Chapter 25: Chi and Magic: a Crash Course
Nabiki Tendo stretched, cracking her back. She'd spent the past two hours balancing the family's budget, but it was finally looking like she could make it through the month. Truthfully, she'd done this twice by this point, but working with money was distracting to her, and she currently needed a distraction.
A day ago, Nodoka had called to ask where Kasumi was living and she'd managed to get the woman to admit that Kasumi had been attacked by some sort of demon. According to Ranma, who had been there to fight the monster, her older sister was fine now, but even so she was worried. Closing her ledger, she slid back from her desk and stood.
"Time to scrounge for something to eat," she muttered, looking warily into the hallway.
Ever since Kasumi had left, the Tendo house had been a much harder place to live in. Akane had tried very hard to fulfill the expectations, but she simply wasn't made for managing the domestic issues of such a big house. After a week and the house turning into a dump, Nabiki had had enough and forced her father with creative extortion to keep the house clean, so that Akane could concentrate on the other tasks.
Tramping down the stairs and past Genma and Soun's perpetual Shogi game, she smiled. The elder -or rather only- Saotome was still immobile and her father couldn't do anything on his own if his life depended on it so Ranma and Akane would be left alone by them for the next few weeks, at least. Even when the two were functional again, Nabiki wouldn't be the one to tell them where to find Ranma, even if she did know. She at least owed the boy that much, especially after he apparently helped Kasumi during the demon attack.
Entering the kitchen, the middle Tendo was surprised to see two plates set out. One was for her and the other was for Akane, who was busy at the stove. "It's curry," her younger sister said, looking over her shoulder with a slight smile.
Nabiki smiled, sliding into her seat. She was getting tired of curry, but as unbelievable as it seemed, Akane was a better cook than she was and homemade curry was cheaper than take out. Lifting a bite to her mouth, she bit into it cautiously, eyeing a cup of water next to her. Sometimes Akane still overloaded the spices.
"Hey, you've gotten better!" she said after chewing and swallowing the food.
"Thanks... Seems enough practise finally pays off," Akane said, blushing, before seeming to remember something. "Oh, we got a letter from Kasumi. I thought I'd wait until you got down to read it."
Nabiki's eyebrow rose slightly, though she wanted to jump out of her seat and run to read the note immediately. She was surprised that Akane had managed to resist doing that already, but her younger sister had seemed to exhibit a surprising level of maturity since Ranma left. She wasn't sure that was a good thing, however, as she was starting to remind her of how Kasumi had once acted.
"So let's take a look at the letter," she said, finally.
Akane nodded, reaching into the apron she had taken to wearing and withdrawing a large yellow envelope. "It's a little big," she commented as she laid it on the table.
Nabiki shrugged, slitting the envelope open with a convenient knife and sliding out the first piece of paper. It was a cheque, made out to Nabiki for about 60,000 Yen. It wasn't much, but she guessed it had to be Kasumi's entire paycheck after room and board.
Akane frowned. "What's this for?"
Nabiki shrugged. "I don't know, but we can use it," she said, taking the slip of paper and sticking it into a pocket. Akane was about to object, but was cut off by a glare from her sister. "We need this to help pay for food, and Kasumi knows that," she said, sharply. As Akane reluctantly nodded, Nabiki withdrew another piece of paper. This appeared to be the actual letter. Unfolding it, she began to read.
"Hi, everyone. This is Kasumi. How are you? I got to Juuban safely and the Furuhatas have been very nice. The cheque I sent you was the extra money they insisted on paying me after my room and board, but I really don't need it so I thought you could use it. School is nice and I even ran into Tofu-sensei there. Isn't that great?
The teachers say I'm one of their best students. I'm sure they're just being nice, though.
I saw Kuno-san here a while ago. He was looking for Ranma-kun, but he grabbed my friend Unazuki-chan by mistake. He really shouldn't do things like that, and Modoki-san, Unazuki-chan's older brother, filed a police report, but they haven't found him yet.
Oh, I also met Ranma-kun. He's doing well, and even going to my school. A monster attacked the school today, but Ranma-kun and one of the Sailor Senshi fought it off. Oh, by the way, the piece of paper with the name on it is an autograph for Nabiki's Senshi item collection. I hope you like it, sister. There's also a list of recipes from the Crown Fruit Parlor for you to try, Akane-chan. Remember to read them carefully. Say hello to Daddy and Mr. Saotome for me, all right?
