Chapter 6: Kodachi

Kodachi looked out at the snowy ground through the window, thoroughly depressed by what she saw. The winter had started earlier than usual at the Kuno's Hokkaido estate. Nerima still had an occasional mild day down south, but that would not happen here until next Spring. Now Kodachi couldn't even walk the grounds anymore. She was trapped in the main house with her mad brother and father.

She morosely pushed her school work away. She had enough done for tomorrow to keep her tutor happy. There was no sense doing any more right now. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else to do. She didn't want to practice gymnastics – what was the point? There was no one to compete against here – she wasn't allowed off the estate grounds. Her schoolmates down south had been unable to make the Gymnastic Finals without her help and had moved on to other things until next year. They no longer called anymore – they had forgotten about her as their focus moved elsewhere.

Kodachi sighed. They were not the only ones to move on. Her pets in Nerima had been sent to the zoo. Her uncle had said that they would not survive in Hokkaido and that the Nerima estate was being used for other purposes. Besides, the animals were actually illegal for private individuals to own. Her uncle was known to bend the rules, but he didn't consider her pets worth the trouble. She found that she missed them.

She was surprised that she also missed Sasuke. The relationship she had with the little ninja was the closest she had to a friendship. He had cared about her and her family's well being even though they had abused him. Despite secretly being in her uncle's employment, he had tried to protect them as much as possible and deal with the families eccentricities quietly, something the Hokkaido ninjas refused to do – any violation of her uncle's rules was immediately reported to Uncle Toshio and the punishments were swift. But Sasuke had moved on too. Kodachi had heard the other ninjas mention that he now watched over several people, including the Tendo family and her rival Akane Tendo.

It made Kodachi furious that that slut had a free hand with her Ranma. Her uncle had told her that Ranma loved Akane, but Kodachi knew that was a lie. Her Ranma was noble and pure, and he would serve only Kodachi. He would wait until Kodachi could free herself from this prison and return to him. Kodachi rejected the stories she overheard about Ranma and Akane's courtship – they were just stories her uncle had planted. Her uncle was tampering with her mail – the letters of rejection supposedly from Ranma were forgeries! The pictures that her uncle showed her of Ranma and Akane dancing or kissing or holding hands were created in a computer! They had to be! Ranma was destined to be Kodachi's and Kodachi's only. He would love her eventually! It was all Kodachi had…

A tear ran down Kodachi's cheek and she got up from her desk angrily. She looked around the room, but there was nothing for her to take her anger out on anymore. Her uncle refused to replace the things she broke until she apologized for smashing them. All she had were her school books (those he would replace if she ripped), her desk (which was literally made of stone), her chair, and her bed. Her clean clothes were stacked on the floor since she smashed the dresser. If she left the room, she could move anywhere in the estate compound, but she would find ninjas everywhere – her own room was the only place of semi-privacy. The ninjas would also stop her from damaging anything outside her room.

Kodachi let out a scream of frustration, but there was no response. She was sure there were hidden cameras in her room, probably monitored by some of the female ninjas. They probably just made a note about the date and time of the scream, and Kodachi's psychiatrist would talk to her about it during her next visit. In a complete funk now, Kodachi hurled herself onto her bed and closed her eyes. "Ranma!" she cried out. "You saved me once! Why won't you save me again?" The tears started again and she cried for a little bit. Then, she started to drift off to sleep, but, as she faded, she swore she smelled the sweetness of cherry blossoms…

Kodachi woke up under a cherry tree. She sat up quickly and looked around. Behind the tree, a cliff rose high into the sky. In front of her, there was heavy vegetation. "Where am I?" she wondered out loud.

"You are in a place of Truth," a young voice told her. "No lie may be spoken in this place."

Kodachi turned to her left and saw a young boy, approximately ten years old. He was dressed in a white gi with sandals. The belt at his waist was sky blue. His eyes were blue, much like Ranma's. His hair was the same shade as Ranma's as well. "Are you Ranma's younger brother?"

The boy smiled and said: "That depends on your perspective, but I am Ranma's brother."

Kodachi tried to say "Then he must have sent you", but nothing came out.

"Sorry, Ranma didn't send me," the boy said. "Again, only the Truth may be spoken here. Had you phrased that as a question, you could have asked if Ranma sent me. But Ranma doesn't know what I am up to yet. He only suspects that I'm up to something."

Kodachi tried to make a few statements about the love between her and Ranma, but nothing would come out. She finally asked: "And what are you up to?"

"I've summoned you here to set you free, Kodachi. Everyone is moving on, and it's time from you to move on too," the boy said.

"NO!" she screamed. "I don't want that!"

