It was dawn the next morning when Akane finally entered the boundary of the Amazon village in China. The flight wasn't that long but between the flight itself and the trek to the village, they had reached their destination in the small hours of the morning. Akane had opted to remain outside until Mousse was able to cobble together some way for her to meet with the women that ran the village.
She worried at leaving the task to him, knowing that the return to the village meant returning to his role within it.
"Akane Tendo?" asked a voice next to her, reminding her that Mousse's older sister now attended her around the village. Akane was passable at Mandarin but still unfamiliar with the dialect spoken here. When the girl – whose name was Pei Fun, she thought – asked her a question, she could only look at her with a blank expression.
"She asked if you'd be okay having a man as a translator," Mousse retorted from a few feet away. He muttered a few words in Mandarin to the older girl, who merely responded by sticking out her tongue at him and walking away. He grinned at her back before facing Akane fully. Before she realized what he was doing, he bent completely at the waist, apparently offering her deep respect and apology. "I apologize. The matriarchs took some time to realize that few in our village speak Japanese. They feel they have affronted you by forcing you to travel the village with a man, no matter how high my rank might be."
"Men have rank in this village?" Akane asked, both curious and very surprised. Her shock was expected, to be sure, considering the way that both Shampoo and Cologne treated him in Japan.
He smiled at her and her very real curiosity. "Men share the rank of their wife or their closest relative. Because my mother is the next in line to become the Matriarch of the Gùwèn, the Advisor Clan, my attendant rank is quite high."
"The Advisor Clan?"
"There are two others, the Leader Clan and the Warrior Clan." She gave him a significant look, communicating that she knew to which clan Shampoo and Cologne belonged. "Ah, yes, well, that Clan can be a little... traditional."
"Yes, well... Will they see me?"
"The Elder Council only meets for emergencies and tribunals. The Matriarchs discussed among themselves and agreed to absorb the Tendo warriors into the Leader Clan on three conditions."
Akane sighed, reaching up to rub a spot between her eyes. "Alright. Let's hear them."
"Firstly, you must spend some time in the village learning our rules, traditions, and customs." At that, she nodded, expecting a condition like it. "Secondly, upon completing the first condition, they ask that your return to Japan be attended by some attempt to inflate the clan."
She stared at him for a long moment, her eyes wide at the implication. "They want me to recruit Amazons?"
Mousse inclined his head, offering her both a positive response and acknowledgment that she had guessed correctly. "Finally, you must attain your rank in the traditional way, by participating in the annual combat tournament."
For a moment, Akane paused, sensing something significant in her friend's gaze. Then, it dawned on her with brilliant clarity. "That's the tournament that Ranma interrupted, isn't it? The thing that started this whole mess?" At his nod, she smiled and rolled her eyes. "Well, I don't see why not. I accept the conditions. When is the tournament, anyway?"
"It begins at dawn tomorrow."
By the time light touched the village the next day, Akane had met and was on relatively positive terms with most of the village. Pretty much all aside from the Warrior Clan, which the Japanese girl had expected from the start. Like Mousse had told her, they were traditional, even to the point that they viewed her as an outsider in spite of her induction into the Leader Clan.
Or perhaps, their animosity was because of it.
"What weapon do you want to use?" Mousse asked as they walked toward the formal combat grounds.
After a brief moment of thought, Akane stated, "I'm most comfortable with a staff. It has versatility and reach."
Mousse nodded. "Can I make a recommendation?"
Akane smirked at his tone. "You know, you're a lot more formal here… in the village." While the comment made him smile, he still waited for her to respond. "Sure, recommend away."
"The tapered chang gun would probably be most suited to you."
She nodded, accepting the recommendation. "Okay, let's get started."
"Akane?" Mousse called out as she hopped nimbly onto the log. Finding her balance easily enough, she looked down at him in askance. "No mercy," he reminded her.
She grinned brightly and nodded, knowing exactly to what he was referring. For years, a lot of her problem seemed to stem from the fact that she held back her own strength so much. It was easily understood that the Hentai Horde – the swarm of suitors that she'd had to deal with on a daily basis prior to Ranma's arrival – would not be able to endure even a fraction of her strength. Also true was the fact that she didn't like to needlessly hurt people.
But here, in this village, the tournament contenders were true warriors. Bred and trained to fight and die for their beliefs and traditions and customs, these were women that Akane could take seriously. In short, she needed to fight them for real, with every inch of ability and training that she had.
As she planted her feet firmly in the large log, feeling for its natural movements, she could hear her father's voice in her head. The Anything Goes school requires that we be many things, Akane, things that often change with the situation. I've trained you in awareness and now you must understand the Tendo school. In this, we must be the tree, we must be the rock. You must be unmoved by the wind and by the water. Its only choice must be to move around you. And when you choose to move, when you choose to strike, the choice must always be made with the finality of the immovable object.
