Ranma shifted her weight back and away from the attempted shield bash from, what she now recognised as, a 'chalk white Russian doll'. Where her louder sister would have used that frustrating smirk on Mama's face to drive her next flurry of blows even faster with greater focus, Shanghai instead internalised the annoyance, thought faster and harder and came back with a new attack pattern she was sure would trap her target. Ranma just smiled and slipped sideways, body passing parallel to the floor to make it unscathed through the pincer assault of the Orleans, Kyoto and London dolls. Now outside the small cloud of armed dolls Ranma took an instant to check on Hourai's training while Shanghai desperately tried to drag her dolls back into position while slipping in for her own direct attack.
When Akane had asked to join morning practice Ranma had been a little worried she would hurt the girls. Then he had scolded himself bitterly, no matter how angry she got he had never seen Akane launch an attack at someone that wasn't at their level. She and Hourai were sparring fluidly and at blistering speed, but Akane was being careful to outpace the tiny girl only just by enough for her to learn from.
Ranma turned back to her other daughter in time to dodge the renewed assault. Shanghai was tiring, already into the later half of her second minute using that spell card, but as long as she wasn't totally exhausted the tiny girl seemed determined to keep fighting as hard as she possibly could. Given how many of his past fights had unfolded, Ranma secretly suspected that was the real key to being a great martial artist. But she still flawlessly dodged the renewed assault with that infuriating smile on her face.
Ranma knew that Akane was trying, in her own way, to apologise and admit, possibly to herself, that if she wanted their love to work out she needed to accept Ranma's daughters as her own. That's not to say that he expected anything would be resolved now, or that she wouldn't still get angry at him before they decided their final living arrangements. Or even that she was more likely to end up living with them now than on her own. But it was a step.
Seeing her daughter begin to waver as the strain of her spell card mounted Ranma called for her to stop. She was in her female form this morning so it wasn't as though Shanghai had run out of magic to draw on; it more seemed that drawing large bursts like Hourai did in combat or a constant stream the way Shanghai did with her spell card active made the girls tired even as it refilled them magically. Ranma herself could feel the magnitude of the energy they took from her in those circumstances; it was no small amount, nearly as much as a good fight with Ryoga or Mouse if he were to equate it to his ki, yet even with both drawing on him he never felt close to exhausting that energy. In fact it seemed to refill at a faster rate than they, together, could empty it from some source outside him. But when he tried to trace it the direction he was being filled from was 'everywhere'.
The redhead smiled and tousled her daughter's hair a little, something she found she loved doing as much as having tousled hair annoyed them, "See? You're doing well. Now go cool down with Akane a bit and send your sister over to practice her spell card,"
Shanghai turned up her nose and walked away, smoothing down her hair and using her pout to hide the wide grin praise from Mama brought to her face. Ranma nearly giggled at how adorable the tiny white gi made her daughters, she didn't actually giggle of course she wouldn't be able to look her male form in the eye in the mirror if she did. She was glad her mother had had a box of his old clothing that would fit them, even if the girliest items in there were at best unisex. The clothing the two arrived in was magically self-repairing and self-cleaning whenever they took them off to bathe but that didn't mean pants weren't a much more practical choice for training.
Hourai came barrelling into Ranma's waist at ridiculous speed almost as soon as Shanghai announced they were trading off. Her mouth was set in a huge grin and she was practically vibrating with excitement as she shifted her grip to drag her Mama impatiently behind her out of the dojo to the chunk of stone set up as a target in the back yard. Yesterday when Ranma had first witnessed Hourai's passion for her destructive magic Shanghai had commented that she took after Mama like that. First she had wondered which of the two mothers Hourai was taking after, but then she realised that she didn't know enough about either to make the distinction anyway. Ranma privately wondered what it would be like to meet the two sorceresses who gave birth to her two little girls.
Hourai took her place at the firing line as Ranma dipped a bucket of water from the pond. Upending the bucket over the large stone target, Ranma momentarily submerged herself deep within the soul of ice, coating the rock in a thick layer of ice.
