Revision:
04/28/19 : Brevity, shifting tenses (I still missed some I think)... glaring at the 06 edit of the hads.
04/02/06 : Common mistakes in the English Language
01/14/06 - Revising hads, and quotation punctuation
10/18/05 - Revising grammar
09/19/05 - Revised grammar extensively. Deleted a few unnecessary scenes. Took out after alls, annoying paragraphs and three ellipses.
But the cynic, the sad and the fallen,
Who has no strength for strife,
The world's highway is cumbered today,
They make up the sum of life.
Ella Wilcox
Worthwhile
Rendezvous with Fate v.2
by iCe
Chapter 8
... You know, it doesn't look like it but all of them seemed to share something special back then, I wasn't sure how to fit in...
Nabiki massaged her forehead while watching Yuka lay out the ingredients for yosenabe. Taking aside Kodachi's penchant for putting potions in her food, she was an expert cook. At first, Nabiki expected that a simple dish like yosenabe would be a smooth start to the day.
Nabiki waved at the low table. "I realize you're a fairly skilled cook, but you haven't accounted the fact that samurai hardly get to eat their meals. There are too many things that come up in between. It is a wife's duty to see that her husband eats."
Samurai wives rarely enter the kitchen, but Kodachi seemed enthusiastic. If Kodachi forgot that tidbit of information Nabiki would not remind her. Humiliating Kodachi has always been her greatest reward.
"Your skill also depends on your mastery of the recipe. I'm sure you'll do fairly well. Cooking is something you've enjoyed in the past. We'll get to all the special moves after I've seen you cook." Nabiki nodded as she looked at Kodachi's sweating form. For the third time, Nabiki wondered what was making her uneasy. "Well?"
"Uh... I can only cook curry, Nabiki." Kodachi gulped at all the ingredients in front of her.
Nabiki frowned at the thought of walking Kodachi through the cooking part of 'Martial Arts of Good Graces.' Though Nabiki has learned to prepare food, she was admittedly not as good as Kodachi, and her ability was not even near Ranma's own. "Can't you even grasp how to cook dashi?" Nabiki demanded, her hands tapping the table.
"Soup stock? Well, sure." Kodachi shrugged, "I just didn't know yosenabe needed it."
She then boiled about six cups of water while Nabiki supervision. Kodachi took the kombu, out of the wooden container and placed it with the boiling water. Nabiki's eyebrows twitched as she watched.
"What do you think you're doing?" Nabiki demanded fishing the kelp out of the pot with her long chopsticks and dropped it into its original container. "You didn't even wash the kombu!"
Kodachi winced but took the kelp and attempted to wash it with soap. It seemed futile to rescue the already soggy kelp, so Nabiki withheld her tongue from further suggestion. She hated to think what the dried kelp tasted like now.
Kodachi barely noticed how much she was adding into her food and did not bother to look what exactly she placed inside the container. 'Calm down, Nabiki, breathe. Don't bother. It's okay.' She watched as Akane took a handful of katsuobushi, bonito flakes, and added it to the kelp.
"Please give me patience," Nabiki murmured as she relieved Kodachi of her present task and gave her a chopping board and a knife. It was something Nabiki was sure Kodachi would remember.
She would prove mistaken. Kodachi chopped the Chinese cabbage, the tofu, and the onions together. It wouldn't have been so bad—if Kodachi handled the knife with finesse. Kodachi used the kitchen implement like an ax leaving the vegetables cut irregularly while adding chunks of the chopping board to the mixture.
"Kodachi, how could a woman named after a short sword not be schooled in how to handle a blade?" Nabiki asked dryly as she watched small bits of the food flying around. Nabiki wished she could shout. She ended up doing almost everything when she was prepared to do absolutely nothing. "This is how you cook yosenabe. Hand me the dashi."
Kodachi quickly complied, and Nabiki poured the full four cups then covered the whole thing and glanced at Kodachi. "Keep it under that for ten minutes then close the fire of the brazier."
"Sorry."
Nabiki looked at her with mixed feelings. "Look, so you forgot how to cook. It's your amnesia again. Get over it. There are many things your amnesia is making you forget. At least you cooked a decent yosenabe."
Kodachi nodded as she watched the pot, Nabiki went off to find her two pupils. She did not expect to cook yosenabe for three sticks. She was due to teach her students strategy an hour ago.
Picking up her pace, Nabiki wondered if Kodachi would bungle up that last piece of order. She resolved to let Yuka do teach the cooking. They'll take up ikebana tomorrow. Kodachi was brilliant with flowers. Surely the girl can't forget two arts.
'I hope the food will be digestible by second meal,' she thought as she moved towards her pupil's rooms. 'And that she remember to take yosenabe out of the fire. I should've just let her cook rice.'
She would be sorely disappointed.
When Kodachi asked for her help a month ago, she never imagined they'd end up eating onigiri and sashimi for lunch.
In Purgatory, Monlon, one of the Seven Lucky Gods that kept track of Kodachi, watched her. She was looking half-heartedly at her two shinigami escorts. If she had any illusions about the afterlife, it ended around the time they gave her sentence. Purgatory was nothing but the eerie white walls and the holier-than-thou guards.
There was no time. It was a convergence where all of history met into one point. Kodachi was in purgatory. Since the shinigami pulled her out from her body before her time, the gods had judged that she would repent in this prison until her Akane died. It would be a long wait.
Today, Kodachi sat in front of the scrying bowl. Her judges added to her punishment by making her watch Akane's life while living in Kodachi's body.
She seethed when she saw Ranma's face, touching it softly on the reflected waters. According to what Monlon could understand, the woman truly loved her husband. It may not have been such a conventional love, but it was love. In the twisted abyss she called her mind.
Had she not loved him, she would not have put up with him for seven years, not play the game that was eating his soul away. Because the moment Kodachi married him, she swore that no one could ever have him, and neither could she. It was this warped sense of love that made Kodachi Kuno insane to the eyes of most people and cruel to the hearts of others.
They were in a continuing game of pain. She believed that Ranma enjoyed pain and suffering. He killed for Lord Happousai and was convinced that he wanted what she was doing. Ranma was not one to love the weak, and his wife set out to prove that she was not weak.
She perceived that Akane running around in her body was ruining all her hard work.
Kodachi clasped her around her neck in a picture of someone choking herself. From observation, the shinigami had concluded that she wanted to inflict pain on her doppelganger through self-harm. Though it was evident from the first few tries that it was useless, Kodachi hadn't stopped until she nearly fainted from the lack of oxygen.
"Her name is Akane."
Kodachi's eyes flew open, she had presumed she had been alone when her guardian left her with the scrying bowl, as was the usual practice. "What?"
"I said, her name is Akane." Monlon smiled when Kodachi finally realized that Monlon was not like her usual guard. The goddess talked to the woman, for one, and for another, she was looking at the bowl with her. Her guards never looked at the golden bowl.
"What is it?" Kodachi snapped. "I understand that I am supposed to watch her in peace."
"Oh, so a visit from me," Monlon said, pointing to herself rather excessively. "The only person who has talked to you in, what—five months—is the worst thing you could have right now?"
Kodachi opening her mouth to answer, but Monlon interrupted her, "Or is the scrying bowl too good for your tastes. You wish to watch another woman live off your life, right?"
"I don't think—"
"Oh no, let me finish. It's sooo good to observe through another woman's eyes. All those years wasted. Years to live that are rightfully yours. So a visit from me is the worst you can have in this—" Monlon waved around at the immaculately white room, her voice dripping with the sarcasm, "—solitary confinement of yours.
"And seeing you are obviously soooooooooo happy, you'd rather I go. I was gonna offer you a chance to tell your lovely little husband that that hussy in your body isn't you." Monlon smirked continuing with her exaggerated motions. "I guess my lord was wrong about you then. What a waste."
Monlon spun around and briskly walked away, but Kodachi called out to her, "Wait, woman. You to jump to conclusions too easily. What are you implying? Your lord would not be pleased if his order wasn't carried out just because you presumed I was a waste of your time."
'Hook, line...' Monlon swiveled back to face Kodachi, not bothering to hide a pleased look on her face. "Good, I'm quite in a hurry, my schedule isn't manageable. I have lots of work to do. My lord wishes to give you your life back."
"How? My body isn't..." Kodachi paused searching for the right words, "available at the moment."
"True, but our dear Akane's is." Monlon motioned to the bowl where she could see Akane looking over recipes. "I'm sure we could work something out."
"I surmised that death damaged her body." Kodachi frowned as she looked at her hands. Monlon reminded Kodachi again of her mortality. That was good. It was eerie for souls to remember that they weren't a physical being anymore, and yet could still feel her own flesh. To her, the body she owned was as solid as the scrying bowl in front of her. To anyone else, she couldn't be touched, much less seen. That was a good start to bargain in Monlon's assessment. "It was the whole reason the shinigami sent her in my body."
