Disclaimer/Author's Note: After forty-some stories, I still don't own the copyrights to the TV series Kim Possible and receive no compensation for writing my stuff. I also don't own or am compensated for the use of the video game Monkey Quest or the game Mindflex mentioned in this chapter.

Xxxxxx

Goth II

Chapter 7

Wasabi

Xxxxxx

Ron was a nervous wreck as sat down for breakfast between Bonnie and Kim in the Yamanouchi dinning room the next morning. Both of his hands were trembling with his thumbs rapidly twitching out in front of him, like he was operating a video game controller, and the constant tic of his right eye was extremely troublesome to the two girls.

"Ron Ron, are you gonna be okay?" Bonnie queried in concern. Ron's only response was a wide-eyed, vacant stare while his legs anxiously jack-hammered as he sat at the long table.

"He's been like this ever since I found him in his room last night," Kim informed Bonnie who hadn't spent the night with her and Ron ever since she had hooked up with Hirotaka. "When I got to his room, I found him sitting there in front of the TV. The screen said that the game had ended but his fingers were still operating the controller as he just stared at the screen. It was all I could do to strip his gi off and get him into bed."

"Ron-san will be okay after he has something to eat," Yori said as she brought a plate of sushi and a small bowl of wasabi paste to the table and set them down. Hirotaka followed behind her and placed a pot of tea and a full pitcher of ice cold water next to Ron's hands which were now nervously drumming on the tabletop while his legs continued to bounce about under the table.

"Here Ron-san. As you would say, snackage," Yori simply said as she drenched one of the rice wrapped fish and vegetable morsels in the light green paste getting a excessive amount on it. She held it up to the blond boy's mouth and, probably out of sheer habit when food was held anywhere near his mouth, Ron opened up and accepted it.

Ron automatically chewed for only a moment before his whole body froze. His legs stopped jack-hammering, his fingers stopped their incessant drumming and both eyes flew open wide. A few seconds later his hands started moving on their own again, groping around the tabletop before they fell upon the pitcher of water. He grabbed it with both hand, opened his mouth wide and splashed the whole thing over his head, getting at least half of the ice cubes and water in his mouth. A large cloud of steam rose as the water and ice vaporized from the heat of the wasabi.

Ron let out a contented, "Ahhhhhh," as he set down the empty pitcher on the table. He looked much better... like a drown blond rat but much better.

"Are you okay now, Ron Ron?" Bonnie chuckled. She'd always been entertained by his food related antics whenever she'd seen him at Bueno Nacho. She would enjoy an occasional Naco when no one else was around to see her eat one back in the day before she'd become friends with Kim and Ron. Heaven forbid that someone would've seen the Queen Bee of Middleton High eating something that the "Loser" invented, but she did enjoy watching him sate his appitite.

But now that they were friends Bonnie would accompany the duo to Bueno Nacho to eat the ever popular Naco and she could outwardly show her concern about her blond haired, goofy friend.

"Why shouldn't I be okay, Bon Bon?" Ron answered as if nothing had been wrong only a moment ago.

"Well, you were still kinda freaked out this morning after playing Monkey Quest for at least three hours last night," Kim supplied an explanation as to why she and Bonnie were both concerned about his welfare.

"Oh that, Pffft!" Ron casually waved off their concern with a razz-berry. "I'm totally over my monkey issues. I just realized that the little guys aren't that bad and that Bobo the Chimp, back at Camp Wannaweep, was probably suffering from rabidity... or rabidness or whatever it's called when an animal is diseased, crazy and foaming at the mouth. That's where my monkey fears came from so I shouldn't be afraid just because of one whacked out camp bunk mate."

"And you came to this conclusion, how?" Bonnie begged in utter confusion, knowing all about Ron's history with phobias and having seen first hand how freaked out he still seemed to be only five minutes ago when he walked into the dinning hall.

"Well," Ron started as he dipped another piece of sushi in the wasabi, not quite as deeply as Yori had, popped it in his mouth and started chewing, talking with his mouth otherwise occupied again, "I totally freaked out when I started playing the game last night, but after an hour or so I suddenly realized that I was in control. That helped a little, but my fears came back after I'd remembered Bobo as the game ended and the nightmares about Wannaweep returned."