"Ok, just like yesterday, try and knock as much off as you can,"
Taking a deep breath the tiny blonde turned dead serious and line up her shot, "Love sign [Lesser Spark]," Hourai always spoke the actual name of her spellcard quietly. She had confessed to Ranma that she was embarrassed because, although it was technically identical to the spell card named master spark, it was simply tiny compared to her Mama's spell. Hourai wanted to be able to call it master spark but still refused to use the name until hers could match that memory. Ranma just privately hoped that his daughters would still respect their power that way when they were grown and had a lot of it.
The multi-coloured beam that erupted from the reactor in Hourai's hand was perhaps as wide as one of 'grandpa Saotome's fists. As the day before the beam didn't seem to have any heat to it, certainly none of the ice was melted away, but it struck with enough force to crack the ice and send chips flying. As Hourai bit her lower lip and held the beam in place Ranma observed carefully, the ice chips kept flying, indicating that the beam was less like a constant force being applied to crush the target and more like a stream of water or a sand blaster. Hourai's grimace of concentration just deepened as she shifted the beam around to blast more ice off the target, evidently maintaining a constant stream while adjusting aim was a very taxing task.
Ranma quietly considered how he would go about doing the same with ki. As well as worrying about how exactly they would train her ability once she was strong enough to damage the stone too.
Just meeting Konoe-sensei was enlightening for Ranma. It was his first time seeing the dean of Mahora in the flesh and he could already appreciate everything his mother said about the school being a good place for martial artists and wizards alike. The dean felt truly ancient and was obviously something like a grandmaster, the respect and acknowledgement Happosai and Cologne had each needed to beat into him came instantly with Konoe-sensei's mere presence. Ranma wondered if he would ever get a chance to fight him.
As his mother finished up the introductions Ranma realised that, even if his mother and daughters hadn't noticed, the aged master had certainly picked up on his thoughts. The old man just chuckled but Ranma still glanced down in embarrassment.
"Very well, let's all have a seat. Why don't we start with laying out the exact problem that needs this meeting," Konoe-sensei's eyes were locked on Ranma, he obviously had a good idea of the situation from his discussion with Nodoka and his own observations of the twins, so he apparently wanted it summed up in Ranma's words.
"Um … well. Basic'ly since Shanghai and Hourai joined our family we need to get a lot of stuff done for the new school year, and on way too short notice to do it without help,"
"I see, yes … And I noticed your mother calls Shangai and Hourai your daughters Ranma, yet given their age, relative to your own, and the fact that they have apparently joined your family quite suddenly I gather they are adopted yes? Why have you adopted them and not allowed your more financially secure parents to take them in as your sisters?"
"Ahhm, So that's part of why I want them to go to Mahora elementary. See, they're both really magical, but they were born somewhere with a lot more magic than here and unless someone feeds them they wont be able to get enough magic here to survive until they're fully grown. That, and, well, they refuse to treat anyone except the person whose magic they are being fed by as their parents so…"
"But Ranma, I can see quite clearly you don't have the magic talent to feed them,"
Before Ranma could think through a reply Hourai rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh, "We get our magic from Mama, not Papa," as though that explained everything.
"Hmm, you mean your fiancé?" The old dean began sifting through the files laid in front of him for the meeting, "Our files say Akane Tendo has, if anything, less indication of magical talent than you, though she is a skilled martial artist in her own right,"
"Ew not Akane, she said mean things when we came,"
"What? Then who is …?" suddenly the Dean flipped back a few pages in the top file, apparently Ranma's, "Oh I see, Jusenkyo…"
As everyone froze dead still Konoe Konoemon suddenly realised he had said that aloud.
"Ahh yes … you see Ranma I haven't been entirely honest with you. Mahora actually has quite the vested interest in you, so we know a little more than we let on,"
"You've been investigating me?" Ranma was stunned.