"'Ye of little faith." The goddess peered at her expectantly but merely smiled when Kodachi looked back blankly, and Kodachi was tiring of that smile that played across her face. "My lord can do a lot of things. Nothing is impossible with a god."
"Why are you offering me this?"
"My job is not to question, merely to obey." Monlon bowed. "Why question such a wonderful gift Kodachi Saotome? You'll find, there are some things almost impossible to get in life. One of them is a second chance. Surely you realize that this grant isn't something given freely to most people."
"At what price?" Kodachi murmured thoughtfully. "It may be more than what I am willing to pay."
'—and sinker.' Monlon shrugged at the trivial worries. "There are no strings attached. I said my time is minimal, will you accept my lord's offer Lady Saotome?"
Nabiki looked for a moment at the kimono she picked out for the day and put it on in the brisk manner as she did everything else in the house. It was early morning, and most probably, her brother was already awake in his girl form practicing kata in the dojo.
Ranma, by habit, was an early riser. That the whole household was required to be up before him, deeply unnerved him. He hated the fact that the entire house needed to conform to his schedule. Which was why he almost always practiced his kata as Ranko, letting the servants think he was still asleep.
Still, Nabiki concluded that telling the servants to get up early was much better than waiting hours for the first meal. She pulled fresh tabi on her feet then went to check on Sei first. She woke him gently with her prodding hand turning to do the same thing to Hanae when Sei rubbed his eyes awake.
Upon waking up, both of them realized the tardiness of their rising because of who woke them. The cousins immediately tried to change into their hakama from the sleeping yukata, knowing full well that their first lesson began straight after breaking their fast. The earliness of the meal depended on Ukyou's arrival.
Nabiki opened the shoji to the kitchen when she saw the task done. Yuka was already up and was cooking soup and some rice. "Good Morning Nabiki-sama. Should I prepare more? You've informed me that Ukyou-san will come by."
"Good morning, Yuka." Nabiki smiled genially in return as she watched the kitchen goings on. Contrary to what others outside Rose Brier think, Nabiki was familiar with all the attendants that under her. Her cold demeanor only applied to dealings outside the house. "No, this will be enough, Ukyou will prepare more."
Turning to go when she found nothing amiss, Nabiki checked on the servant's quarters. When she passed by, she discovered that they were awake, which pleased her. An efficient household does not run on idle hands. She then checked were the samurai who were on their scheduled posts.
She was going to the next part of her morning routine when a samurai approached her to announce Ukyou's arrival. Nabiki nodded in dismissal and was about to look for Ranma, but dismissed it when she saw Ukyou in front of the house.
"Ukyou, how nice of you to visit," Nabiki greeted her, while Ukyou bowed according to Nabiki's rank. "How has life been treating you?"
"As well as any peasant might, Lady Nabiki. You?" Ukyou looked over Nabiki's shoulder, which showed Nabiki her friend's eagerness to catch sight Hanae or Ranma. With Ukyou, the enthusiasm was probably more for Ranma rather than her charge.
Nabiki frowned when Ukyou used her title. She and the chef were fast friends. It was only recently that Ukyou gained the irritating knack of calling her lady.
"As well as any samurai might. Come in." She waved to the entrance of the house. Ukyou's station did not allow her the use of a palanquin or horse and the travel was always tiring to one who has been walking for miles. "Would you want something to drink?"
"No, thank you." Removing her geta, she wiped her feet with the small cloth she carried while looking around the doorway. "Is Lady Kodachi away?"
"Fortunately, the lady of the house is home for the moment," Nabiki said dryly, conveying to Ukyou her true feelings regarding the woman's presence. "Although I hope her presence will not hamper you to provide us with the early meal?"
"I always serve okonomiyaki when I'm here, lady. I would not have it any other way." Ukyou offered as she followed slightly behind Nabiki towards the kitchen.
"Well then, we will have a good first meal." Nabiki nodded as she turned to a samurai to escort Ukyou. Although the girl knew the way by heart, formality demanded that someone accompany her. "I will find my niece and lord for you."
"Actually, Nabiki-sama, I wasn't going to pick Hanae-dono up, but say goodbye." Ukyou looked at her feet; her voice hesitating over the words.
Nabiki stopped in mid-step. The twins have known Ukyou ever since they were children. Beyond the titles, beyond foster care, Ukyou was one of the most reliable things in their lives. "Ukyou?"
"You know what Lord Ranma means to me, my lady, and I think I saw things clearly in Happousai's donjon." Nabiki tried to restring the almost garbled words Ukyou was wailing out as soon as she spoke them. It surprised Nabiki since she hadn't foreseen that Ukyou of all people, would let her brother go. Ukyou continued, "Lady Nabiki, I realized I'm just torturing myself. I can't have him. Only a fool would make a peasant a samurai's wife."
"And we all get the idea that Genma was a fool," Nabiki pointed out, wondering if her words were easing the pain or was just adding to it. She hasn't been one to comfort when it was needed, she remained unsure of how to act.
"But even he didn't make me Lord Ranma's wife," Ukyou murmured. Nabiki could see the glassy shine of tears in Ukyou's eyes. "Not even a consort. I can't continue to be the foster mother of Hanae. She reminds me of could haves and would haves, but also because I don't want her to think I'm using her to get close to her father."
"Ukyou, nobody thinks that. Ranma chose you. It is my pleasure he chose such a dear and trusted friend." Nabiki smiled ruefully. "You've been her foster mother all her life. Surely you realize that Hanae loves you deeply."
"She's a big girl now. I'm not even her official foster mother and am just a proxy to Ranko. I can't do it anymore, Nabiki. Please." Ukyou wiped her tears before they dropped. "You don't understand how hard it is to stop falling in love with someone who you practically see every day. And I do, through his daughter."
"If that is your wish, then I will not try to change your mind." The foster mothers of the children fell under Nabiki's responsibilities, but she couldn't help feel the need to tell her brother. Although matters like this do not concern him, Ukyou was one of their oldest friends. "You have to speak with Ranma."
"I'll tell him after you eat, my lady," Ukyou responded.
Nabiki frowned, wanting to say more but stopped herself. "I have things I have to do, Ukyou, please let Omokage-san lead you to the kitchen." Ukyou nodded in acquiescence as the samurai who was following them silently stepped in front of her to do Nabiki's bidding.
Cologne walked to her great-granddaughter's room to find her already awake. Unlike the days when they have actively pursued Ranma, they did not have the Nekohanten anymore so their stay in Japan would be shorter than the usual.
The twins' abrupt departure would not be received well, so Cologne resolved to follow them. She already talked about her intent to leave with Happousai and taken leave from Lady Nodoka. Shampoo looked groggily at her. Cologne placed one of the Chinese dresses beside her great-granddaughter then spoke to her in Chinese, "Xian Pu, take a bath and dress up quickly, we're leaving early."
"Leaving," Shampoo asked drowsily as she gathered her clothes to retire to the furo. "I thought we'd be staying a bit more."
"I'd rather not stay under the same roof as Happousai for too long," Cologne answered mildly. "But we're not leaving Japan yet. We have one more stop to visit before we leave the country."
Shampoo stood up to follow Cologne's orders while Cologne packed the few clothes Shampoo brought along. It didn't take long for her thoughts to wander towards Hanae. 'So, Rian has a daughter. From what Ukyou tells us, Hanae is proficient in the art.'
Most of the remnants of the Fiancée Wars, as it was aptly termed by most who took part in it, were nearly gone. It seemed every single fiancée Ranma has was already married, dead, ronin, or nun. Except for Ukyou and Shampoo. They were always the most persistent. Had Shampoo lost to Ukyou, Cologne would have bowed out gracefully from the fight, taking her great-granddaughter with her.
Fate seemed to want another thing, and their leave was less than gracious. Kodachi Kuno was the last woman Cologne thought would snare Ranma Saotome. Just as that Ikkasei man was the last man she thought would get Nabiki. Both were not an adequate match for the two.
Ukyou seemed like she would never marry, never get over Ranma. She clung considerably to the past and embraced pain too frequently by accepting Ranma's offer as a foster mother. She took it hard. They were the best of friends, and she expected that Ranma would choose her, eventually. She was let down hard and hated him for a long time because of it.
Shampoo flirted with Mousse when the moment provided for it, but there was no reality for the show of affection. It was incomparable to what she felt for Ranma.
Ranma was angry with his wife, and Nabiki seemed to be mad with both Kodachi and Happousai.
Nabiki has her own share of trouble, has a million of fiancés. But in Japan, as Cologne found out, men married as soon as he wills and a woman as soon as she can. Nabiki couldn't marry when her brother was still unmarried. Happousai has plenty of descendants to marry off for political connections that he waited on his own sweet time to grant her omiai.
Nabiki's hate for Happousai stemmed from her not believing in him as head of a clan. Her hatred for Kodachi was much more profound.
Ranma, Cologne couldn't even dwell on, he was a problem all and by himself. Her memory quickly drifted to one of the first tests she set upon the twins.