It's getting late, so I'm going to bed. I'll write to you again soon.
Love, Kasumi."
When Nabiki stopped reading the letter, the two sisters sat silent for a few seconds. Curious, she reached into the envelope and withdrew a ragged half sheet of what looked like a biology assignment. On the blank side, there was a person's signature, though instead of a name it said 'Sailor Neptune'. "Hmm, I've never heard of that Senshi before..." she muttered, though she thought there should be soldiers for the outer planets as well as the inners, so it made sense.
"So Kasumi's happy there," Akane said, jolting her sister out of her random thoughts.
"Yeah, I guess," Nabiki responded, before noticing that Akane had tears in her eyes. "Something wrong, sis?"
"They're all going away, aren't they?" Akane whispered, before standing from the table, her meal only half eaten, and turning to the counter to clean up the meal's refuse.
Nabiki frowned, trying to puzzle out precisely what that meant while looking at Kasumi. Wait, that wasn't Kasumi, it was Akane. The two looked different enough that she shouldn't have confused them, but Akane was wearing an apron and house dress, cleaning up the kitchen like Kasumi always used to.
That's when it hit her. When their mother died, Kasumi had promised to take care of the house for her and within a few weeks she'd started trying to do the chores and cooking, even if she'd been bad at it at the time. Within a few years, she'd been walking around with that vacant smile on her face, acting like the perfect housewife.
Was Akane doing the same thing now? Would she eventually just stand there, smiling and not particularly caring what was going on? And for what, their father? He had been out of it ever since their mother's death as well, but he'd been completely useless. She'd be gone to college by next year. She should have gone this year, but had used her own college fund to help Kasumi's effort. Looking back up at the softly humming blue-black haired girl who was cleaning the room, Nabiki made a promise to herself.
She wouldn't let Akane give up her life the way Kasumi had, and she wouldn't go down either. Finishing off her food, she stood and left the room, throwing a quick "Thank you" over her shoulder to Akane.
As she passed the living room, she glared harshly at its residents.
"Is something wrong, Nabiki-chan?" Soun asked, noticing the look.
"Nothing," she muttered, stomping upstairs and to her room. She had to make a few calls. It had taken the departure of Ranma and Kasumi for her to realize that the Tendo family was half way dead, but she wouldn't let it continue any longer.
-CM-
"You know, it was quite some time ago since the last time we did something like this together..."
It were simple words from Naru, but they managed to make Usagi feel incredibly guilty, especially when remembering why they were spending the afternoon together. Her other friends all had something to do. Mamoru was busy with college stuff, Ami had a report to write, Makoto was again off to flirt with that bespectacled boy and Minako and Rei were busy with their Konatsu-project.
It was then when she'd become painfully aware how much she'd been neglecting Naru when she'd caught herself thinking of Naru as a backup choice for spending the afternoon. The mere idea of treating Naru as a backup was shameful.
She hadn't thought about it before, but now it became painfully clear how far she and Naru had already drifted apart. She hadn't noticed it until now, but the longer she'd been a Senshi, the more she'd ignored her friend of almost ten years to hang out with the other Senshi. While she'd tried to tell herself that it was for safety resons, she finally had to admit to herself that it had been damn cold to poor Naru.
The depressing truth was, that her friendship with Naru Osaka was in danger of becoming a casualty of her being Sailor Moon. Usagi didn't want that to happen, so she'd promised herself she'd somehow make time for Naru and that was why they currently were sitting on a bench, enjoying milkshakes after cinema was over.
"Yes...too long. I somehow feel guilty for having been so distant to you," Usagi admitted.
"I wonder how it happened? I know you since kindergarden, and never would I've dreamed of us drifting apart like that. It's as if something tries to pull you away from me..." Naru sighed.
Truth to be told, Naru suspected that Usagi's other friends had something to do with it. It had started when Usagi had befriended Ami Mizuno but even with her new friends, she hadn't been too distant and for some time after that strange day where the sky had darkened, she actually had reverted to her old self and broken off the other friendships. Then when these new, strange monsters had appeared, she'd renewed her friendship with the others and since then they'd started drifting apart.
"It's almost as if you avoid me because I seem to attract monsters, although thankfully that didn't happen for months now..." Naru had to admit, the latter part was a relief to her.
