Chapter Twenty-Five
"Soap?" Ranma and Shampoo repeated.
The newcomer nodded. "Yes, does my name surprise you?"
"You're Soap? As in Cologne's sister and Happosai's girlfriend Soap?" Ranma clarified, using both their names to ensure she knew who he was referencing.
"Yes. You know Happy and Coco?"
"Coco?" Both teens repeated, confused.
"That was my nickname for my sister." She replied in a melancholic tone.
"I'm Cologne's great-granddaughter. My name is Shampoo." Shampoo admitted. "This is my betrothed by Kiss of Marriage, Ranma."
Ranma turned to her. "Hey Shampoo, you're speaking perfect Japanese."
She faced him. "No Airen, you're speaking Chinese."
"Let me explain." Soap cut in quickly. "In case this needs clarifying, while we're here there are no language barriers. No matter what language any of us speak, we hear what we best understand. For all you know I could actually be speaking Italian. I'm not by the way, but the point remains."
"Is this what the prize was? Talking to another previous player?" Ranma asked, feeling rather let down. 'I guess I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it surely wasn't this.'
"My boy, my advice is very invaluable." Soap said sagely.
"We've already got Happosai helping us and giving us advice. What can you do that he hasn't?" Ranma asked.
"Happy's here?" Soap asked with some excitement.
"He's outside. We should let you know, it's been at least eighty years since you and he played this game. And he's been mourning you ever since." Shampoo told her distant relative.
"And he probably looks very different than how you remember him." Ranma added in.
"I can't leave this room, so please tell him I don't blame him for what happened. The spirit we talked to when we were players wasn't exactly clear about the escape clause this game comes with."
Ranma nodded. "He's been very clear on that part from day one."
"What can you offer us, Great-grandaunt?" Shampoo asked.
Soap smiled fondly at the title. "Great-grandaunt? Well, if you're Coco's heir, then that does make you my great-grandniece. Anyway, I assume by now you have a general idea of how Heian Conglin works right?" Both teens nodded. "Are you two determined to actually win the game rather than surrender?" They nodded. "Are you two aware that no one has ever won the game before?"
Both their eyes widened. "Wait, no one has won the game before? Like, not one?"
Soap sadly nodded. "No one. The game has been around for over three hundred years, played around once a decade, and in all that time no one has made it to the end."
"Then how does anyone know what happens when it does finally end?" Ranma asked.
"The game itself tells you that when you play it. Besides, you're not the first players to have a former player try to assist them. The only problem is no one has made it to the end before." Soap explained.
"How can that be?" Shampoo asked. "How, in three hundred years, can no one win one game?"
"For one thing, Heian Conglin is no ordinary game. And I mean besides the obvious. There's a threat here you're unaware of. One that's been haunting you from the very beginning. That threat... is the source of Heian Conglin's power."
"The source of its power?" The two teens repeated simultaneously.
Soap nodded. "Yes, the source. The entity that makes all the challenges appear. The being that gives the jungle its power, and in turn is empowered by those that fall to it. The source gets more powerful with each play, but it does have a weakness. If someone were to win the game the proper way, Heian Conglin will lose its power and be nothing more than carved wood and dice. In essence, winning the game kills the game. But of course, the source doesn't want that to happen. So it interferes in a way."
"You mean the game itself cheats?" Ranma asked.
Soap shook her head. "No, a game by its very nature can't cheat. Games are not meant to be unwinnable. But they are meant to be challenging. The spirit watches you to see what you can handle, and gives you more than you can handle. Probably to ensure you're always challenged, but also to keep you from winning."
"So the longer we play, the harder the game gets and all because some spirit refuses to see us win?" Shampoo asked.
Soap nodded. "Yes, Heian Conglin is far more than just a game, it's a terribly sore loser."
"Let me guess, sore enough that every time it looks like the players are actually going to win this source tries to kill them with some impossible challenge that makes them surrender or die." Ranma inquired in a deadpan tone, already anticipating the answer.