NYUCHEIZU, BAYANKALA MOUNTAIN RANGE, SIXTEEN YEARS AGO
Kuh Lon watched Ranma and Nabiki fight against each other, their panda guardian off to the side chewing on bamboo shoots they chopped off specifically for him. She signaled for a cut with the clap of her hands.
Both parted and bowed at each other, she smiled, they were the perfect students. "You impress me." She addressed Ranma in Mandarin, "You have brains to match your brawns," then she turned to Nabiki, "And you have the skill to match your wit."
Both of preened under the compliments. Cologne sensed that she'd have to dole out compliments slowly with them else their egos would grow too large for their heads.
"Ahh... but there is something I still haven't seen you do," she said, as she signaled a servant who gave them each a scroll. "Read it."
One look at the writing and Ranma gulped. "I'm not great with reading Chinese, matriarch."
"Read what you can, deshi." She smiled. "I'm surprised you are conversational with such an intellectually challenged foster father."
"Actually..." Ranma started, "Nabiki forced me to do this. Honest! She got every scroll and pushed me to listen to her reading all those boring things. I can't believe I have a sister who likes all those dull stuff."
"Someone has to be smart enough, Ranma. Besides, I can't have my other half dumb, now could I?" Nabiki smiled as she opened the scroll Kuh Lon gave. "The name that can be named is not the Eternal Name. The way that can be mapped is not the Eternal Way," Nabiki read fluently the beginning words of the Tao Te Ching.
"Show off," he whispered to her, which got him a jab on the back.
Cologne clapped her hands. "Good child! Your aptitude towards the language is excellent."
Ranma humphed as he raised the nursery rhyme scribbled hastily by the Amazon matriarch. "It would help if Rian would keep to herself and Xian would stop paying visits! I know enough!"
That earned him a strike in the head with Cologne's cane. "Speak Chinese boy! Happousai has ordered you to train under me! I was told you two were the best! Do not disappoint me! Besides it is quality and not the quantity of your knowledge that counts."
"Well, I picked up enough of the basics and some advanced stuff. We already won a battle!" Ranma protested to the matriarch.
"Small battles are not wars, deshi." She only smiled at his theatrics. "You have only been under my care for two days! You do not know everything, boy."
"Quality, not the quantity of your knowledge," Ranma echoed.
"As interesting as this conversation sounds, Rian must have her sparring sessions... go off to find the slacker." The matriarch raised an eyebrow. Ranma shuddered, she knew that fights with Rian flustered him. "Not you, boy, you are staying with me to improve your reading skills. Nabiki will go to train with her, they are about parallel in skill."
Both shrugged in unison as Nabiki departed, Ranma scratched his head.
ROSE BRIER, NERIMA, PRESENT
They were an energetic group. One that learned so much, so quickly. What troubled her was that only Nabiki and Rian had offspring. She wondered when Ranma would produce an heir, his skill would be wasted if he did not.
'Rian and Nabiki have produced fine children... Nothing to surpass their own skill...' Cologne thought finally as she closed their traveling bags. 'But at least someone has produced children.'
"What do you want to tell me, Ukyou?" Ranma smiled as they sat down in the teahouse, Nabiki following behind. Isolated from the main house, the chashitsu was the most private of all rooms in all samurai homes. It was the reason they held most of the confidential meetings and why Nabiki wanted Ranma to meet Ukyou, there.
"Um... It's not really all that secret, Ranma. Taking me here was unnecessary." Ukyou fidgeted under Ranma's questioning look, staring at her hands.
"I just wondered if you would like to partake in chanoyu," Ranma asked looking at Nabiki who suggested the whole affair.
Ukyou declined, "I'm no samurai, Ranma. I don't use the formal tea ceremony that much."
"You'll do just fine," Ranma said trying to calm her, waiting patiently for the news she brought.
"I've been thinking..." Ukyou wanted it over as soon as possible, but she couldn't find the words to express herself. "about the conversation we had when you picked Hanae up. I realized that I was a hypocrite."
Ranma did not understand where Ukyou's thoughts were leading to, so he didn't interrupt her, just gave a passing nod to show he was listening. "Hanae becomes more like you every day. Maybe not her looks, but the cocky smile, her movements... She's even taking to that sheepish look you once had when we were young. I love for her as I would my own, but I can't take care of her anymore."
"Ukyou... I—"
"No, Ranma, let me finish. I was bringing it on to myself too. I thought maybe because I have your daughter, maybe then, you could see me as I see you." Her hand brushed her cheek. "But I've been harboring an illusion. I am still your vassal, Lord Ranma, but I cannot be Hanae-san's foster mother any longer."
"Ukyou..." Ranma trailed off, not knowing what to say. He hadn't noticed Ukyou's growing discomfort of the idea. "If that's what you want, I can't deny you your freedom but... what will you do now?"
"Oh, I can still cook okonomiyaki. It's how I'll make a living." She shrugged she was still unsure of how to proceed after giving up Hanae. Ukyou hadn't thought about that at all and had found no reason to. "Maybe go to my father. See how everything is doing."
"You will still visit, right Ukyou?" Nabiki asked from the side, giving an encouraging smile to the girl.
Ukyou returned the smile, if somewhat hesitantly. "Sure, Nabiki." Now they were alone, the siblings dispensed with the formalities. "I'd always want to drop by and see my favorite twins."
"And you're always welcome here, Ucchan," Ranma said, feeling good at calling her the nickname. Perhaps now she wasn't foster mother, she'll let both of them call her by her old pet name.
The twins waited on how she would respond, and Ukyou took her time in doing so. "Sure, Ranchan, Biki-chan." There was an identical sigh of relief from the siblings when they heard her response. "But before I go, I want to ask a favor, Ranchan."
"Anything, Ucchan."
The kiss that followed completely surprised Ranma. He desperately wished that all of his old fiancées would stop kissing him for 'old times' sake.' Trouble always came afterward.
Ukyou broke off when Nabiki cleared her throat loudly. Both of them turned to her. She raised both of her eyebrows, her fan discreetly pointed towards the door. Ranma caught the distinct flash of a yellow kimono before their intruder disappeared from view. Both Ranma and Nabiki discerned who the visitor was even without seeing the face. There were only a few who could approach the teahouse with the samurai and even fewer who could wear a kimono of that quality.
Ukyou sensed the distress and backed away. Ranma's emotions were easy to read, which is why the negotiations of the house usually fell on Nabiki.
Nabiki covered her mouth with a fan she flashed and watched her brother's reaction. She raised a questioning eyebrow at Ukyou.
"Go, Ranchan I think you and your wife need to talk more than we do." She gave him a reassuring smile, but he still hesitated. "Go. Nabiki will keep me company."
With that, Ranma leaped out of the door to find his wife. Ukyou watched him until she could no longer see his figure then turned to Nabiki. "How long has he been like that?"
"Like what?" Nabiki's slowed the movement of her fan weighing Ukyou's right to be informed of such matters.
"You know, stepping around eggshells with Kodachi."
"Since forever." Nabiki sighed, Ranma and Kodachi's marriage has never been one she would call a peaceful one. It was never dull either, but it grated on the nerves. "But if what you're asking is how long has he taken Kodachi's feelings into consideration. That's a different question altogether."
"And?" Ukyou looked expectantly at one of her best friends. It has been so long since she talked to Nabiki as equals, as friends. After Hanae, their talk became limited, dwindling down to the off-handed hello when they met.
Nabiki snapped her fan shut and looked at Ukyou directly in the eyes. "It might have been since mother's birthday. Possibly sometime before that."
"What do you think?"
"It's what my brother thinks that is most vital to the situation at hand." Nabiki sighed then hid her fan in her obi. "Tell me, Ucchan, what made you give up on Ranma?"
"I don't know. It could be because I realized that I could never make him happy. Maybe it's because I'm just one in a million girls—" Ukyou looked at Nabiki pointedly before continuing, "—and boys Genma chanced upon."
"I understand the feeling." Nabiki offered her a weak smile.
"Of what?"
"Being unsure of yourself." She clapped her hands and Naoko, her personal maid, appeared serving them some tea then backed away after she finished.
Ukyou didn't know how to respond to that. "You? Unsure of yourself? You're one of the most definite-minded people of all my friends."
Nabiki gave her a small shake of her head. "Perhaps when we were young. Now it's all an illusion, Ucchan. Best you remember we've all changed."
At twenty-nine, Nabiki was a cynic. Nabiki also has had a tough life. "What happened to you? To both of you? How did I miss such a change?"
"I don't blame you. Sometimes when we try hard to believe something, what we perceive turns out what we want it to be and not the truth." Nabiki waved her hand at the still-open door where Ranma had fled just a moment before. "You wanted so much to believe the love he gave you was more than a friend..."