"Okay, I can see just why you were freaked out last night and again this morning," Kim told her husband. "What happened just now that led you to stop fearing monkeys?"

"I don't know, KP," Ron shrugged as he continued to stuff his mouth with wasabi smeared sushi. "I guess I had a epitome or something." The blond tried to dip another piece of sushi in the green paste but realized that he had used up all of the condiment. "Oh look. We're all outta wasabi!"

"Epitome?" Bonnie questioned, looking over at Kim for some clue, not sure what Ron was talking about.

"I think Ron meant he had an epiphany," Kim ventured, knowing her husband of less than a month (and lifetime friend) tended to sometimes mix up his words, especially larger ones that he didn't use very often.

"Yeah, that's it," Ron agreed as he looked around the room searching for... something. He yelled out, "Say, can we get some more of that great wasabi stuff over here?"

Rufus hopped up on the tabletop wearing huge dark sunglasses. Gold bling hanging around his neck and a baseball hat cocked jauntily over one eye. He flashed some gangsta signs and said, "Wa-saaaaaaa-bi."

"That was the last of the wasabi, Ron-san," Yori informed the blond boy. "If you would like more, you will have to go out and harvest some wasabi plants. They generally grow next to streams or rivers in the mountains so it is readily available up here on Mount Yamanouchi along side our snow fed streams. After you harvest the plants, they would need to be grated and ground up into a paste, like you have been using. But I must tell you, we normally do not gather much at a single time. The taste and heat of the wasabi paste dissipates fairly quickly once it is made."

"Hey, that sounds like fun," Ron enthused as he perked up and popped another piece of plain sushi into his mouth. "I can't wait to go out and get some of them wasabi plants." He passed the large plate around so everyone else could get something to eat for breakfast, at least now that there wasn't any more wasabi paste to use.

"Ron Ron, focus!" Bonnie growled. "What about your epiphany?"

"Oh that," Ron said, remembering what he was talking about before getting sidetracked with talk about the extremely hot green condiment. "Well I just realized that Bobo the Chimp was either crazy or rabid or that he maybe just hated me. I mean he was nothing like Fredrick the astro-chimp or the monkey I controlled in the game. So that means that I shouldn't be afraid of monkeys; that they're just one of His creatures, and that you should just take 'em or leave 'em just like you'd handle any other guy you'd meet on the street."

"You're right, Ron," Kim giggled at Ron's roundabout, convoluted thinking. "Monkeys are just like people. You never know when you meet someone new if they'll be nice or mean to you. You just need to remember that monkeys are wild animals and that they'll usually act defensively at first unless they're attacked. If you invade their space, they'll automatically be hostile toward you and defend their territory."

"Yeah, that mighta been why Bobo the Chimp was all up in my face," Ron sagely nodded as something else suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, Bobo didn't attack any of the other campers at Wannaweep because they weren't invading his territory, Cabin Thirteen."

"And since you were assigned to Cabin Thirteen, his cabin," Bonnie said as she suddenly realized where Ron was going with his line of thinking, "that meant you were invading his space and he reacted like a normal chimp would, by defending his territory!"

"It all makes sense now," Ron nodded in agreement.

The five teens: Kim, Ron, Bonnie, Yori and Hirotaka, sat around the table and ate their breakfast. Just as they finished, Ron jumped to his feet and said, "Well, now to find some more wasabi. What do the plants look like?"

"Finding wasabi is a job normally assigned to the younger students, Ron-san," Sensei calmly said as he walked up to the table. "It is time to start working on your mental focus."

"Does that mean there won't be any wasabi for lunch?" Ron whined in dismay, "because it's kinda addictive... more so than Bueno Nacho Diablo Hot Sauce. And I'm really addicted to Diablo Hot Sauce."

"Ron-san, we need to address your mental focus if you are to have any control over your Mystical Monkey Powers."

"Sensei," Kim laughed, "Ron is always at his sharpest focus when he's talking about food."