Soap nodded. "Yes, players have come close, but Heian Conglin refuses, utterly refuses, to let someone win and rob it of its power. The more desperate the spirit is to win, the more ruthless it gets. Players have died because of this game, losing their lives to it like I did and become trapped here forever, waiting for the day someone can finally end the game once and for all."
Ranma clench his fist. "We will win. I don't accept defeat when it's this important to win."
Soap smiled, but it wasn't reassuring. "Many players have said the same thing, and yet Heian Conglin still has its power. Boy, if you and this girl really want to be the ones to win this game, you're going to need more than just a refusal to lose."
"Then help us. Give us something that gives us a fighting chance." Shampoo pleaded.
Soap nodded. "Very well, I will do what I can to help you get to the end of the game." She then clasped her hands together and above her two balls of blue light shined. Each ball drifted and then hovered before Ranma and Shampoo before fading, revealing something solid in its place but still hovering in the air. In front of Ranma there was an ivory scepter in the shape of a snake, with an ebony streak running down the back. The whole thing was as long as his forearm. In front of Shampoo there was a spear, the staff colored a rich mahogany and a crimson tuft of fur around the base of the silver spearhead.
"What's this?" Ranma asked, disappointed. "Why didn't I get a weapon?"
"I can see in your ki aura Ranma that you are a strong warrior, but you fight best without a weapon rather than with. While a weapon has helped you in the past, you put more faith in yourself than in any sword. But that also comes with a price, an overabundance in ability to fight and a lack of ability to support. With this scepter, you will be as strong a fighter as ever, but now you will be able to support your partner when she needs it for reasons other than combat."
"What is it?" Shampoo asked.
"The scepter I grant Ranma is a tool for healing, not for combat. With it Ranma can heal any injury, cure any ailment, and detoxify any venom. But be warned, it has a very limited amount of uses. This is intended to be a last resort, not a first. Use it wisely." Soap explained.
"This is for healing? Just healing?" Ranma asked, more disappointed.
"The mere fact you lament this wonderful instrument only proves you need it more than you think." Soap commented.
"I'm not ungrateful, I just don't understand why. This isn't really my style." Ranma clarified.
"And that is why you need it more." Soap said. "You will understand in time, though I hope nothing drastic will be needed to make you see the reasoning behind this gift."
Seeing he was stuck with the scepter and had no chance to bargain for something more fitting, Ranma begrudgingly put it in his pocket.
Soap then looked at her great-grandniece. "Shampoo, I can see in your ki aura that you are good with weapons, but unfortunately you are in a vulnerable state right now and require extra protection. For that, you are given this spear, which can accomplish more than your ordinary weapons can. Learn to use it with care, as not to endanger yourself."
Shampoo nodded. "What is it meant to accomplish?"
"With this spear, you can negate one of the challenges of the game. Put your ki into it, strike, and whatever the game made last appear will go away. But I must warn you this can only happen once, and once done the spear will disappear. Like Ranma, you must use it carefully. Fortunately, until then you can use it like a regular spear."
"So just once I can make one of the threats disappear?" Shampoo clarified, and Soap nodded. "What did you mean by me being vulnerable?"
"Yeah, Shampoo's not weak. She's the strongest girl I know, other than my cursed form or your sister." Ranma added.
Shampoo smiled brightly at the praise. Since he was such a proud martial artist, he didn't exactly call just anyone strong. Sure, he'd admit others were challenges, but he used the term in much the same manner she'd call someone an obstacle. Both were ways for themselves to acknowledge strength in another while telling themselves they were still stronger. For Ranma to speak about her as he did basically told Shampoo he considered her an equal, not merely someone to one-up.
"I didn't say she was weak, I said she's vulnerable. There's a difference." Soap claimed.
"In what way am I vulnerable? So I know what to prepare for." Shampoo inquired. Soap smiled and patted her stomach, making Shampoo's eyes nearly pop out and put her hand over her own stomach. "You mean...?" Soap nodded. Shampoo put her free hand over her mouth.