"Well, since the battles at mount Hourai and Jusendo, yes. Before that we were more just … on the lookout, for someone of your talents. You see Ranma, in about five to ten years we are going to need some heroes. Not for a war or something," the headmaster was quick to assure, "But heroes who have already established legends we can point to and say 'here, look at how great this person is'; and the heroes we need are the very best martial artists and mages. We have plenty of heroes of course, dragon slayers and demon hunters and revolutionaries who saved whole countries from evil men. We have mage heroes and we have martial artist heroes, we have heroes born to the magical world and heroes born here in the old world. But all of our heroes have performed their great heroic acts in the magical world. Between defeating the half-dragon Musk prince and stopping the rampage of something so dangerous as an imperfectly reborn phoenix you are prime hero material and by far the biggest hero currently living whose exploits exist entirely within this world and not the magical world,"
"So … what? You want me for a band of figure heads you can parade around to inspire students with or something?"
"It's much more than that Ranma. Just please hear the full explanation before you leave. We have already been putting together a huge scholarship package for you and miss Tendo if you should agree to help with our plan, you see …"
"He wants to reveal magic to the whole world Ranma," It was like a moment of whiplash as everyone turned to face the new voice, coming from a corner of the office that had been empty before, "He wants to take martial artists like you and other people with unusual abilities and wave them around in front of everyone else who doesn't have any of those talents or skills,"
The dean and Nodoka stared in shock at the new arrival, while the twins were on their feet and charging toward her with open arms and huge smiles, soothed by his daughters' trust Ranma relaxed and instead took in the newcomer's appearance. The first thing he noticed was that she was tall, taller than his male form, and wore a ruffled white cap over bound blonde hair. Her dress was all white frills and billows except for a purple band extending from her bodice down her front and back, it bore some hexagrams he had encountered in China as some sort of divination system, but which meant nothing to him. She held in one hand one of those frilly umbrellas that people used in the sun, which Ranma had never really understood. Her eyes, however, were as true gold and shone in the indoor lighting.
In the instant she appeared a girl of perhaps ten, with long blonde hair lurched from the shadow of a chair nearby and leapt at the woman with the parasol. Her face was all an aloof smirk, but her hands were curled into vicious claws which crackled with the energy Ranma was coming to identify as magic. Then she was gone, just like that, as though the older woman were actually a portal to another dimension the blonde attacker simply vanished into her as the first blow landed.
"Your pet vampire is certainly brave headmaster, close to the full moon as we are she still cannot hope to inconvenience me until it is actually in the sky. Don't worry, she is fine. Normally I would have Ran restrain her so you could see it, while Chen went to guard the door against your other protectors. But of course with young Ranma's neko-ken I simply couldn't bring Chen here. So Ran will be keeping Takamichi and any other ill-timed guardians from interrupting our meeting today," The girls, who had latched themselves onto the woman in a tight, but brief hug visibly slumped at the news that this Chen person would not be appearing.
"And who, exactly, are you?" Dean Konoe was tense, he was ready for battle and surprised at the newcomer's presence so greatly that Ranma could tell his slip in composure was genuine.
Patting the twins' heads affectionately the mystery woman sauntered forward, toward a chair that no one could quite recall coming from anywhere, despite there being exactly enough chairs for the meeting in front of the Dean's desk immediately before that instant, "In terms that have meaning to you … it would not be inexact to say that I am something like your 'mage of the beginning'. You may call me Yakumo Yukari if you wish to maintain the polite fiction you were simply asking my name,"
"You're the one who sent the girls to Tokyo in the first place," Ranma made the connection right away to the 'miss Yukari' the girls reported sending them here and arming them with their mothers' weapons. He also remembered that both his daughters were sure she was other than the human she appeared. Which firmed Ranma's need to have his second question answered, "What do you mean 'like the mage of the beginning'?"