She smiled to herself, the curve of her lips fond in the memory of her father's lessons. Yes, it was true that most of her physical skill was either self-trained, seeking to imitate her father's katas, or training under the tutelage of another dojo. But it was her father's martial philosophies that guided her more than anything that could become muscle memory. And that lesson was the difference between the Saotomes and the Tendos. While her fiancé belonged to the school of the proverbial "death by a thousand cuts", her own tutelage had bred the total knockout.
Feeling invigorated by the chance to prove herself, Akane nodded to her opponent, a slip of a girl wielding a fearsome mace, and the tournament officially began.
Despite some hiccups throughout the day, Akane emerged victorious, the winner of the tournament with a few cuts and bruises to show for her effort. Now, having been led to the tournament prize, it all felt a little surreal. She had heard the story of how Ranma had incurred the wrath – and subsequent betrothal – of Shampoo often enough that she had been able to imagine it pretty clearly.
"Strange, right?" Mousse asked in a soft voice from just behind and to the right of her. "I can't tell you how often Shampoo recounted this story to me."
Despite the way her muscles trembled with exertion and the hollow, hungry feeling that made her feel just a little bit faint, Akane knew that there was no way she could eat all of the food there, a long table piled high with fruits, vegetables, and seared meats. "How is the champion even supposed to eat all of this? It's impossible."
Mousse chuckled under his breath. "The champion usually shares her bounty with her family."
"Okay. Bring your family over here."
Mousse took a step back at the suggestion. "Akane, I'm not sure…"
"I have questions I want to ask them, anyway."
"What sorts of questions?"
"If I can absorb you into my tribe." Akane looked back at him when he didn't respond, only slightly surprised to find that she'd left him speechless. "You know how I feel about you in this village. You love Shampoo and I doubt you'd accept anyone else. Eventually, it won't be up to you. If you're in my tribe, I have someone to teach the fighting techniques that you've been taught and you won't have to do anything you don't want to."
Mousse sighed and inclined his head, stepping away to gather his mother and sisters. In the few moments that he was gone, Akane sat at the table, doing her very best to look like she belonged there. Settling on a small bench at the head of the table, she looked up in time to see Shampoo and Cologne enter the village, dragging what looked to be a makeshift stretcher behind them. Even though she knew it was Ranma there, she forced herself to look away. She had made a promise, one that she intended to keep.
She focused again when she heard fierce whispers in Mandarin, realizing that Mousse and his family had returned. Akane gestured for them to sit, Mousse taking a seat to her left as her personal translator and his mother to her right as the woman with the highest ranking. Out of the words that the sisters were whispering back and forth, Akane could only recognize one.
Airen.
"They're wondering if that's your husband that Shampoo stole," Mousse offered, correctly interpreting the confusion on her face.
"They do know we're not married yet, right?" Akane managed a playful smirk, despite the sick feeling in her stomach that had settled there like a heavy stone at Cologne's arrival. She could only wonder if the old woman would start something, as paranoid as she tended to be.
"It doesn't matter. Betrothed is married, at least to the Amazons." Mousse sighed, chewing thoughtfully on a small piece of melon. "The matriarchs and the elders put me through a lengthy interrogation yesterday. They know that your claim supersedes all others, having been instituted by your own elders. It was problematic when you weren't a part of the tribe. Now that you are Amazon, and a skilled one at that, the solution is clear."
"Really?" Akane followed his lead and began to eat, hoping that the feeling of food would ease the anxiety in her gut. "And what would that be?"
Mousse nodded at his mother, who responded to Akane in broken Japanese. "Boy belong to Akane. Is win-win, no?"
Akane chuckled, her bad feeling easing when she finally recognized the sensation of belonging she was beginning to feel while she spent time with the tribe. "*Xian Pu no think that,*" she told the woman in equally broken Mandarin.
The older woman scoffed, sending a scathing glare in the purple-haired girl's direction. "She spurn my Mousse, she disrespect elders, she too much like Cologne."
"Maman," Mousse murmured, the chiding tone in his voice very light, still showing his mother the proper deference within familiarity. "Cologne is an elder."
Following that, Akane felt that unmistakable sense of imminent danger. Immediately, she moved in front of Mousse's mother, feeling that Mousse could likely protect himself if it came to that, and crossed her forearms over her head in a solid brace. However, the blow never came.
Opening eyes that had closed in preparation for the blow, Akane noted that several members of the village had come between Cologne and her attack on Akane. They were all arguing in fast-paced and overlapping Mandarin, while Akane's tenuous grasp of the Chinese language meant that all she could glean was that Cologne was angry about her interference.
Looking to the side, she could tell that Mousse was very nearly vibrating, quivering with an anger she could clearly see in the set of his face but determined to follow the rules of the Amazon village. Hoping to distract him from his furious reaction, Akane asked, "What's going on?"