"No way, I wouldn't abandon you just to save my own skin!" Usagi gasped.
Naru raised an eyebrow at this strong reaction. True, the attacks had been unpleasant and she'd been hospitalised more than once, but Usagi's reaction seemed to be over the top. On the other hand, there still was her suspicion of the real reasons why Usagi had changed ever since that day when Naru got attacked by a monster in her mother's jewelry shop.
She didn't know for sure, having almost voiced her suspicion to Usagi that day when that strange crystal had appeared, but maybe one day her friend would tell her...
"Come on, that went now far too serious." Throwing away her empty cup, she turned to Usagi with a smile. "We're here to have fun, so let's go. I heard that there's a shoe sale!"
Usagi smiled while she followed Naru, but inside she still felt ugly for keeping a secret from her friend and risking to alienate her. She even hated herself for keeping Naru, her oldest friend, in the dark. If she could just find the courage to tell her the truth that she was Sailor Moon.
After all, that boy Ryo Urawa, who had precognitive powers, was a civilian and yet comfortable with Ami's secret. Usagi had a suspicion that Ami still carried a torch for him and secretly was exchanging letters with him. No other explanation for her blush when catching her reading a letter from "R.".
So it could work... If she only could find the courage to actually tell Naru. She wanted to keep her friend, wanted to no longer deceive her. If there no longer were a need for secrecy, they could fnally again do all these things together which she'd stopped doing because of the need to keep the secret.
'Maybe once she knws, she can finally help me together with the others in our preperations for the high school exams. She always knew how to keep me interested in school stuff...' Usagi thought.
If she only could find the courage to tell her...
-CM-
"I don't know about this, Minako-san..." Konatsu said uneasily from the interior of a changing room.
"Come on, Konatsu-chan, Let us see!" the blonde Senshi said, happily. From next to her, Rei groaned.
"Minako, maybe we should give up on this. It's been two hours," the miko said. The three of them, her, Konatsu and Minako, had been in the Juuban shopping center trying to pick out an outfit for the ninja for a while now. The worst part was that Rei didn't even want to be here, but Minako had insisted.
"Nah, just this one last outfit. Come on out, Konatsu!" Minako replied, banging on the door.
"But how am I going to pay for it? I don't have any money," Konatsu objected, still not immerging.
"Rei's grandfather gave me some, now come… OUT!" Minako demanded, pulling on the door handle. Suddenly, the door jerked open. It hadn't been locked. The blonde lost her balance, falling backwards and trying to catch herself on Rei's arm. This brought the black haired girl down as well, and the two ended up in a tangle of arms and legs.
"Get… off of me." Rei growled, pushing Minako's face away from her own. She was well past annoyance at this point. The blonde, however, was unresponsive. "What's wrong?" she continued, before looking towards the place where she'd pushed Minako's head.
Konatsu was standing there, blushing a little and fidgeting. His ponytail had been let down to the bottom of his head and was tied more loosely. It was still a bit long for a guy, but didn't look quite as odd. He wore a grey, short sleeved shirt and black jeans. It didn't precisely look incredible, but it was now obvious that he was a boy rather than a girl, especially since his make-up had been washed off and the pepper bombs, one of which Minako had accidentally detonated, were removed from his shirt.
"You look cuuuute!" the blonde squealed, jumping up, somehow disentangling herself from Rei in the process, and rushing over to adjust some parts of the clothing.
"I still do not see the need for this, Minako-san," Konatsu said, uncertainly. "I feel silly."
"You look great, Konatsu-kun. Doesn't he, Rei?" Minako asked, looking at her friend, who was still sprawled on the ground.
"Yeah, he looks okay..." Rei said, noncommittally, as she got to her feet. "Now can we go?"
"Yeah, I think this is good," Minako said, leading Konatsu away from the room. "As for why we need to do this, well you said that Ukyo compared you to this Tsubasa guy, who was nothing like you aside from the fact that he dressed as a girl. The way I see it, if you dress in boy's clothes, she could get over that problem."
"I don't know about this, Minako-san..." Konatsu said, reaching down to tug at a fold of his Kimono, before remembering that he wasn't wearing it.
"Ah, trust me!" Minako said, smiling happily as she lead the boy to the cash register.
-CM-
Ranma was at an impasse.