"My brother has been the focus of your attention, even since we were young. When we were six we stole your food, after that you turned all your resources to get us killed. When we turned sixteen, you decided that you would fall in love with Ranma. When we were twenty-two, you hated him, at twenty-three you held a grudging respect for him. Now at twenty-nine, you're devoted to him again."
"You make it sound like you've analyzed the whole thing," Ukyou whispered embarrassed at the summary of her life and its accuracy. It had revolved too often around the twins. Far too much.
"I've had the time to study it." Nabiki stopped to get the tea from the maid and dismissed her. "You two are the closest people in the world to me."
It was one of those times that awkwardness settled thickly on their conversation. Ukyou tried to continue the discussion, "Still, you pointed it out. I've had my whole life revolving around the two of you. How could I miss such a change?"
"Because you were not looking for it." Nabiki sipped the tea that smelled faintly of Jasmine, said, "And because for thirteen years you have been trying to get Ranma to make you consort there wasn't any room to notice."
Ukyou looked at the uneasily, then shook her head. "Did I waste my life, Nabiki?"
"You thought you were doing what was best for you. It's not the past we have to apologize for. We can do nothing about that, it's the present." Nabiki put down her tea and held Ukyou's hands in between hers. She couldn't reassure Ukyou about the future, but Nabiki always knew what to say even if it didn't come off as comfort. "You realized your mistake, and for that I admire you."
"Why?"
There was silence, Ukyou thought Nabiki would not answer, but she finally did. "Because I still haven't resolved mine." Then as if nothing of importance was being said, Nabiki stood up, brushed her kimono and smiled. "I think this conversation is getting too sentimental, don't you think? Come on, Ukyou, let's walk by the beach."
After Akane's failure at cooking yosenabe, everything went downhill with Nabiki's attempts to make her produce edible food.
Nabiki was getting frustrated at the accumulated food wasted on each cooking attempt and annoyed at the fact they have been eating raw food on the days that Akane cooked.
Still, Akane continued to try, and today was no exception. She skipped around gaily at the house, wondering what she would cook next, and decided that her husband should pick for her.
"Have you seen Ranma, Ifuku?" Akane finally asked after circling the whole house twice and could not find the man. It has come to her attention that he could have left, but the samurai that traveled with him were still around.
"Lord Ranma has visitors, my lady," Ifuku answered folding some of Akane's new kimonos. "I think it's Hanae-san's foster mother, Ukyou-san."
"Oh," Akane's face fell then she decided she'd just inquire what he'd like for dinner with his guest. She decided not to dawdle, the man hasn't been around lately, and she might miss him. Better ask now rather than later. "Uh... where would they be?"
"They're not in the kitchen, or the garden perhaps," Ifuku did not stop her chores.
"I can't find them anywhere in the vicinity." Akane frowned as she thought about the places she visited systematically. "Nowhere."
"Has my lady tried the teahouse?" Ifuku suggested. The servants are acquainted with the practice that Ranma took most of his meetings with his friends in chashitsu. Sometimes when he really wished to be private, they went boating in the bay.
"Oh, the teahouse. Right." Akane turned towards the said structure after thanking Ifuku, only to be blocked by two other samurai.
"Lady Ko—"
"It's Akane," she reminded him patiently. Most of the household already used the name, but a stubborn few still forgot.
"Akane-sama, Ranma-sama has given explicit orders not to let anyone in the vicinity of the teahouse," the guard insisted, his hand on his sword hilt.
Akane gave him one of her smiles. "Oh, come on, I hardly see my husband. I just want to ask what he would like for dinner, so I can finally cook for him." She pushed insistently forward.
"But Saotome-sama has ordered—"
"I'm his wife," Akane stated, finally seeing the samurai wouldn't let her through. "I don't see what he could talk about with Hanae's nanny that should be kept a secret from his own wife."
The guard frowned for a moment then finally answered, "Nabiki-sama is also present."
"There you go." Akane clapped her hands delighted. "You can open the shoji for me, and I'll just take a peek. If he's not doing anything too important for his wife to ask what his dinner will be, I'll holler."
"Well..."
"Come on. I'll be quick." Akane smiled again, and the guard finally relented, opening the paper door for her. Although he was conveniently concealed from people from the inside of the teahouse, he stayed by the entrance to guard her for her word.
Akane thanked him then turned to look at Ranma. It seemed like they were having this conversation, and a woman was crying. She looked at this scene and decided that she might not want to interfere with what she didn't understand when the woman leaned closer to Ranma and kissed him.
Akane stepped aside, unsure of how she felt at first, not understanding the scene that just played out before her. The urge to call out died on her lips ending up in a small whisper that Nabiki heard.
Slowly, Akane backed away from the small reunion. She broke into a run when far from the perimeter, and ignored the samurai who allowed her to pass.
She looked around wildly, realizing that she was in the middle of an empty corridor with no one to run to for comfort. Bewilderment and confusion led its way to anger. "Why should I be the one running?" she asked out loud, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she felt relieved. She wasn't doing anything wrong.
By the time Ranma caught, her irrational anger had been already vented into the right channels. "Let me explain," Ranma started.
"You don't need to explain Ranma," Akane said irritably, not wanting another confrontation with her husband so soon after their last bout. "I am only your wife."
"I don't need to, but I want to," the sincere words eased some of her anger enough to listen.
"Don't you remember Ukyou?" Ranma asked slowly, trying to gauge her reaction. Akane couldn't show any recognition, because she had not met Ukyou before. "She was my former fiancée. One of my oldest friends. She is—was Hanae's foster mother."
"But you can't spare some affection for your own wife?" Akane asked softly, she inclined her head slightly. "Ranma, could you excuse me? You still have your visitor to tend to."
Not waiting for his words, Akane turned her back to him and walked towards her room. To her credit, she closed the door before driving her fist through one of the small tables.
Nabiki watched as her brother approached her with an angry frown plastered across his face. She sighed as she looked at Ukyou, who shrugged in turn.
"I take it his talk with Kodachi did not go as planned," Ukyou whispered to Nabiki, not wishing to draw Ranma's unnecessary hostile attention towards her. Although confident that he would not harm her, she didn't want to be the focus of his anger.
"It seems so." Then again, Ranma and Kodachi have never met eye to eye. "Ucchan, you were telling me a while ago that you wanted to talk to Hanae."
Ukyou bowed and set off to look for Hanae, taking Nabiki's words as a casual dismissal. She gave Ranma a cheery wave then disappeared.
"Ranma, what happened?" Nabiki asked in concern, as Ranma finally approached her. It didn't take Kodachi long to engage a fight with Ranma. "Is there something I could help you with?"
He shook his head remaining silent about the words that were spoken between Kodachi and him. Nabiki always thought they could only deal Kodachi with one way, so she brought up the solution to Ranma knowing he would never think of it himself. "If Kodachi has become too much of a burden to you, I could always commit seppuku."
"No!" Ranma declared vehemently. The rules of the marriage tied Kodachi and Nabiki's lives irrevocably. Nabiki would die by Kuno sword if Kodachi died by a Saotome's hand, and vice versa. "That wouldn't solve anything."
"On the contrary, my lord, it would free your hands to kill her," Nabiki lapsed to the honorifics as she usually did when her brother needed to be calm. It was eerie the way the timbre of her voice matched the waves of the bay when she used soothing tones. "Would you care to join me?"
"Only if you walk beside me." Formality bade women, except consorts, to walk slightly behind men. Nabiki agreed, and they continued along the beach in companionable silence. After a while, Ranma remembered something from his earlier conversation with his wife. "Tell me, where did Kodachi get Martial Arts of Wife in Good Graces? Yuka tells me she's been busy with it the entire week."
"It was my fault." If they weren't so serious, she would have let out a laugh. As it was, she merely walked the beach along with him. "She was so insistent that I teach her to be a good wife, I thought she'd back down after she heard such a formidable title. I was mistaken."
"Is she telling the truth?" Ranma's thoughts turned to Kodachi.
"Ranma... are you sure you would not take my offer of seppuku? It is the only way," Nabiki pleaded with him, both of them were informed of the terms of the marriage. Happousai ingrained it too much in them for them to forget.
The old man was cognizant of one thing: Ranma would not kill his own sister or permit her to die before her time.
"Nabiki, don't make an already hard decision even harder. You're my sister. I will not trade your life for mine," Ranma answered her earnestly. He may be a fool, but he was a sweet one. Then again, was she not a fool as well? She had countless opportunities to kill Kodachi by her own hand, and she never took the blade to slay her. She remembered Kodachi's worst crime upon her and almost frowned. It still rankled her to this time that the low-class samurai could steal her sword.
She took pains to steal it back. Her ancestors handed it down from generation to generation of Saotome women. Awarded to her when she had become able enough to use the sword at ten, she could not lose it.
"I'm only watching out for you, my lord. It is my duty and my honor to commit seppuku to free yourself from something as Kodachi." Nabiki sighed as she flipped her pig-tail aside. Once she was cursed, Happousai had ordered her hair to be redone just as Ranma's. He also instructed her to eat the dragon's hair, while the kokushiu issued a similar command out to Ranma.
