the room Ranma shared 
with his father, looking up at Ranma and a worried Akane. His body felt heavy 
and numb. He slowly lifted one leaden arm and started to shove the covers off, 
trying to push himself up with the other arm.
"Don't get up just yet," Akane said, laying a delicate hand on his shoulder. 
"You still look really pale."
"Yeah, why don't you just stay put till dinner time?" Ranma added.
"I...I'm sorry," Ryoga said, closing his eyes. Akane's concerned image burned in 
his mind's eye.
"Don't be," Akane said. Ryoga looked up at her again apologetically.
"I don't mean to be a bother..."
"Huh, that's a first," Ranma interrupted.
"Ranma, don't pick on him!" Akane snapped. "You're no bother, Ryoga," she 
continued, her tone still slightly more forceful than was necessary. Ranma 
rolled his eyes.
"Oh, you're awake," Kasumi said as she walked into the room with an armful of 
clean laundry. "Are you feeling better now, Ryoga?"
"I'm Ok," Ryoga answered. Kasumi smiled gently at him, then crossed the room to 
start putting the carefully folded clothes away.
"The bathroom's available, if you wanted a bath tonight," she suggested.
"Thank you, Kasumi," Ryoga answered, staggering to his feet.
"I'll come, too!" Ranma said quickly, jumping up. Ryoga turned to give him a 
quiet look that could explode into an angry snarl in a heartbeat.
"I don't need any help," Ryoga said in a low voice.
"Hey, I ain't doin' nothing weird!" Ranma cried, holding up his hands as if to 
ward off any such accusation. "We should try to conserve the hot water, is all."
Ryoga nodded, accepting the reasoning, and followed Ranma to the bathroom. Ranma 
stifled a sigh of relief. That idiot would probably bite his own tongue off 
before he'd admit he needed help, but what if he passed out while he was in the 
tub? The two of them stripped in silence and started scrubbing up.
"Hey, aren't you going to take the bandage off?" Ranma asked.
"No," Ryoga said flatly.
"It'll get all wet."
"No." Ryoga's brows started to draw together.
"Ok, whatever," Ranma said. He rinsed off and climbed into the tub, closing his 
eyes and sighing as the hot water soothed him. The water level raised slightly 
as Ryoga climbed in, and Ranma heard an echoing sigh.
"Nothing like a good hot bath, eh, P-Chan?"
"Stop calling me P-Chan," Ryoga answered wearily, closing his eyes and leaning 
back against the edge of the tub. Ranma stole a glance at him and noticed that 
the bandage had soaked through and was starting to come off...
 
Akane was walking past the bathroom when she heard Ryoga's voice.
"Stop looking at it!"
"I can't help it," Ranma answered. "It's just...kinda cool-looking. Can I touch 
it?"
"No!"
Akane paused, turned several shades of red, and then continued on her way to the 
kitchen. "I don't want to know," she assured herself.
 


 



 Ranma 1/2 and all Ranma 1/2 characters are the creation and property of Rumiko 
Takahashi, and are used here without permission or license. No claims to the 
above copyright are made by the author of this work.