Normally the pig-tailed martial artist did not let things bother him, however, this one tiny thing had been biting at the back of his mind ever since the Youma attack a few days ago. As he strolled down the street at a leisurely pace, he tried put his finger on the crux of his problem.
The void of chi in the rest of his body when he transformed into a Sailor Senshi was nagging at him for days now. At night when everyone was asleep, he transformed into his Senshi form just to try out what exactly the problem was that had cut off his chi reserves to his other body parts. He felt some other type of energy coursing through his body.
This energy felt more ethereal and elusive to try to take a grasp of, the only means of gathering the energy was by calling out "Deep Submerge". Then energy would become solid like concrete. He couldn't hold it for long and let it gather. It seemed to have a mind of its own. The energy propably was magic, something he'd learned to have a healthy dislike of after several nasty encounters.
This lack of control bothered him tremendously.
This was the main issue that is stopping him from accepting the offer that Pluto had given him. If he could't fight at his full potential, he didn't feel that it was fair for the people that he was protecting.
"HOTCHA!"
Out of nowhere, Happosai dumped a bucket of water on to him, triggering his curse, and latched on to her breasts. On instinct, he punched down on to the pervert.
"Oh I have missed you my lovelies!" Happosai half cried as he rubbed his face into her breasts, completely ignoring her punch.
"Stupid stinkin perverts harder to kill than roaches..." muttered Ranma half to himself. Happosai either did not hear her comment or too busy rubbing his face into her breasts to hear.
"Ain't ya suppose ta be recoverin or somethin?" Ranma raised her voice to ask the pervert that was currently latched on to her breasts.
"Can't you see? I am recovering!" Happosai stated and started squeezing her breasts.
"Oi!" Ranma yelped "I don't mind you squeezin my breast or nothin, but can ya be a bit gentle with em? It's that time of month and those are really sensitive"
"Sorry!" Happosai apologized, looking a bit sheepish "I haven't been squeezing them in a long time, got a bit enthusiastic. I have been meaning to ask, last time when I did that magic scan on my precious, I noticed a spark of Magic coming from you, and now..." Happosai stopped his ministration of her breasts and leaned back just a little bit to take a good look at her "...you are shining like a supernova. I know very well that is not how the curse looks like, and you weren't a magic user before."
"That's botherin me for days now, I was hopin that I woulda run inta you or the old ghoul ta ask about it, cuz while we were in the shop you said somethin bout how that is completely differen' than chi and stuff"
"Co-chan knows more about magic than me, I only know the basics."
-CM-
Ever since she found Happosai's battered body, Cologne had been reminiscing a much less complicated past. A past where the only thing that had mattered was her own happiness. To a past where she was the bride of Happosai. "Happi" was a nickname she had came up for him, it wasn't a coincidence that it sounded so similar to the English "happy."
During those short twelve years they had been married, she was truly happy. Now thinking back, it felt like eons ago. It took facing his ultimate mortality to jar up the feelings for him that she had tried to kill all those years ago. Now almost two and a half centuries later, and no longer an Amazon, the pride that broke them apart no longer mattered.
The door opening, rattled her away from the trip down memory lane. She looked up from bussing the tables and watched a female Ranma with Happosai firmly attached onto the red-head's chest entered the cafe. Cologne sighed and a smirk formed on her lips at Happi's antics.
Cologne pogoed toward Ranma, "Where is your girlfriend? Isn't she always with you now?"
Ranma shrugged. "Since Haruka's back on good terms with her pops, the sponsors that dumped her picked her up again, she went down to the tracks."
Satisfied with his answer, Cologne asked "So what can I do for you today, Ranma?"
Currently there were no custumers in the cafè and Mousse exited from the backroom at the sound of the front door opening, hoping for some customers. Granted, he'd had another great time flirting with that brown-haired girl named Makoto, but after all he needed an income. Instead he saw Happosai jumping down from Ranma's chest, to which he just tilted his head to the side and looked questioningly at Ranma.
"He's recoverin, and needed a boost, alright?" Ranma spoke up answering the silent question that was thrown his way by both Cologne and Mousse. He was dense, but not that dense.
Shaking her head she remembered why she came to the cafe in the first place. "Elder, what exactly is the difference between magic and chi?" Ranma posed the question in full student mode.
"What exactly brought this..." Cologne asked and stopped mid sentence as she started a simple magic scan on Ranma "Ah, I see you have quite an amount of dormant magic in yourself, but that wasn't present before."