The boy smiled sadly and there was sympathy in his gaze, but there was also a hard edge in his voice when he said: "You are one of the Living, and the Living must change constantly to survive. Ranma doesn't love you the way you wish, but he doesn't want to see you dead either."

"NO!" Kodachi yelled again. Several sentences were blocked before she finally said: "Leave me alone!"

"All right," the boy stated and then vanished.

Tears ran down Kodachi's cheek as she tried to get a hold of herself. She hoped she was dreaming and tried to pinch herself to wake up, but she stayed at the edge of the jungle. When the tears ran dry, she stood up and surveyed the forest before her. Off to one side, a path led away from the cherry tree. "No!" she whispered in horror. "I don't want to see the Truth! I have to get out of here! I must be dreaming!" She grabbed her arm and brought it down sharply on a nearby rock. The rock cut deeply into her skin and pain jolted through her body. Blood began to flow freely down her arm. "Wake up!" she screamed at herself.

Off in the jungle, she heard movement. The sound started faintly but became louder as it got closer. She heard a sniffing sound with the rustling. She backed up against the cherry tree, scared out of her wits. The sounds seemed to be approaching via the path, and her eyes widened in terror as she stared at the path head. Finally, a large man-like creature walked out of the jungle to stand on the path. He stood just under two meters tall and had blue cat-eyes. His mouth had large canine teeth and there were cat ears on top of his head. The creature also wore sandals and a gi, but this gi was blue with a black belt. Despite the incongruities, the creature somehow reminded Kodachi of…

"Ranma?" Kodachi said hesitantly. "Is that you?"

The creature looked at the girl with disbelief. "Kodachi?" it hissed. "What are you doing here?" Then its eyes narrowed and it added: "Or rather, are you here?" With that the creature raised its hand-paw and a golden light blinded Kodachi for a moment. When it cleared, she saw that her cuts had healed completely and the blood had vanished.

The cat creature sighed: "Why are you in our Dream Realm, Kodachi? You should really go home…"

"Are you really Ranma?" the young woman asked.

The cat creature snorted and stated: "Yes, I am Cat-Ranma – one aspect of Ranma anyway."

"I..I don't understand…" Kodachi stammered.

"Ranma is a shape-shifter, Kodachi," the creature said. "We have three aspects. I am Cat-Ranma." The creature held its arms out for inspection. Then it flickered and the red-headed bitch stood in Cat-Ranma's place.

Kodachi tried to scream "No! You can't be!", but the words were blocked.

The red-head noted the blocked cry and said in a hissing voice: "We don't allow lies in this place, Kodachi. We have to be true to ourselves, otherwise we have nothing. Yes, Ranko, or rather 'Yin', is really just an aspect of Ranma too. So is 'Yang'." Ranko flickered and then Ranma stood in her place. "We are Ranma," the boy hissed as he flickered through the three shapes twice, and then settled on the Cat aspect again. "Cat is Yang and Yin. Yang is Yin and Cat. Yin is Cat and Yang. All are ourselves."

"But who are you then?" Kodachi asked with a trace of awe.

Cat-Ranma shrugged and repeated: "We are Ranma. Ranma is a male spirit with multiple forms. We have more Yang paths than Yin paths and Cat and Human Chi flow through them."

"My uncle was right?" Kodachi whispered.

"We didn't know Toshio Kuno knew about us, but it doesn't surprise us. All of Nerima knows of our abilities," Cat-Ranma said. "It seems only you and your brother denied what everyone else knew – even Sasuke knew, and he tried to show both of you." The shape-shifter rotated through the aspects again and cycled back to Cat-Ranma. "In our Dream Realm, we can control how we shift. In the outside world, circumstances dictate which form we wear. We use to consider this a curse, but we've learned to accept it and make it part of ourselves – we don't ever want to be separated anymore. Our family and friends accepted it even faster than we did."

"How could anyone accept this?" Kodachi said with some revulsion.

Cat-Ranma looked at her with hurt and frustration. "This is why we never wanted to date you. You could never see the real us. You viewed us as a perfect possession to be owned, not a real person with faults and flaws. Akane can detail every one of our faults, and she still loves us. And she loves all of us – she doesn't shun Yang, Yin or Cat. She'll hold our hand – or paw – proudly."

Kodachi became upset and blurted out: "I know you better than –" The word was lost to the Truth, so Kodachi tried again: "I have studied you inside and out! I –" Again, the Truth blocked her.

Cat-Ranma crossed his arms. "Really? Let's do a little test to see if you really know us." Cat considered its phrasing carefully and asked: "What do you think is Ranma's favorite food?"