"I will not have you killed. I must see you live, too, and my honor you are still in my house." Ranma gave her one of his smiles, and Nabiki wished that it was a genuine one. "Besides, I refuse to live and face Happousai alone."
Nabiki almost smiled at his weak attempt of a joke. She should be thankful for Kodachi for having her bouts of temper and for her insanity. If not for the woman, she would have lost her brother, spent a lifetime the Ikkasei clan, and doomed her son to that close minded-clan Happousai sold her off to.
She learned long ago that it was not wise to trust easily. For the twins to manage Sagami, both of them must work together. They have far too many enemies and too few friends. "To endure Kodachi, we must not let our guard down, but to survive Happousai, we must not be divided," Nabiki answered in reply.
Ukyou looked at the house for the last time, her goodbyes to the family done. She hoped her father would allow her home. He could not turn her out for twenty-three years of trying and blame her. It has been so long since she's seen home.
The restaurant could probably use her help. It was still a part of Sagami, but far enough from Nerima and Rose Brier for Ranma to be seen there frequently. Ranma as daimyo probably visited it once every year. Just enough to see if the roads were paved, the roofs were in good condition and the samurai well trained. She clutched her heart dearly, she may have won battles for Ranma fighting beside him when they were younger, but they were virtually strangers now.
Maybe she could take up her aunt's offer for lodgings, at least until she could find some way to go to her father. Her home in the peasant's lane with all those restaurants was all that she's ever known. In seven years, Hanae had imprinted her memory in every crack.
Had it really been nearly that long? Years of watching a daughter she coveted for her own. It was raining then, and he came drenched to her restaurant, it was a slow evening; the rain hampering anyone from wanting to eat out.
UC-CHAN, SAGAMI, SEVEN YEARS AGO
Ukyou looked up from wiping the tables. She dismissed the help since she could manage alone when there were so few customers. The girl had thanked Ukyou profusely since it would be terrible to return home in the current weather. She thought she heard someone open the shoji, but there was no one standing in the cramped restaurant.
A cold hand clasped her shoulder eliciting her surprise. "Ucchan."
She breathed in to calm herself, only two people called her Ucchan, and only one of them has red hair when wet. She grimaced, the wedding still fresh in her mind. "Lord Ranma—or should I say Lady Ranko, what brings you here?"
"Ucchan, please. I thought we talked this over already?" Ranma-chan sighed, hefting the small bundle in her arms, naming what angered her accurately. "It's been a whole year since I married Kodachi."
"My lord, what makes you think we haven't resolved the issue?" Ukyou answered curtly, moving on to the next table, frowning at the pools of water Ranma-chan left by dripping on the tatami. "I am merely trying to clean up."
"Because you don't call me Lord Ranma unless you're mad at me," Ranma reasoned out. He almost reached out to touch her shoulder, but Ukyou's glare stopped her from trying. "Ucchan..."
Ukyou looked at him sharply. "It does not befit my lord to refer to peasants in such a familiar manner. What is it Lord of the Sagami now, right? Tozama since you married Kodachi."
"Is that how you see this whole marriage, Ukyou?" He shivered lightly by the dampness of his clothes. Curiously, the white bundle in his arms was miraculously dry. "I didn't marry Kodachi for the Sagami."
"Oh? I've noticed you've wanted to be Lord of Sagami ever since you were young. Happousai refused to give you Sagami because of the Kunos." The Kuno Clan had dominated the border by taking Rose Brier, a property in Nerima on the border of Sagami between Kuno and Saotome territory. "Just after you swore you wouldn't marry, you leave for months and return married to Lady Kodachi. Lady Kodachi who's dowry is, my, my, Rose Brier. Do you expect me to believe in the coincidence?" She didn't have much faith in that.
"I didn't marry her because of her dowry," Ranma murmured.
"Oh yes, I remember now. You don't marry girls when they give you their dowry. You take it and run away. I wonder what makes Kodachi special." She moved to another table again. She understood that it wasn't fair accusing him of something like the yattai, but life wasn't fair. "Was it her looks, or probably her roses, or maybe because she was good in bed. Which one is it?"
"I married her because Lord Happousai ordered it." There was a mewling cry which sounded like a wounded cat somewhere in the rain. Miraculously, Ranma didn't jump at the sound. "I admit I cared for her for some time. Happousai made sure we were familiar with each other before they married us. But all that's over right now. I don't really care much for the woman now."
"The only reason we're still living in the same house is that Lord Happousai desperately wants the Sagami in his side. It was to seal his deal with Lord Ieyasu. They're allies now because of it. Lord Happousai has faith that Lord Ieyasu will win the war. Our Liege Lord is willing to give Edo to the man just to prove his faithfulness."
Everybody was aware that Lord Happousai prided the fishing village. It may look like that now, but he has extensive plans for the community which will become the center of the Kanto someday. "What's the reason you came here for Lord Ranma? I doubt it's discussing your wedding arrangements."
"Actually, I came because of this." Ranma nudged the bundle towards Ukyou. "I wondered if... you know. You'd take care of her."
Ukyou looked curiously at the bundle, and when Ranma's words sunk in, she pulled away, not even seeing the girl. She gave him a resounding slap. "How dare you come to my restaurant and ask that of me? Do you wish to insult me so much as to make me foster mother of your daughter? I may be your former fiancée, but I am not your servant."
Ranma-chan permitted for the slap to connect. Had she been unwilling to receive it, Ukyou would not have hit. She looked at Ukyou with imploring eyes tinged with sadness. "I'm not insulting you Ukyou. I'm sorry if you took it as that. And... she is not my wife's daughter. She is mine."
Ukyou was speechless. This was Ranma, Ranma who has bound his soul to bushido. Who saw everything in the Way of the Warrior even in matters regarding his wife.
Another thought occurred to her, could Ranma-chan have borne the child? She shook the last thought away from her head, although Ukyou was angry with him, she knew him. Ranma would never bed down with a man, even for an heir.
Maybe because he finally found the truth in Kodachi, he tried to find someone else. Perhaps this girl was a mistake. Surely if Kodachi didn't take Ranma's heart... she still has a chance.
"The offer still stands," Ranma-chan said as she turned to leave.
Ukyou watched her go out, the redhead's body shielding the infant. The martial artist was about to take to the roofs, but Ukyou couldn't bear it any longer. She loved the fool. "Wait!"
The redhead turned.
"I'll be the girl's foster mother. If only because you were my friend once."
Ranma-chan looked ridiculous in the rain, body stooped to prevent her charge from getting wet. "I still think of you as one."
Up to now, Ukyou still didn't understand what made her take up the offer. It might have been because she had thought, even back then that Ranma told the truth or because she wanted to be closer to a part of Ranma. "What's her name?"
"Hanae. Saotome Hanae."
ROSE BRIER, NERIMA, PRESENT
Nabiki massaged her temple as she watched Hanae and Sei loiter about from the porch overlooking the gardens. Ranma had given the children an hour's break from his training while he attended to his other duties.
Although Nabiki was happy that Ukyou was finally deciding what she wanted to do with her life, the decision couldn't have come at a worse time.
Most of the ladies fit to be Hanae's foster mother already have charges, and some of them weren't prepared to be one yet. Most foster mothers have nine months to prepare for the coming of their chargers. In the small town surrounding Rose Brier, Nabiki feared there were none.
When Kodachi passed by the courtyard and stopped to watch the children in their mild banter, Nabiki watched in turn. Although she never associated herself with Hanae and Sei before, recently Kodachi found almost any excuse to pass by and observe.
Nabiki drummed her fingers against the wooden porch. Kodachi did nothing but take walks, run around the house, read and try out some basic katas recently. Whatever amusements she had before disappeared from her system, leaving her with significant gaps in her schedule and allowing her the pleasure of the children.
She heeded Nabiki's warning to stay away though and has no courage to approach them or face Nabiki's own wrath.
The entire situation provided a unique opportunity for Nabiki to watch Kodachi closely. Hanae was old enough not to need a foster mother, but propriety needed one and Kodachi needed something to do if only for the sake of Nabiki's sanity.
When Kodachi noticed that Nabiki's eyes were on her, she bowed and continued on her way. When she was out of sight, Nabiki motioned for Hanae to come closer.
"Hanae, Ukyou can't be your foster mother anymore," Nabiki broke the news gently. Hanae wasn't the type to cry, and Nabiki didn't have experience on what to do if Hanae loosed a few tears.
"She told me, 'Nty Nabiki. She'll visit me though," Hanae answered solemnly.
"Do you think you could get along with Kodachi?" Nabiki asked lightly, trying to gauge the girl's reaction. Although it would be an unconventional set up, the Saotomes never followed norms. As for Hanae's safety, she would never be alone. If Kodachi proved to be too dangerous, Hanae could also handle herself in a fight and Nabiki could draw a replacement up by then. But more importantly, the girl would be a good set of eyes.