Whatever manner of creature she was, Yakumo Yukari smiled urbanely and inclined her head in confirmation, "Indeed I am Saotome. As to the mage of the beginning, he was an ancient and powerful wizard, of course, but his fame derives from the fact that he essentially created the world that Konoemon is talking about when he says 'the magical world'. It's a bit like a second world that is more magical than the real world and exists a bit like a reflection of a real place. His magical world 'mundus magicus' is by far and away the largest such world, being the magical reflection of all of the planet Mars. But it is far from the only one,"
Ranma's mind put two and two together as quickly as it only ever managed when something important was going on, usually a fight, but sometimes the events leading up to a fight too, "So you're the creator of another of these places? That's what you mean by 'like the mage of the beginning' right? The place Shanghai and Hourai are from is one of these reflections of th' real world and you're the creator,"
"Oh, very close Ranma, very close. But where mundus magicus is literally the size of mars, my Gensokyo is slightly less than the size of Tokyo. Although Gensokyo is rather more intensely magical, almost exactly as much magic exists in all of Gensokyo as exists in all of the magical world. Which is rather the problem here," the woman made a put upon gesture and slumped a little theatrically in her seat, "you see the reason some other worlds can contain so much more magic than the magical world is that the magical world is the magical reflection of a physical place, where other realms are the reflection of ideas, heaven, hell, dozens of afterlives, and so on. But Gensokyo is more special and strange again, it is a physical place, an actual geographic location transformed into the reflection of an idea. The common idea that magic is simply a story,"
Ranma was stunned as he tried to process all this revelation, his daughters were content to climb back into his lap and snuggle into his chest, ignoring the boringly complex adult conversations. Nodoka was simply lost, but restrained herself to silently observing the conversation. The dean alone had enough knowledge of magic and it's workings to follow the implications of that tale.
"You are saying that our plan to reveal magic to the world will return your Gensokyo to reality? And you want to stop us? I am afraid that you do not know the whole story, you see…"
"Be at peace dean of Mahora. I know you need to reveal magic in order for the great cooperation you are planning between magic and science to have even a chance of saving the citizens of your magical world before it's magic runs out and it is destroyed," Konoemon looked momentarily confused, before opening his mouth to ask the obvious question, and again being interrupted, "ejecting Gensokyo into reality will actually solve a lot of my problems. The war between humans and youkai will have no choice but to end in the face of the sudden change, I wont have to appoint a new Hakurei maiden from an ever decreasing pool of worthy candidates and if I can capitulate and let a certain invading goddess take over Gensokyo at just the right time I may even be able to trap her church and priestesses on the not real side of the border for a few millennia of peace. I have come to warn you of the problems that will arise when you do this."
"Tengu and kappa and all manner of youkai will return to the world, not just the magical races and demons of mundus magicus, but all the magical races of old, as they appear in the stories. Mount Hourai will return, not the petty mundane reflection which Ranma here destroyed, the true to myth, teeming with fantastic beasts, jewelled branch of Hourai at the top, hermit who knows the secret of the elixir of immortality in a cave, impossible requests of Kaguya-hime mythic version, and it will be a place anyone can reach just by travelling to it. A lot of mythic locations like that will return actually, Sakuya-hime's shrine, the palace of the dragon king and so forth. But the most dire consequence is that Gensokyo has a number of connections. Places where one can simply travel, without some transition of state or potent magic, often just by walking or climbing, to other realms which are the reflections of ideas. The hells, we actually have immigration from the hell of blazing fires these days, the Sanzu river, the garden of the sun, the realm of dreams, the afterlife, the realms of the divine. All sorts of places will have suddenly easy access from the Earth, and a lot of them will be unhappy about that,"
For a moment the vital blonde woman looked as ancient as she surely must be as the creator of the realm of Gensokyo, "When one realm in particular takes objection to their new connection to Earth they are likely to remain in a state of war against you until such time as they are able to cut off the link permanently. When that happens Ranma and his daughters will be very important to the battle. So I'm actually here to help ensure Ranma does sign on at your school,"
Perky and mischevious as she had begun the woman smirked ar Ranma, all knowingly, "Ranma Saotome, in addition to whatever the school of Mahora offers you, if you agree to aid in their plan to reveal magic to the world I will bind all of the magical devices you hide to your person so that the Jouketsuzoku cannot take them and add their chaos to your life,"
Ranma's face almost folded in on itself after a moment of excitement as suspicion set in, after all he had literally thought of how he wanted that just a day prior. But the woman simply laughed her laugh like trickling stream.
"Oh dear, no Ranma, I am neither reading your mind nor putting thoughts into it. It is simply that you are only human that allows me to match your desires so closely,"
AN: Well that update took forever and a bit. it will also likely be the last one until i get back from tokyo in june. And before you ask, yes of course Yukari has something in mind she isnt telling us about, shes yukari, remember how the second lunar war went? Yeah shes that xanos-y