"That may be true," Yori clarified. "But Ron-san needs to concentrate on things other than condiments and food if he is to be able to call up his Powers at a moments notice during one of your missions."

"So does that mean no wasabi?" Ron begged in total disappointment.

"Ron Ron," Bonnie angrily growled at the blond boy, fed up with his unfocused antics. "Stop focusing on wasabi and start focusing on the lesson Sensei is going to give you on how to focus!"

"I could not have said it better myself, Bonnie-san," Sensei serenely said as he turned and left the room with Ron trailing behind him.

Xxxxxx

"Hey, I've seen this game advertised on TV," Ron yelped in surprise as he followed Sensei into the small single room pagoda building that he called the 'Tea Room' and noticed the apparatus sitting on the low table in the middle of the room. "It's called Mindflex or something like that." The game apparatus sitting on the table consisted of a short metal platform with different hoops and parallel bar obstacles rising up from the base. There was also a small foam ball and a headband with a black box attached.

"Indeed, the neurofeedback game you mentioned is a derivative of this machine which was invented by a graduate of Yamanouchi many years ago," Sensei admitted as he and Ron sat down on the two cushions at the table in front of the apparatus. "But this is much more complex than that simple game. While the game will slowly train your mind to concentrate better, this will also assist in other areas."

"Okay, I don't understand what you're talking about," Ron said as he put on the headband, knowing a little about how the advertised game system operated, "but I trust you."

Sensei took a calming breath before he dove in to his explanation, trying to use language that his pupil would understand. "The Mindflex game is a simplified version of this apparatus that uses your neurofeedback, your thoughts, to move the ball. You are assisted in the public version of the game by a cushion of air, whereas this apparatus has no such assistance. Your mental capacity is the only way for you to move the ball. The electronics package," he tapped the small black box attached to the headband around Ron's head, "will send impulses to your brain to, wire it properly to complete the task."

"So I concentrate on moving the ball," Ron tried to understand the process, "and the machine will tell me if I'm doing it right?"

"Close enough," Sensei said with a resigned sigh. "Eventually, if you continue to practice with this machine, you will not need to use the headband... like so." Sensei looked directly at the small foam ball and it rose from the tabletop, swiftly floated through the obstacles and then drifted to land in his hand.

"Wow, that amazing," Ron marveled. "So I'll be able to do that?"

"If you work hard on your concentration and train your focus, Ron-san," Sensei said as he set the ball back down in front of his pupil, stood up and began to walk out of the room. "I will be back shortly to check on your progress. I have other matters to attend to right now."

Ron set himself in his seat, scrunched down so that the obstacle course was at eye level and focused on the small white foam ball.

Xxxxxx

"Kim-san," Yori called out as she warily peered in all direction around her, "I can not sense where you have gone. Please show yourself."

"Okay," Kim happily chimed as she reappeared, sitting in the Lotus Position, above the lithe ninja instructor's head. The redhead slowly drifted back down to the ground next to Yori and said, "I'm really getting the hang of this Ninjitsu stuff."

"That you are, Kim-san," Yori firmly agreed with a sly smile. "Not only have you mastered two of our techniques, both levitation and disappearing, but you have been able to combine the two and employ them at the same time. I do not know of anyone here at Yamanouchi who can accomplish that feat. I am not even sure if Sensei can."

"It's no big," Kim waved off the praise as she got up off the ground. "I told you that I'm a fast learner. And hanging out with Ron for as long as I have over the years, I've learned to think outside the box and combine things that you don't think would normally go together."

"Do you mean like combining a taco and a serving of nachos?" Yori begged with a grin and light laugh.

"Yep," Kim laughed along with her Asian friend/instructor. "Ron and I had to leave Bueno Nacho in a hurry for a mission just after we'd sat down to eat a few years ago and he didn't want to leave his food behind, so he stuffed his nachos into the taco and the Naco was born."

"I have heard the story," Yori said as the two girls walked over to the side wall of the dormitory. "And now you two are both millionaires because of Ron's simple act of expedient hunger."

"We don't think about the money that much," Kim sighed. "Ron went totally overboard with the first check and lost it all. He's been a lot more responsible with his money ever since his dad took over control of the other checks that come in now and he gets a small allowance."