There was an uncertainty in the girl's eyes. When she spoke and tried to work her thoughts into words, "Kodachi's shown she can be cruel lots of times. I've always seen her like daddy or you, have seen her. But she seems different now. I guess I can try."
"You will be in a close watch with the samurai," Nabiki assured her niece. Nabiki knew that she was probably setting the girl up in one of the worst trials of her childhood. "If that woman does something, anything to harm you, tell me at once."
"Yes, auntie," Hanae whispered in acquiescence.
Nabiki gathered the small girl in her arms wondering if she was doing the right thing.
Akane walked the boundaries of the dojo, happy that she arrived when it was empty. Usually, Ranma or his sister dominated the structure, banishing her to the house.
She wondered at her last argument with her so-called-husband. There wasn't much to tell, she was always quick to her temper, and Ranma was the person who always set it off.
Ranma still believed that Akane was Kodachi. From what Ifuku says, Kodachi and her husband have the most violent arguments. Kodachi got out of the fights by using potions that are carefully hidden around the house.
Sometimes she thought she couldn't take it anymore, it's been nearly half a year stay in Rose Brier. She hasn't gotten out, although admittedly she wasn't too social a person. She only has two best friends in school and tried desperately to keep her distance from boys. Rose Brier was isolated from the rest of the world for her to start now.
Death was a commonplace occurrence and shinigami didn't make a habit of throwing people who died back in time. There has to be some ultimate reason for this. She didn't believe that the shinigami just played some infernal go game and picked on her on a whim.
There were only two answers for why she was given someone else's life, either it wasn't her time, or... it wasn't Kodachi's time.
She took a short dagger from the piles of weapons she was examining in the dojo and moved towards the path that led to the beach. She stopped on the trail occasionally cutting a tiny flower and bringing it along. The white one with violet tips that reminded her of her husband.
'Was there some grander scheme between Kodachi and Ranma in the first place?' Akane thought to take in the sweet smell of the flower, 'Or am I deluding myself? Maybe I was just sent here to be punished.'
Lost in her reverie, the sweet-smelling flowers, and the sand on her feet grounded her. She abruptly stopped when a soft voice whispered in the lull of the waves, 'baby.'
Maybe it was the surge of water, but she distinctly heard the sound 'baby' sighed in the breeze. "My baby?" she asked aloud not expecting an answer.
Could it be true? Could the baby that she lost be the reason she was sent back? That this world and Ranma would need the baby. Dame Fortune played games, and humans were the least to expect it.
"Yes," came the reply. Akane pinched herself to check if she was dreaming, and second-guessed if she was simply having a conversation with herself. Maybe she was being driven mad and was imagining things in the waves.
She crumpled her face. 'Oh great, I need to make a baby with my husband, and how does the shinigami propose to do that when Ranma hates my guts?' She walked back to the house to think. It was her fault, she asked the question.
The shinigami wasn't obligated to give an answer she wanted.
Hanae found her father by the shoreline, drenched with sweat moving on through one of the more complex katas. Watching from a distance, Hanae didn't interrupt, he always did it perfectly and so easily that she always wanted to observe. He made it seem as effortless as breathing.
He stopped when he sensed her watching him, picking up a towel by the table he wiped the small trickle of perspiration running down his brow. "Hanae, are you aware of the situation with Ukyou?"
Hanae nodded.
"I'll ask Nabiki to see to a suitable replacement for her. Until then, 'Ranko' will be enough." He smiled at her as he rumpled her hair, she smiled back.
"I always want to stay with you, daddy," Hanae whispered, hugging him fiercely.
He kneeled so he could look at her at eye level. "That's why I'll look after you."
"Then don't send me out again. I will stay with you," she pleaded with him. "You need me, daddy."
A little girl won't make his life any easier, but not really all that harder. He promised her mother. "You're better off with a real foster mother, Hanae. I'm not very good at being one. I'll visit you, just like with Ukyou. What's the difference?"
"You can't stay out of Rose Brier, daddy," Hanae whispered, clutching him tightly. "Don't you see? With all the activity you've been telling 'Nty Nabiki to leave the Sagami without its leader..."
"You talked to her?" Ranma asked, wondering why the girl was suddenly fidgeting pulling her from the hug. "What did she say?"
"'Nty said Kodachi'll be my new foster mother."
His stern gaze was enough to make Hanae realize that her father was not especially enamored to Kodachi caring for her. Kodachi had never much to do with children in the past and undoubtedly less in the present. "Yes, Nabiki told me."
"Are you mad, daddy?" Hanae asked crestfallen as if the foster mother was her fault.
Ranma noted the suspicious shine in her eyes and rumpled her hair again. He couldn't be mad at her for Nabiki's decision. "No Hanae, I'm not. Just surprised that's all. Kodachi is hardly motherly material."
"But she knows gymnastics, plus she can swim, she can show me that. The rest you can train me." Hanae looked up at him. "Daddy, she won't do anything at all, just watch me, and I'm a good little girl."
"And a handful," he said wryly as he referred to the stunts that the girl did most of the day.
"She's a handful too." Hanae she didn't need a foster mother, and they only retained one as a formality. She was more disciplined than other children her age because she got her maternal ministrations from Ukyou, Nabiki, and occasionally Nodoka. "Besides, I'll find out if she's telling the truth or not."
"Kodachi is not someone you mess around with," Ranma reminded her of the madness Kodachi could very well do. She is not a rational variable. "She's not even close to sane."
"I'll handle it." She wiped her tears, confident of herself now she gained her father's approval. "So do you want me to learn gymnastics, or swimming first?"
Hikaru Gosunkugi was in a miserable state. He was severely bruised and was lacking the skills to properly minister to his wounds. He took up some cloth to bandage his gashes. It had been a few weeks since Ranma inflicted them and they still haven't healed. Admittedly, he was a slow healer, but Ranma Saotome was a master of severely pounding a guy.
It was already just plain luck for that he was not mutilated. Had Kodachi not interfered, he would have lost his head. Had Happousai not ordered Ranma to stay, he would have been cut into pieces.
Pure Luck.
The gods must be smiling at him.
And Kodachi. 'What's with her? It must be her husband, doing this to her. He was probably forcing his sweet Kodachi to bed again, that brute Saotome was mad. He didn't let Kodachi do anything that a woman should.'
That thug of a spouse was watching, that's why she didn't want to kiss. He stroked one of the multiple scars that he received from the encounter with Ranma. Saotome would pay dearly for his injuries. Every last one.
The door of the shoji opened. "Who's there?" Gosunkugi croaked, his mind going over the people who had knowledge of his whereabouts. The eta village was not a place where even peasants trod and was avoided at all costs. He scratched his leg. His kimono was probably lice infested already.
But it was the only place he could stay safe from Ranma Saotome's clutches. Saotome was a samurai, and samurai tended to be loyal to fellow samurai, especially against a peasant.
No one answered.
He stood to check who was there when a hand stopped him from rising. "Oh, Hikaru, who did this to you?"
He turned around to see an unfamiliar face.
"You want me to teach you what?" Akane exclaimed, frantic at the small child, trying to verify if she heard correctly. "I trained in very little gymnastics and even less of swimming!"
Hanae pouted twirling the makeshift ribbon in her hand. The crude ribbon was tied to a stick and from the looks of it, came from one of her hair decorations. "Come on Kodachi, you were good at it, daddy said you almost won against him."
That match had been some years before the marriage, and Kodachi had not been close to winning. Later, Ranma would learn that Kodachi usually cheated at these matches. She only withheld those tactics with 'Ranko' because she learned—or probably misunderstood her connection with Ranma.
"I forgot!" Akane anxiously thought of a reason to deny the request. Was swimming like biking that once you learn you never forget? "I can't swim!"
"You can't forget a skill!" Hanae argued, determined to get what she wanted. "You can turn slower, maybe have lesser endurance, but skill is never forgotten."
Akane sighed, just her luck it was similar to biking. "I have amnesia! And what will we use for bathing suits?" She doubted if Speedo was actually around in the 1600s. Hell, she doubted if any swimsuit was around in the 1600s.
"Bathing suits?" Hana continued to rummage around Kodachi's things in the dojo. "Why wear something when bathing? It makes little sense."
"Well, we need that!" Akane argued, taking an equally large box and rustling around, not knowing what Hanae was looking for, but content just to do something. "What do you wear for swimming?"
"Nothing!" Hanae frowned as she thought about it then stopped searching in the box. She regarded Akane thoughtfully. "Should I wear something?"
"Yes!" For someone whose father didn't want to see her in shorts, she seemed to have less feminine dignity than her. Although admittedly, bathing was a social ritual. The onsen was a public bath, and there were no qualms when bathing there. Akane took an objection against it when there was the possibility of the other samurai seeing them.
"Do you cover when you bathe?"
"No."