Kodachi sat stunned for a moment. "A favorite food? Ranma eats everything!" she thought. "How can he have a favorite?" She looked at the creature before her – an obvious carnivore from looking at the teeth. "Meat – it has to be meat," she thought. Out loud, she said: "I think your favorite food is steak."

Cat-Ranma shook his head. "And you would be wrong. Steak is not even close," Cat-Ranma replied. "Next question: What do you think are our favorite things to read?"

Kodachi had a worried look on her face. "Read? Since when do men worry about reading? Tatewaki never reads – he just practices with his sword. Of course, he's not really normal. What does Uncle Toshio read? Maybe Ranma reads the same thing…" She thought about what her uncle read and then blurted out: "I think you like to read financial studies!"

Cat looked stunned. "O.K., we thought you might know us better than that," he said with disbelief. "Again, you are not even close – who the hell reads financial studies?"

"Uncle Toshio does!" Kodachi defended herself.

Cat-Ranma rolled his eyes. "Do we even look close to your uncle?" he said while shaking his head. Kodachi had to admit there was no resemblance. "Never mind," Cat said. "Last question: Besides the roof of the house, where is our favorite place to go and think?"

Kodachi was dismayed. "Do I really know so little about him?" she thought. "Wait, I can only utter Truth in this place. Can I use that to help me?" Kodachi thought for a minute and said out loud: "You like to go to the …" Then there was a long pause as she tried to say any word that popped into her head. Cat cocked an eyebrow at her as the pause became longer and longer as the Truth kept blocking the last word. Finally, Kodachi burst out "Dojo!"

Cat-Ranma gave a little chuckle. "Technically, your sentence is true," Cat-Ranma said. "We do like to go to the dojo to work out or meditate, but that's not where we go to really think. And it took you an awful long time to even come up with somewhere we like to go. We have got to wonder what some of your other answers were." The creature shook his head. "Face it," he continued. "You do not love us – you don't even know us."

Kodachi look stricken. She tried to deny what Cat-Ranma said but she could not utter a word – the Truth kept stopping her. She tried to claim that he was all she had, but that would not come out either. She fell to her knees in despair at that thought – she didn't even have Ranma. "I have n-" she started, but could not finish.

Cat-Ranma looked at her with compassion and hissed softly: "That's not true either. You don't have nothing. There are people who care for you. You've pushed many of them away, but they want to come back. You just have to let them. And…" he paused thoughtfully, testing the words. "You have to accept what people are willing to give, whether it's just friendship or love."

"Who will love me?" Kodachi asked with a lost look.

Cat-Ranma approached and knelt down closer to her. He hissed softly: "Maybe the question should be: "Who do you choose to love – and we mean really love and not try to own?"

"But they might leave me – like my mother did," Kodachi whispered.

Cat-Ranma didn't really understand that part, but he tried anyway: "And they might stay too. We can guarantee that if you really love them, some of them will stay, and even those that leave may come back." Happily enough, that seemed to be a true statement.

Tears were pouring down Kodachi's face. Cat-Ranma wasn't sure what he should do. He was too shy to give her a hug, and he was fairly sure that was the wrong thing to do anyway. Instead, he just watched as Kodachi slowly dropped her head and seemed to nod. Then the girl slowly vanished. Cat-Ranma stood up with a sigh and hoped Kodachi would be all right. Then he shook himself – he had dealt with Kodachi, but there was still another intruder out there, one that might hold Mousse's life in the balance. He had to move….

A/N: And just to finish a story:

Two weeks later in Hokkaido -

Kodachi sat in her chair reading her English assignment when the intercom sounded. A voice from one of the ninjas said through the speaker: "Miss Kuno? Your uncle is here to see you."

Kodachi pressed the speaker button and answered: "Please send him in." As an afterthought, she said: "Thank you."

Toshio entered his niece's room warily. He was anticipating a trap of some sort. Kodachi had been on her best behavior recently, and he thought he smelled a rat. He noted that the ninjas had replaced most of the items in her room in response to her apologies. "Hello Kodachi. How have you been?" he asked.

"Hello Uncle," she said with a sigh. "I'm all right, but I have a question to ask…"

"You cannot go back to Nerima," he cut in firmly.

His niece shook her head. "I don't want to go back – at least for a while. That's not what I need to know."

To say that Toshio was surprised by this statement would be putting it mildly. "Have you been taking your medicines?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yes Uncle," Kodachi said with another sigh. "I have been behaving – honestly! But I really need you to answer my question truthfully – I have to know."

Toshio sat down on her bed with a wary look on his face: "I can't promise an answer, but I'll at least promise not to lie. What's the question?"

Kodachi took a deep breath and then blurted out: "Did I kill my mother?"