When he turned to her openly curious expression, Mousse forced some of the tension from his shoulders. "Cologne is telling them that you promised not to interfere with her. They're trying to convince her that you haven't and that even if you had, the point is now moot."
"They seem kind of… high-strung for that to be all," she noted, watching blood rush into some of the elders' faces. She knew that reaction; that had been her reaction for years around Ranma. Cologne had insulted someone, perhaps even crossed some lines.
"Well, things have changed here. Without Cologne here, the Warrior Clan lost much of their standing. I don't think she likes that things have changed, the way power has shifted." Mousse shifted close to Akane, sure to whisper the next part. "She doesn't like not being in control."
Akane smirked, unable to help the way the expression blossomed across her face. "That sounds like Cologne."
Suddenly, an older woman pushed through the throng of people, declaring something in Mandarin with clear purpose. Her regional accent was quite thick, so Akane could only glean that it was a request. She looked over at Mousse, who had immediately moved a respectable distance away. "She's apologizing for ruining the glow of your victory and requesting that you attend the tribunal."
"Of course. I'd be honored. I'm guessing Shampoo is on trial? She did finally bring Ranma to the village."
Mousse shifted uneasily from one foot to another, glancing momentarily in Cologne's direction. "That's not exactly the case."
"Akane!" The girl in question immediately turned at the sound of her name, confused that the source seemed to be Shampoo. The Chinese girl rarely, if ever, referred to her by her given name. "Akane must help! Something wrong with husband!"
Her brow furrowing deeply with increased confusion, she bowed to the matriarch in front of her and threaded through the human barrier to Ranma's side. Frowning at Shampoo's expression, one of intense worry, she focused on her fiancé. His breathing was disturbingly shallow and his skin had become sallow. Concerned about the diagnosis that jumped to mind, she knelt down and pressed her head to his chest, closing her eyes against the reality of the situation. Upon hearing his slowed pulse, she gritted her teeth against the rage that flooded her system and tried to think about the situation logically.
The symptoms she could see and hear pointed to overdose, an overdose that was steadily sending him into shock. Normally, if they were in Japan, she would have the option of adrenaline or charcoal to either counteract or absorb the sedatives he had likely been under for the past few days. Because of the urgency, Cologne would not have risked him waking and Akane supposed she could understand the old woman's reasoning. But now… now, she would have to get creative with what medical knowledge she has.
If only there was a way to speed up his heartbeat…
"Akane, Ranma no die, yes?"
Sighing, she focused on Shampoo's voice and smiled slightly when inspiration struck. "Shampoo, you know the Breaking Point technique?" When she nodded, Ranma's too-still body having rattled her, Akane sighed in relief. "What I'm going to ask you to do will sound dangerous but if you do it exactly as I say, he should get better."
For a long moment, the purple-haired Amazon said nothing, her will obviously torn between her affection for Ranma and her pride as a member of this village. Akane knew she could sway her easily, as she was no longer quite the outsider they thought, but it was also important that Shampoo begin to make her own decisions. She couldn't rely on the authority of her elders forever.
When she finally nodded again, Akane took her hand and placed it palm-down on top of Ranma's heart. "I want you to send the ki from the center of your palm rather than from your fingertip. Can you do that?"
She nodded curtly. "Shampoo is skilled."
"Yeah, you are," Akane conceded softly. She took Ranma's wrist in her hand, turning it over so that she could feel his pulse there. "Go." With her warrior-trained eyes, she could see a faint flash of pale blue, a sight echoed by a slight jump in his pulse. For a moment, she grinned in victory, realizing that this technique was similar to a defibrillator when used in this way, despite being normally ineffective on living matter. However, his pulse rate diminished back to its sluggish speed. Closing her eyes against the feeling of failure, she told Shampoo, "Again."
This time, the spike steadied out into a more normal pulse rate, though it was slightly slower than normal. His state of unconsciousness explained that and the fact that his breathing had begun to deepen helped to soothe her remaining concern. Feeling her rage return now that her worry had abated, she pushed herself to her feet.
"Is good now?"
"He's better," Akane assured her. "Knowing him, he'll wake in an hour or so."
"Akane." She turned at the sound of Mousse's voice, taken aback when the entire tournament gathering seemed to be flanking him. "What happened?"
Akane could feel it when her face gave over to intense fury. "I'm not sure I should say. It does not look good for Cologne and she is an elder."
An older woman, the same one that had requested she attend the tribunal, launched a quick and firm inquiry. "They want to know. 'The boy doesn't look well.'" The last sentence was obviously repeated verbatim.
"I diagnosed sedative overdose. I was pretty sure you didn't have the items in the village necessary for treating that, so I had Shampoo use the Breaking Point technique to jolt his heart before he fell into a coma."
Mousse rattled off the explanation to his elders in their native dialect, his blue-green eyes troubled at the implications of her explanation. It was then, when many weathered eyes pinned a glare on Cologne, that Akane realized that the trial was apparently for the crone and not the maiden.