Kim looked around at where they were standing and asked, "Is there some reason why we're standing out of the way next to this building?"

"Yes, Kim-san. It is time for your next lesson," Yori answered as she patted the seemingly solid wall next to her. "Do you know the atomic nature of solid objects?"

"If you mean that all solid objects are comprised of millions or billions of tiny, vibrating atoms packed tightly together, then yes I do."

"As you say, the atoms are tightly packed," Yori said as her hand suddenly 'pushed' through the wall and her body followed. "But there is still space between them that you can move through, if you have the right frame of mind." Yori reemerged through the wall and then leaned back against it, as if she hadn't just walked through the solid stone building. "It is the same concept you use to levitate. But instead of weaving your way through a horizontal column of air particles, you must make your way through a vertical column of stone particles."

"No big," Kim chimed as she stepped up to the wall, placed both hands on it and pushed hard against the seemly solid construct as she concentrated.

Nothing happened...

...except a few beads of sweat popped up on the redhead's brow.

After ten seconds Kim stepped back in frustration. "What am I doing wrong?"

"I believe it is your mindset," Yori ventured with a kindly pat to the redhead's shoulder. "You are a well-educated woman who knows in her mind that solid objects are solid. You know you can easily move through the air, you do it every day when you walk around, so it was easy for you to learn how to levitate. But, in the back of your mind, you are afraid that you may get stuck while you are half way through the wall. Therefore you do not pass through it at all."

"You may be right, Yori," Kim ceded. "Science tells me it can't be done so my mind balks at the thought of doing it." She pondered the sitch for a few seconds before a smile arose on her lips. "Maybe I'm trying too hard. After all, as the Tao says, 'The soft overcomes the hard. The slow overcomes the fast. Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show the people your work'."

"Ah," Yori nodded. "You have been reading one of the books I left in your room. The Tao Te Ching (pronounced, more or less, Dow Deh Jing) is fascinating to contemplate, is it not?"

"Yeah," Kim laughed. "I also like the passage that said, 'The greatest wisdom seems childish'. That is sooo Ronnish."

"Yes, Ron-san does seem to follow the Tao closely, even though he does not realize he is doing so," Yori laughed along with her student/friend. "He very much follows the 'doing/not doing' aspects of the Tao. Perhaps we can all sit down and discuss the teaching of the Tao some night?"

"That'd be great Yori, but I got a lesson to complete first," Kim said with a sly smile as she walked back up to the wall, placed her hands gently on it and suddenly phased through the solid stone. A few seconds later she phased back through. "Wow, that was easy. What else can you teach me?"

Xxxxxx

Sensei walked back in to the small building only to find Ron sitting there still staring at the ball and with the headband laying on the table beside him.

"Have you given up, Ron-san?" Sensei queried.

"Nope, not really," the blond boy said as he turned around to face Sensei.

What really amazed the elderly gentleman was that the ball followed his student's line of sight, hovering in mid air a foot in front of Ron face, and that his eyes glowed a soft light blue in color. The ball did a quick loop-d-loop and then dropped into Ron's outstretched hand as his eyes slowly shifted back to their normal, warm, chocolaty brown color.

"How did you progress so far, so quickly?" a stunned Sensei asked. "It usually takes the advanced students a week or more to accomplish what you just did."

"I'm not really sure, Sensei," Ron anxiously answered as he tentatively rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean I was just sitting here staring at the ball for like an hour and then I got a picture in my mind of it floating off the table and it just happened. Maybe it's just the power of my imagination."

"I do not believe it is your imagination, Ron-san," Sensei said as he quickly regained his normal stoic composure. "I believe it is more an image fulfillment with a little help from your Mystic Powers. You pictured the ball moving in your mind and the Mystical Monkey Powers assisted in doing just that."

"Isn't that what I just said?" Ron asked, totally missing the part where Sensei had said that his Monkey Powers helped him out.

Sensei thought about it for a few seconds before he smiled and said, "Perhaps you are correct, but it does not matter. We now have something we can work with to advance your control over the Mystic Powers."