"And isn't swimming sort of like bathing?"
"Well ... yes."
"So what's the problem?" Hanae asked, quizzically scratching her head. She couldn't understand why they needed to wear something that would hamper training.
"Because I want to be decent!"
To that Hanae desperately tried not to laugh out loud. "Were you born with clothes?"
"No."
"So, when you were born, you weren't decent?"
"No! I was a baby and—"
"If God thought nudity was indecent, then he would not have made us naked when we were born. Don't you hear the gospel when the priest says Mass, Kodachi-san? Isn't it in Genesis wherein Eve ate from the apple and realized their state of undress which made Him cast them off of paradise."
"I'm a Shinto! I'm not indoctrinated in these things," Akane whimpered at the onslaught of Hanae's lecture.
"Happousai converted my father into Christianity from Shintoism 'cuz you were Christian. Are you telling me you've lied all these years?" Hanae accused.
"No! What does this have to do with swimming, anyway?" Akane asked, flustered at the things Hanae was asking for. Akane wondered if accepting the offer was a big mistake. "All I ask is why do swimsuits make you seem all angry?"
"'Coz the concept is stupid!" Hanae pointed out, frustrated. "If you're struggling to get away from someone, a swimsuit will pull the body in the opposite direction. The suit'll get into the eyes blinding you. Plus, cloth absorbs water, it'll become tough to swim quickly because it's heavy."
"We just need to cover up while we're learning!" Akane sighed, lugging the big box out of the way to talk to Hanae without it being in the middle. "I don't care what you do or don't wear afterward."
"But it will drag us down!" Hanae argued. "Cloth absorbs water. If it drags me down, I won't be able to breathe properly."
"Have I consented on teaching you how to swim, young lady?" Akane asked, putting her hands on her hips and trying to look stern.
"Well, no." Hanae gave her a cheery smile. "But you will. Keeping all your knowledge to yourself is unfair. That's being selfish."
Akane shook her head, she wondered if there was such a thing as insurance in the 1600s. Probably not. She hoped that Ranma wouldn't go out for her blood when she accidentally drowns Hanae or something to that effect.
Akane could feel a migraine coming, and rubbed her forehead. And this was only about swimming. Who knows what the gymnastics conversation would turn out?
Why couldn't she have just asked to teach her martial arts?
Nabiki watched with detachment as her two students finished playing shogi. They still didn't come to where they could beat her, but their constant practice would do them good.
"Sensei, why do we need to learn shogi?" Sei asked as he cleaned up the board to go to the cases.
"Shogi is a game of tactics. Combining the ability to follow instructions, your strategy and your problem solving to win." Nabiki's son, who was a few months younger than Hanae, was starting to show his curious streak. Nabiki always tried to indulge them in their questions. "And to win a war, the leader must have a good head for tactics."
"Will we fight in the war?" Hanae asked as she covered the board with a piece of cloth then kept it in the alcove. "When did you start to fight?"
"You will, someday." Nabiki took out another board game essential for their strategy. "We were about ten when we started on little battles."
"What is that?" The boy asked curiously at the new wooden set Nabiki turned out from the alcove.
Nabiki just smiled as she readied the pieces, it was one of the few remembrances she has of their lessons from China. This piece was from before the matriarch took over their training. "This, Sei, Hanae, is called Xiang-chi."
"Xiang-chi?" Both of them repeated as they saw the fine lines were drawn across the board and the pieces Nabiki set carefully.
"Yes, it's the Chinese form of shogi and similar to it." Nabiki lectured as she wiped the last piece and placed it on the lines, "Well? It would disappoint me if you didn't notice at least one dissimilarity now."
"The game is played at the intersections!" Hanae pointed out gleefully, clapping her hands.
"Yes, unlike shogi, which plays inside the squares, this one is at the intersections. Some pieces also may not cross the central river." She pointed at the blue dividing line on the board. "After you learn Xiang-chi, the next game would probably be go, but I want you to learn this game well."
Nabiki placed the game between the two children. "It was not taught to us in China for nothing. I will leave you to set up the black side by yourselves and look at the board for a while so you can try to determine what are the similarities of this wooden game—" she knocked on the wooden game, then looked at the children. "—and real life."
She stood up to see Kodachi watching them from the shoji. Nabiki sighed imperceptibly. The woman has too much time in her hands. She led her sister-in-law to the garden before asking, "Yes, Kodachi, is there something I can help you with?"
"Nabiki, I didn't know who I'd turn to for this. I can't swim!" Kodachi looked like a three-year-old caught handling the sword that someone ordered him not to touch. "I barely learned how to tread!"
Raising a perfect eyebrow up, Nabiki sighed. Kodachi always was always shirking her duties, and this request was another example. Swimming was a necessary skill, and therefore Lord Happousai had ordered all his samurai to learn, even hatamoto. Kodachi was an excellent swimmer because of this.
"Kodachi, you are not passing off your work," Nabiki said coldly shifting her fan out, "I have too much work to do."
"I wasn't implying that you take my work," Kodachi persisted. "I was just informing you I can't swim."
Kodachi wasn't much use to Nabiki. Granted, she was an excellently trained housewife—when she brought her skills out in the open. But as Nabiki saw the disaster of the kitchens, the only thing that was safe to pass off from Kodachi was swimming or gymnastics. They had to settle for swimming because Nabiki didn't want to think of gymnastics. "Then what do you propose to teach your charge?"
"Martial Arts," Kodachi responded quickly. "It's the only thing I'm proficient in."
"You can't. They already have several teachers in the area. They are learning mid-level battoujutsu, some ninjitsu techniques Sasuke was willing to part, and beginning their Kyudo training." Nabiki turned to the dojo. "Teaching martial arts is reserved for the head of the Saotome family. I am fairly sure my students are about your level of fighting skill, maybe a little below yours but you are not advanced enough to teach them."
This seemed to have enraged Kodachi, "Look here, Nabiki-san, I have been sensei to the Tendo school of martial arts since I graduated from college. How dare you accuse me of—"
"And excuse me, Kodachi-san, You haven't even touched, Chiu, much less Dai Gakho," mimicking the exact words Kodachi threw at her. How dare she? It was the peasants' children that attended school! "the children are privately tutored. You have refused education, you cannot teach anything other than wifely ministrations that your mother, which you have forgotten, trained you."
"How dare you belittle my skill!" Kodachi raved, enraged at the way Nabiki was treating her. "You haven't even seen me fight."
"I don't need to. Your feet are rough from running without the geta," Nabiki circled Kodachi then appraised, "you have lost your flexibility by stagnancy. Although it seems you have been trying, unsuccessfully, to do some strength training."
She pointed to Kodachi's hand. "Calluses in the knuckles of your fist suggest you have been breaking something recently. Perhaps wood, which has much to say about your strength. Meaning: not a lot."
After that, Nabiki crossed her arms to watch Kodachi's expression. "Your endurance lasts only long enough to run by the boundary of Rose Brier, you're too lazy to try of the periphery of Nerima. You walk in a manner that suggests you are too slow for an encounter with my students, no matter how much stronger you are." She didn't even bother to delve into how Kodachi neglected to train in defense from the non-reaction she got when she walked around her.
Nabiki shrugged then gave a severely cut diagnostic. "Your size can be an advantage to you, but not too much, as the children can dodge quickly. I predict that my students will either try to wear you out or get in as many hits as they can while avoiding yours."
"Is that a challenge?"
"Only if you take it to be so," Nabiki said then moved towards the children again. "I'm not much of a fighter, Kodachi-san, merely telling you the odds."
"Then how about a fight, to test my abilities?" Kodachi offered, still bothered because Nabiki took her skill so lightly, she was the best in Furinkan and surely good enough now.
Nabiki shrugged then called out her two students, both of them hurried out of the room when she summoned, leaving behind the Xiang-chi immediately. They bowed to her lightly, and Nabiki nodded.
"Hanae, Sei, Kodachi wants us to test her fighting ability," Nabiki called, and watched Kodachi. "She thinks I have underestimated her. What do you think?"
"We have not heard the estimate, Nabiki-sensei," Sei responded. When they were formally taught, the children always referred to their teachers as sensei regardless of their relationship. "But I am sure that your assessment of her ability isn't that far off the mark."
Hanae nodded in agreement. "Sensei, your appraisal of anything has been what my father prized the most in your battles. You would not tell Kodachi something you are not sure of."
"Come now children, Kodachi." Nabiki turned to walk towards the dojo. She slid the shoji open, revealing the room in all its grandiose. "A challenge of sorts has been issued and accepted."
"Come now, Nabiki," Kodachi said as she followed. "You should leave the children out of this."
"They are samurai," Nabiki said as if their status would explain their presence. "They should learn to take part in battle."
"But... they're so young!" Akane protested as the children opened the side shoji which revealed space where spectators usually watched.
"Who do you propose then? Be our judge, Kodachi?" Nabiki asked as she bowed at the tokonoma. "I am sure that they would want to watch this, just as any of the samurai."