"What am I missing here?" Ranma asked, not getting the subtle message.
Shampoo looked at the pigtailed boy, lowering her hand to reveal a warm smile. "Airen, she's saying... I'm pregnant."
Little could have surprised Ranma more at that moment than those two words. "H-How can that be true? I mean, we had condoms."
"I can see it in her ki, she is definitely with child." Soap stated.
Shampoo looked over at her love wistfully. "Condoms can fail Airen. It says so on the box. Chances are small, but they do happen." She then came up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "This is a good thing though. I always did want to have your baby. Now I have it."
"Only for now." Soap interfered, getting their attention. "Tell me, was this child conceived after you started playing the game?" Shampoo slowly nodded, starting to grasp the message.
Ranma just then got it too. "Wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
Soap nodded, though she didn't look happy anymore. "Yes, when you manage to end the game, no matter how you do so, the child will no longer exist. You will go back to before it was conceived, and it will be as if it never existed."
The two were as frozen as statues; hearing the words on their minds had been one thing, but somehow hearing it vocalized had made it more real for them. There was no denial, no misunderstanding, no chance or hope for an alternative. There was just the harsh truth, and boy was it harsh.
Shampoo suddenly gripped Ranma tightly and started to shed tears. After a moment, the tears got bigger until she resorted to sobbing in his chest, pouring her grief out against him. Ranma found himself holding her tightly in a feeble attempt at comforting her.
"I'm truly sorry, but there's no way to change that. The only way to keep your child is to never end the game, and that's not exactly the kind of home you want to bring a child into." Soap said, hoping to console them.
"We... We have to end the game, but we'll l-lose our baby." Shampoo wept.
Ranma didn't know how he felt about having a baby to begin with, but hearing that did nothing to make him feel better.
"At least if you two end the game properly you'll have a chance to have it again after the game ends." Soap offered in hopes it would calm her distant relative down.
Shampoo nodded slowly but said nothing.
"Is there anything else we should know?" Ranma asked.
"You both know everything there is to know about the game itself. All I can say is use your tools wisely, watch over each other, fight the temptation to surrender, and if possible work on using your ki for battle. You both are skilled enough to use it in some ways. I recommend expanding upon that. Other than that, all I can say is best of luck and please give my regards to Happy and Coco"
"We will. Thank you for your help. We will win." Ranma said.
Soap smiled and bowed. "I can only hope so, for my sake and for everyone else trapped in this jungle." She then faded away slowly, and the room was as it was before she appeared. But suddenly a panel of the wall began to open, as if to say this was the way out.
"Shampoo, you ready to go?" Ranma asked, lightly shaking the still saddened girl in his arms.
She looked up at him, tears staining her face. She said something in Chinese, making him confused. Seeing his expression, she sighed. "Language magic gone now. Shampoo and Airen back to normal." She said in her limited Japanese.
"We can still talk as before." Ranma said.
Shampoo shook her head. "No Airen, it never be like before." She took his hand and placed it over her womb. "Things change. Even if game undo, we know. We no can pretend jungle not happen, that this no happen. Airen, when game over, what will we be? Shampoo no can go back to being girl waiting for love. Need answer now."
'She's right. What am I going to do when this is over? Make her go back to being a waitress waiting for me to choose between three girls? Two of which I haven't seen in two months while she's fought by my side that entire time? Yeah right, she deserves better than that. I don't know how I'm going to get everyone else to deal with it, but right now I don't care.'
Ranma wiped some tears off her cheeks. "Shampoo, you deserve an answer, and here it is." Her eyes lit up with interest before widening in surprise as he moved forward, sealing their lips in a sealing kiss. When they separated Ranma looked at her caringly but with a burning determination in his eyes.
"I don't know when I want to get married and I don't know when I want to have kids. But I do know that right now if I did want that you'd be the one I want it with."
"So... you do want be with Shampoo? Just not yet as man and wife or father and mother?" She asked, panting slightly.
