Ryoga and Duo

-----part 1-----

Ryoga stopped and look at the unfamiliar woods around him.

"Ryoga no baka." he told himself. "Ah jigoku! Watashi wa doko ni imasu ka?!(1)" 

He continued to trek through the woods, hoping to reach the edge by nightfall. Things were looking dim. "Ugh. He thought. This is like that awful movie I saw last time I ended up in the states. What was that supposed to be about anyhow? It looked like home movies of Ranma and Akane. I..." he paused, hearing a voice nearby. It sounded sad, the voice of someone with a broken heart. Ryoga was no stranger to heartbreak or loneliness. Ranma had broken his heart numerous times, calling him names, stealing from him. He'd finally had enough and had left for good. 

Following the sound of the voice, he found a clearing. The stars were shining over it and in the middle, bathed in moonlight, an angel was weeping.

The figure had no wings, but was too beautiful to be anything but an angel. It was a male, with delicate pink skin (American, Ryoga guessed.) and long chestnut hair, flowing loosely about him, cascading over his shoulders and down his back.

"Heero no baka!" he figure wept, cradling the unmoving body in his arms. "Heero, you said you'd stay with me! You promised! You can't leave me!" he looked heavenward, eyes filled with anguish. "Oh, God," he pleaded, "why must you curse me this way?! Why do you hate me so much? I know it's not because I stopped having faith in you. You took Sister Helen away when I still believed you cared. You hated me from the moment I was born. I will never forgive you for taking Heero from me. God no baka." he snarled, ripping the cross from his throat and hurling it into a nearby hot spring, followed by the clergy shirt..

Ryoga's breath hitched as he saw the boy's upper torso. He took in the boy's slender, but muscular build. //He could be a dancer.// he thought to himself. Leaning forward to get a better view, he tripped on a stone and fell into the clearing.

The other boy turned and stared at him, then dropped to his knees, sobbing. "God, I'm sorry." he shook his head. "If you've come to punish me, please... I deserve it."

"I'm not God." Ryoga told him. "I'm just Ryoga Hibiki."

"The echo that hunts itself." Duo said, using a rare translation of Ryoga's first name (2).

"Good fang, actually." Ryoga smiled, revealing his. "But I like your translation. It does suit me, given that I'm usually lost. What happened?"

"My name's Duo Maxwell-Yuy. My husband and I came to Japan on our honeymoon, but something went wrong. We crashed and..." Duo began to cry again. "Please help me bury him."

(1) "Oh hell! Where am I now?!"
(2) from "Ryo" (hunting) and "ga" (oneself).

-----part 2-----

Ryoga helped Duo dig the grave and place Heero's body within.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said. "I know what it's like to lose a loved one."

"In death? Or did you just break up with them." Duo asked.

"Fair question." Ryoga nodded. "yeah, we broke up. He was a thief."

Duo shrugged. "I am, too." he admitted.

"Figures." Ryoga grumbled. "Why do I always get your type."

"Now just a minute!" Duo objected. "Why did your boyfriend steal stuff?"

"He used to cut in front of me in line at the school cafeteria to get the bread even though we both had plenty of food on our plates already." Ryoga replied. "And he never cut in front of anyone else, just in front of me. He did it to be mean and spiteful to me. So what's your excuse?" he snapped at Duo.

"I'm a war orphan." Duo replied. "I lost my parents when I was barely old enough to walk. By all rights, I should be dead. I've lived by my wits all my life. I'm not like your friend, Ryoga Hibiki, so don't judge me and don't ever use that expression "your type" around me again. There's no one else in the world like me. I AM SHINIGAMI!" he broke out into peals of maniacal laughter which made Ryoga cringe a bit.

-----part 3-----

//Get a grip, Ryoga!// he admonished himself. //Here's a boy who's suffered just as you have. He's just lost his husband, for crying out loud. Stop being such a jerk.// 

"Shinigami?"

Duo nodded. "That's why I've vowed never to fall in love again." he explained.

"That's gonna disappoint a lot of guys." Ryoga replied, wondering why he was thinking //... like me.//

"Better disappointed than dead." Duo shrugged. "This yours?" he indicated the backpack.

Ryoga nodded. 

Duo tried to lift it, and finally gave up. "What's in here? Everything but the kitchen sink?"

"No..." Ryoga easily shrugged the backpack onto his shoulders and stood up with no visible effort. "the kitchen sink's in there, too."

Duo blinked at him.

"Just kidding." Ryoga smiled. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Duo asked.

"Into town. It's just about five blocks away. Should only take a week or so to get there."

"A *week*?!" Duo blinked. "Nani?!"

"Family curse." Ryoga explained. "There's one all this world that is truly universal. Never ask a Hibiki for directions."

"That explains why you carry so much stuff in your backpack." Duo realized.


It also explains the fact that ten minutes later, they arrived at Jusenkyo...

-----part 4-----

"Oh! Sir!" The Guide said, noticing two new arrivals... no a new arrival and someone returning. "Sirs! You cannot go there."

Ryoga and Duo both turned. Ryoga was on solid ground, fortunately, and remained upright.

Unfortunately, Duo wasn't so fortunate. He slipped, lost his footing, and tumbled over into a nearby spring.

What came out of the Guide next was both humorous in its utterance and terrifying in its implications.

"Oh shit."

"I don't like the sound of that." Ryoga said. "And I don't mean the language. What do you mean by... Oh shit!" he agreed as a nightmare emerged from the spring. "Wha....?"

"RUN!" the Guide shouted, as he grabbed Ryoga's hand and took off at top speed.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Ryoga shrieked, as he was pulled along.

"He fall in Shinigaminichuan." the Guide yelled as he and Ryoga ran with the hooded figure following close behind them on horseback. "Spring of Drowned Grim Reaper."

"How the fuck do you drown the Grim Reaper?!" Ryoga demanded as they ran.

-----part 5-----

Of course, Ryoga's question never got answered.

"A-ha!" the Guide reached the fire and pulled a kettle of hot water off. As the equestrian terror drew closer, he threw the water at the approaching form.

All at once, it dwindled into the familiar form of the braided widower, Duo.

"What...?" he asked.

The Guide told him what had happened.

"Now I truly am Shinigami." Duo declared.

"Only when splashed with cold water. Hot water make you silly boy again."

"What makes you call me silly?" Duo asked.

The Guide pointed to Ryoga. "You follow him, no?"

"Yeah." Duo nodded.

"That make you silly." the Guide explained.

-----TBC-----