The old women chuckled and shook her head in amusement. "Ranma, Ranma, you just get more and more interesting by the day. Okay let's hear the full story, because nobody can get magic overnight. Magic is not something that is trainable, one must have the spark of mana from birth, which requires both parents be magic users. In other words, your current state is almost impossible."
She turned to her employer. "Mousse do you mind, taking over waitressing and cooking for the moment? Magic is not something I want to divulge on the general populace," Cologne asked.
"I don't see why not. It's been slow business," Mousse responded, as he walked back into the kitchen. Cologne led Ranma and Happosai to the back room away from prying eyes.
-CM-
Once they were in the storage room, Cologne walked toward the back wall, pressed her hand to it and murmured something that is almost inaudible. A very simple wooden door appeared out of nowhere. Ranma and Happosai entered the door.
Ranma gaped with awe at the sight before them. What they saw was a very small foyer with four rooms attached to it without any doors so they could see clearly into them: two dojo-esque rooms, an advanced chemical lab with all modern equipment and a final room filled with jewels, scrolls, and other valuables.
Cologne answered the unspoken question from Ranma's shocked faces. "This is something I have developed a long time ago. I mixed the hidden weapon technique with a bit of time magic. This is the result," she explained, waving her hands gesturing to the rooms.
Cologne lead them into the second dojo room. That room was slightly smaller than the Tendo Dojo but the walls were lined with thick slabs of obsidian and the high ceiling was covered with luminescent fungi. It lit up the room a bit dimmer than a well lit room.
When they stopped, Cologne and Happosai turned expectantly to Ranma.
"To explain my problem, I need to start with this..." Ranma pulled out her henshin pen out of the stuff pocket. "Neptune Planet Power, Make-Up!"
When she finished her transformation, Happosai stood there with sparkles in his eyes and a silly smile. Like a little kid who just found out Christmas is coming early and he is getting everything he wants on his hundred page want list.
Cologne on instinct smacked Happosai across the head with her cane. Hurting his pride more than anything else, Happosai glared at Cologne as he rubbed the sore spot on his bald head and resumed his sparkled eye state. Cologne just sighed and chose to ignore him for now.
After doing a quick scan of Ranma, Cologne noticed what may be his problem. However, she chose to let the boy speak, since the subject was important to him.
"I can't seem ta access my chi while I'm in this form, and all of my chi is concentrated here," pointing to her stomach, "but I don't know what I'm using when I do this!"
"Deep Submerge!"
An orb of concentrated water shot out from her hand hitting the obsidian, splashing against it harmlessly. "I can't seem ta control how powerful that attack can be, it just forms itself in however powerful it decides, and I don't know what decides it!" Ranma vented his frustration.
Cologne tilted her head to the side. "Can you switch back? I want a confirmation of what I think may be your problem."
Ranma nodded and returned back to her civilian form, much to the chagrin of Happosai who pouted.
"To understand magic," Cologne began, "one must understand that magic is innate, those who do not do magic can rely on their chi, but those who have magic have both their chi and magic. Very few have been able to use both efficiently. The majority of your chi being locked up is due to your body now being filled with magic, and your chi veins run parallel to your magic veins. You have quite an unique problem, however, it is easily fixed. Now watch closely."
"Temporal Flux!"
Cologne jumped up and spanned her arms wide. Thousands of black orbs formed around her and rushed forward and hit the obsidian, again causing no damage to the stone itself.
Ranma watched as Cologne's chi veins flared up just before she said flux, and saw within each orb there was traces of Cologne's chi.
Landing from her attack, Cologne took some deep breaths. Happosai hurried to her as she staggered back up with her cane and continued from where she had stopped previously.
"I do not use that technique quite often, because it drains my chi quite rapidly. The difficulty for this technique is not how to access the chi, but how to condense your chi rapidly and be able to fit into the magic attacks. There is no way of deciding the dimension of your magic attacks, so in order to make it stronger, the chi attacks must be condensed and then willed into the magic attack."
Ranma looked at her curiously and asked, "Why are ya helping me all of a sudden?"
Stunned by the question, she answered "Since I am no longer an Amazon, I thought I need to leave a legacy of my own, not tied with the tribe. Well, that and I enjoy training you. It helps alleviate the boredom"
END.
Beta-read by Tribun.