Ranma nodded. "Yes Shampoo. Think about it. We'll remember all this, but no one else will. That means when we're out of here, everything goes back to how it was before. Mousse will still go after you, Akane will still expect me to be something I'm not, and Ryoga will still be obsessing over how to beat me at something. Shouldn't we focus on getting those problems solved before we try other things?"
"What about when problem solved? What will Airen and Shampoo be then?" The purple-haired girl pressed.
'She really wants our relationship to be defined.' Ranma thought, realizing Shampoo was no longer content to let them be whatever they were without getting it out in the open. Now she wanted a solid definite answer, not an implied one.
"After that..." He started, hoping he didn't mess this up. "I don't know, but we can at least go on real dates and that sort of thing. Have some fun without this game. Is that okay?"
"Shampoo suppose that work. But have request." She said. "We live together and no be celibate. Shampoo enjoy sleeping in your arms too too much. And when have baby again, we wed. Is okay?"
"You really think your grandmother would let us live together like that and not be married?" Ranma asked.
"Then why not marry? Why wait? What there be afraid of?" Shampoo asked.
"I... I don't know." He said, then looked around. "Mind if we leave? I'd like to go back outside again."
Shampoo nodded. "Yes, Shampoo want sunlight again. Want feel good again."
The two went to the opening and walked down a dark hallway, barely able to see anything. The hall descended at a slope, requiring them to be careful in their footing, and after a while they couldn't see anything anymore. But they did become painfully aware of another fork in the construction, painfully in that Ranma walked right into the wall without realizing it.
"Damn, we got more crap to deal with just getting out of here?" He complained, rubbing his sore head.
"Great-grandaunt say game no be easy on us." Shampoo said, then randomly chose to go to the right hall. As expected, glowing words appeared on the wall, giving them some light and yet another obstacle. "Rasping scales wrap around necks, slitted eyes spot who's next. Creeping, crawling, without limb, the outcome looks evermore grim."
Unable to do anything in the dark but listen, the two martial artists stood back to back waiting for this new threat. Shampoo held onto her newly gifted spear, mainly because it was already out. 'No can use power just yet, must save for real threat.'
Above them they heard a brief hiss, and couldn't help but look up despite the darkness. All of a sudden something heavy dropped onto them both, and it grabbed ahold of them tightly.
"What the hell?" Ranma asked while instinctively grabbing the new threat. He immediately felt it was alive, and rather big and scaly. But worse of all, it was wrapping around them both. "It's a snake. A really big snake, maybe a python."
"But game already do snakes." Shampoo objected, struggling to get the python off herself.
"Then this is one big worm, just help me get it off." Ranma said, feeling compressed by the python trying to constrict around them both. Fortunately their training helped them resist some of the pressure and the fact they were together helped slow down the snake's process, but it wouldn't be long before the python had the advantage and crushed them both.
'I hope this works.' Ranma thought while reaching into one of his pockets. With some effort he succeeded and pulled out a switchblade knife, something Happosai insisted he carried at all times. 'Now I'm glad he did insist so much.' The pigtailed young man said while quickly bringing the blade up and stabbing the serpent in the side.
The python hissed in pain but it also tightened its grip, likely by reflex more than anything else. Not seeing many other options, Ranma took out the switchblade and repeatedly stabbed the python over and over again. After three more stabs the serpent loosened its grip enough for Shampoo to slip out.
"Airen, where snake head?" She asked while trying to feel for it in the darkness.
"By my ear?" He offered, judging by the hissing sound.
Shampoo moved her hands towards his voice and soon enough was able to grab the snake's neck. Feeling for his hand, she took the blade from it and used it to make a clean cut on the snake's throat. The python went into spasm in agony but she applied a harsh pressure to break the bones and ended its misery quickly. Once dead, the python uncoiled from around Ranma, freeing him and falling limply to the floor.
"Thanks Shampoo." Ranma said while enjoying being able to breathe comfortably again.
The Amazon wiped her hand of the snake blood on the walls. "Let's hope there no more threats here."
Continuing down the hall, both groaned when they came to one more bend, but this time were was no fork. It was a simple bend to the left, and down at the end they saw some light.