For one of the few times in his life, Toshio was shocked: "WHAT?!" he half-yelled. "How could you even think that?" he demanded.

Kodachi seemed to steady herself and then rushed on: "Mama died shortly after I was born. Did she die because she gave birth to me?"

Kuno brought his hands to his face and swept them up over his hair. Kodachi knew he did that when he was flustered. Kodachi prompted: "Please Uncle! Daddy won't talk about her at all, and neither will Tatewaki, but I have to know!"

"Morons," Toshio whispered harshly. "So that's what this has been about with you…" Toshio straightened up and looked Kodachi in the eye – he only had one shot at this, and he knew he had to convince her of the truth. "Your birth was a normal delivery. Your mother had an easier time with you than with Tatewaki. She was killed by a drunk driver who crashed into the little restaurant that she was in. She had snuck out of the hospital to grab a sandwich because she didn't like the hospital food. She was one of five people killed that day by the drunk driver. I have the newspaper article back in Nerima. I can get it for you if you like – or you can contact the Tokyo Times and get the article yourself. It appeared in the paper two days after you were born."

"So, I did kill Mama…" Kodachi started to cry.

Toshio was not good at family moments, but he was damn sure going to get this one right. He jumped to kneel before Kodachi and grabbed her face. "You ARE NOT responsible!" he insisted. "Your father blames himself because he changed hospitals at the last minute so you would be born outside of Nerima – away from the Nexus! Tatewaki blames himself because he got sick and your father had to stay with him when your Mom was killed! Both of them are WRONG. NONE of you are responsible. Your mom wasn't responsible either. Your mom was killed by a jackass who couldn't stay away from the bottle and didn't have the common sense God gave a flea! This wasn't the driver's first offense! His rap sheet was a mile long! He wasn't even allowed to drive!"

He took a deep breath and went on: "You cannot claim responsibility for random circumstances. You have no idea how things would have turned out if you were born a day later or earlier. For all we know, circumstances could have had all of you dead. The only thing not random about this was the driver – he killed five people: your mom, an old man with a heart condition, a young couple on their honeymoon, and the restaurant owner. *HE* did this, not you!"

Kodachi slowly nodded her head and Toshio released her. "What became of him?" Kodachi asked.

"I promised I wouldn't lie to you – don't ask that question," Toshio said grimly. Kodachi just nodded her head again.

Toshio looked at his niece for a few moments and then leaned forward to stroke her hair and her cheek. "Damn," he said. "I wished you'd asked me years ago – no one should have to carry that false guilt. Not that I've been successful with your dad or brother." He sighed and then looked her in the eyes again as he cupped her chin. "You are not responsible. You are not cursed. This is not your fault. Please talk to your doctor about this. Please get this out of your system. You deserve better. Your mother would want better for you. She was a lovely woman who could not wait for you to be born – she wanted to meet you so badly. She loved you, your brother, and your father very much. She would want all of you to be happy. Please!" he pleaded.

Kodachi nodded and leaned forward to hug him. Toshio did his best to return the hug. Finally, Kodachi released him and he got back up on the bed to sit across from her. Kodachi looked at her uncle for a minute and asked: "Is it possible for me to leave Japan for a little bit? I want to be anonymous for a little while."

Toshio considered that for a few moments and then said: "Let's see how you handle things for a week or two. If things look good and your doctor approves, you can visit your cousins in Vancouver for a few months – provided you promise to behave." Kodachi nodded her head, so Toshio continued: "I'll go to Canada with you to help get you settled and I'll leave a few body guards to watch over you." His eyes gleamed and he half-smiled: "I'm not sure your good behavior is here to stay."

Kodachi gave her own mischievous half-smile in return. "It's not, but maybe I'll tone things down a little anyway." Toshio gave an honest laugh at that.

Back in the present again:

The boy watched Cat run back into the jungle from where he was hiding and grinned. "Sorry Ranma, but you humans have such short lives. I want you and your friends to have happy ones before you sparks leave me." His face turned thoughtful, and he continued: "Still, that was an interesting way to handle Kodachi…I wonder…" He shook his head after a moment. "What will be will be – let's see how you handle Ukyo first…"

He closed his eyes and teleported to a field of wheat. The young boy held up another cherry flower cluster. "A better setting for you, Ukyo," he murmured. With that, he blew at the flowers and the scent wafted into the sky.

A/N: To help the reader, I've added some comments about the boy to my profile. His name (as everyone will learn in the next chapter) is Rera, which is Ainu for 'Wind' – something Tofu mentioned to Kasumi in Chapter 3 of "The Destruction of Ranma Saotome – Detontation."