The young ones sat down in their respective places and waited expectantly for Nabiki to begin.
Kodachi looked even more stunned, "Oh, they're judging. From the way you talked before, I thought they would fight me."
"Yes, but they might not give an accurate summation of your abilities." Nabiki shrugged then turned to her, "I am merely obliging to your wishes."
Kodachi took on a ready stance, which Nabiki recognized as one of the most basic of Anything Goes: a meld from two other styles Genma taught them. Nabiki looked at the other woman suspiciously. Kodachi shouldn't be able to use anything from Indiscriminate Grappling, even a basic stance.
A glance at the children told her they recognized the stance. Something was up, Nabiki didn't move. 'No one outside the Saotome Clan should have an idea for moves from the Hidden Arts. No one.' Even Happousai did not speak of Indiscriminate Grappling freely.
She could name a select few who had learned that the Saotomes practiced the style: the Amazon matriarch and her two heirs, possibly China's emperor, Gosunkugi from Ranma's fight back at the party, and a few rivals from when they were younger, bain the fiancée wars. They didn't go about proclaiming they used it. Those who saw them fight, attribute their skills to a lot of branches of martial arts. Few suspected it was actually a compiled version of every art they have gotten their hands in.
Yet this woman, who rarely practiced outside Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics moved like a practitioner of the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu. She was a clumsy and slow practitioner, but a practitioner nonetheless. This did not bode well.
"Well, are you going to fight me or not?" Kodachi asked irritated her right hand balled into a fist in front of her.
"I am." Nabiki smiled complacently, sure that Kodachi would make the first move against her, Kodachi was more impatient than Ranma, and her brother always started their sparring matches. "I'm merely waiting for your attack."
"But you're not ready," Kodachi protested as she noted Nabiki's relaxed position.
"Just because I take a different stance than you, my dear Kodachi," Nabiki reasoned out as she placed her hands on the back of her neck. It was the one stance that her brother used to goad most of his enemies. "Doesn't mean I'm not ready for you."
Kodachi's hit first came an inch clear of her face.
'Pulling in her blows?' Nabiki almost laughed. "You should treat me with more respect, Kodachi. I don't fight with someone who isn't giving their all."
"Who says I'm not?" Kodachi turned to assault Nabiki with a barrage of punches. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire trained Nabiki in speed, which made Kodachi's punches less than mediocre.
"Your aim is bad," Nabiki goaded, jumping over a 90-degree kick Kodachi lashed out using Kodachi's leg as support. "Or you're missing me intentionally."
Grim determination settled in Kodachi's eyes. It confirmed Nabiki's suspicion that her opponent was holding back. Unluckily for Kodachi, Nabiki didn't have the same reservation as Ranma for hitting females. Nabiki was merely testing the other woman's abilities today and deliberately prolonged the fight.
Nabiki eyed the punches critically as Kodachi's fist pounded past her, heart barely pumping. 'Ranma's habit of kicking the opponent's head back when he jumped, would have automatically disabled her,' Nabiki thought as she tracked Kodachi's heavy movement.
"Stop dodging!" Kodachi jabbed to the side and followed it with a kick, her forward momentum leaving her vulnerable. Nabiki didn't take the opening for a counter-attack at the woman's midsection but ducked and rolled, standing immediately at the ready.
"I'm testing your abilities, remember?" Nabiki sing-songed.
The dodge game had Kodachi breathing heavily. It quite surprised Nabiki. Too many gaps in her defense showed that on Kodachi's first blow, Nabiki could have knocked her out cold.
Nabiki brought up her arms to block Kodachi's punches and get a feel of its strength. Nabiki gasped when she recognized the stance: advanced attacks from Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.
Consciously guarding her actions, she followed with side-steps, twirls, and jumps that were mere annoyances than actual confrontation. Nabiki switched to the defensive style the Amazons favored without using combinations from Indiscriminate Grappling.
Deciding to end the fight, Nabiki ducked from Kodachi's forward punches and swept her feet. Kodachi yelped. It had sent her tumbling. Nabiki then brought her elbow to Kodachi's neck but didn't connect it.
"Now you see. A lesson from someone, who cannot even land a blow on me, who is not as good with the art as my brother, is not a lesson at all," Nabiki lectured, pinning Kodachi to the ground. Nabiki didn't mention that she only lost to her brother.
She stood up then dusted her kimono, holding her hand out to Kodachi, who accepted. Nabiki motioned for Hanae and instructed the girl to assist. "Sei, Hanae, after you fix the game board you left, you are dismissed and think upon one of the many flaws of Kodachi's fighting style."
Kodachi glared at her, Nabiki merely smiled. "Kodachi, how are they going to train in fighting if they do not see what is wrong?"
"Do you have to tell them in front of me?" Kodachi spit out, leaning mostly on Hanae.
"If you cannot take criticism, Kodachi, you must learn how to be correct. Sei, what do you think is the weakest point in Kodachi's form, and why was my reaction time to her punches faster as the fight progressed?"
The boy paused for a minute trying to re-create what happened in his head, then answered, "She falls into the same pattern after a few tries."
"That's true. A pattern yields to predictability," Nabiki informed her then looked at Hanae. "And Hanae, did you notice anything out of the ordinary of the punches, and kicks Kodachi threw?"
"She had too much power behind them. Counter attacks or blocking was only possible if you were extremely nimble." Sei answered.
Nodding, she patted her two students' head. "Correct." She turned to Kodachi and said, "And since your body isn't powerful, the gravity of the punches you give pushes you forward more than what's necessary. Those flaws are only from your punches. I think this little lesson is over now, think more about your actions before you challenge someone whose skills you barely grasp."
The fighting style was easily flawed, more so because Kodachi employed the body like she was used to strength in blows rather than flexibility. Kodachi had mostly been a graceful fighter before she gained amnesia and strength-fuelled-blows hadn't been in her training. More concerning was that Kodachi used moves from Indiscriminate Grappling. If Kodachi could learn from merely watching the few fights they have exposed her to, then she must be quite a fast learner. Possibly just as fast as Ranma. Unless someone was teaching her these moves, and she strongly doubted anyone would do that, she wasn't Saotome.
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 was borrowed from the brilliant mind of Rumiko Takahashi. The book this was based on was When there is Hope.
Special Thanks to:
MJ, Maurice Phillip, Tin and Angel, Jourdan Bickham, Byooki Desu, Anno Nimus, Thomas Hamill, Cat Highlord
And to the person reading this.
Endnotes:
(1) Dashi: Soup stock. Okay, even if the translation is there, so there's no confusion I'm repeating it down here.
(besides dashi and deshi sound too much alike.)
(2) kombu: kelp
(3) katsuobushi: bonito flakes
(4) sashimi: raw insert food here, you don't cook this at all, you just have to slice fresh tuna fish to eat, fresh sea urchin, raw salmon, raw octopus... :) With some soy sauce and lemon juice it's a good meal. (If you're not that hungry)
(5) tabi: socks with the split in the middle for the shoes. You know what I'm talking about right?
(6) What is Xiang-chi? If you've been listening to Nabiki :) you'd know this is Chinese chess. Sometimes called Hsiang-chi or Xiangqi. One of the little war games :) I got my info on this on 'The Basics of Chinese Chess' :)
(7) What are hatamoto? A hatamoto is a special retainer of a daimyo, who had the right of access to his lord and could wear his sword in the presence of his lord.
(8) Kyudo: Way of the bow or Japanese Archery
(9) Chiu Gakho: Middle School (Probably equivalent to the present day Middle School)
(10) Dai Gakho: Great School (Probably equivalent to present day High School or College)
Author's Notes:
I reread this for the first time in... probably four years and was shocked. I cannot believe my writing was this bad. Ugh. I extremely have to revise all of the chapters now. And I mean now. I don't even want to know what the state of Chapter 9 is in. I deleted 17 'after all's and cut down from 17,330 to 16,201 words later to 14, 652. I realize I wrote in a lot of unnecessary things.
This is a revised edition (2005) of the 1998 edition so it's probably foggy in your memories. If you have the old version stored, burn it, throw it away. Just... well stick with this one. It's way better.
In retrospect, I think this chapter was bad because I was suffering from mental block at the time. (As said from my previous author's notes.) I've deleted two scenes one between Nabiki and Hanae, the other with Akane and Hanae.
Expect it to get revised in the next weeks for grammar. Btw, my webpage is still behind fanfiction dot net stuff but it has fanart. I'll be revising the webpage this sembreak so just wait for it. Chapter 7 isn't even uploaded properly there yet. But from what I understand, I just finished editing chapter 7 last april.
iCe
We sometimes tend to forget that criticism is better than praise, when we criticize we say that the other person has the ability to accept our words and take it as a challenge to become better because of this.
my teacher (hehehe)
I write when the spirit moves, and I make sure it moves every day.
unknown