"That looks like the way out." Ranma said, grateful.
Moving slowly, they looked at the walls waiting to see if the temple had one last challenge for them. Unfortunately, it did.
"Buzz and fly near water's edge, between you they will drive a wedge. Your only hope is fire or flood, they aim to drink you dry of blood."
A buzzing sound was indeed soon heard, reminding them of the swarm of bees they occasionally saw in the jungle since their first encounter with the game.
"No time, run!" Ranma insisted as he grabbed Shampoo's arm and the two ran down the temple hallway as if they were trying to escape Hell itself.
They came out into the light, and saw they were indeed outside the temple and back in the jungle again. But the light revealed one thing they had forgotten, they were on the second floor of the temple.
There was a ledge on the side of the temple they could stand on, but they had been running and couldn't stop right away. They stopped themselves when each had a foot over the edge and were able to retract enough to keep from falling over, but only right away. They were unbalanced and on the edge, about to fall off any second without some leverage to support them. Sadly there was none.
'C'mon Ranma, you can balance on fences surely you can handle this.' The pigtailed boy told himself while struggling to shift his weight backwards despite the pull of gravity. Looking down he really didn't want to fall, because at the base of the temple were a lot of thorn bushes.
Spear in hand, Shampoo planted the blunt end down and used it in an effort to provide extra support for herself. So far it worked and she managed to step back more, and pull Ranma with her. Away from the threat of falling into thorns, the two sighed in relief.
"Remind me never to play board games again when this is over." Ranma said, strangely smiling now that the danger had passed.
Shampoo grinned back. "Agreed. Children no get board games either. Video games much less violent." The mentioning of their children made her lose her smile, remembering the inevitable fate of her unborn.
All of a sudden the buzzing noise had returned just as strongly as before. The two turned as a grey cloud started coming their way from the hall. Moving quickly, they went to the side of the ledge and avoided the cloud as it burst out into the open before dispersing into the jungle. Some parts of it came to them, allowing them to see what it was composed of.
Mosquitoes the size of Ranma's thumb. While not overly big, by mosquito standards they were huge. Several of these insects, not a large amount but still too many to count, came at them, and the two worked at swatting them away while trying to find a way down.
The ledge came to an end. "There's no way down without jumping." Ranma said, hitting more mosquitoes before he got bitten.
"Then jump." Shampoo said, putting a lot of strength into her legs than she leaped as far as she could. She reached for a tree and missed a branch, but she did succeed in grabbing a vine and holding it for a moment before moving onto the tree. "Airen, your turn."
Ranma braced himself, and jumped as far as he could too, grateful for all the time he spent roof-hopping before. Shampoo threw out the vine and he caught it, but because he and the vine were moving he ended up swinging past Shampoo in a very Tarzan-like manner. Luckily he chose not to jump to another vine so he swung back like a pendulum, and was grabbed by Shampoo who stopped him enough to let him get onto the tree with her.
"Any bites?" He asked.
Shampoo checked herself. "No look like it. You?"
Ranma checked himself. "I don't think so. Which is really good. Didn't Happosai say Soap was nearly killed by mosquitoes?"
Shampoo nodded. "Yes, no want that. But we have your scepter if they did. Should we use just in case?"
Ranma thought about it and shook his head. "No, Soap never said how many times we can use it. Better not waste it if we don't see any bites."
The two then proceeded to jump from tree to tree to get around the temple back to where they last saw Happosai. It was easy, no obstacle except a monkey which ran off startled by them. After a bit they got to lower branches then reached the ground, seeing the front of the temple.
Shampoo gasped, and Ranma just had wide eyes.
The campsite was trashed, like something went wild there, and Happosai was gone. Kahn looked like he had been thrown at a tree, lying down groaning in pain under a broken one. A dead rabbit was burning on a stilt over a fire.
"What happen?" Shampoo asked.
"I don't know, but maybe the spirit of the game is started to act out." Ranma said, narrowing his eyes in anger.