Friends: Old and New
Chapter Thirty-Six: Resolving Relationships
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the properties of Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshihiro Togashi, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
As Kurama approached the boarders of Yomi's kingdom he sensed that he was being watched.
He wasn't sure what sort of reception he should expect from an old friend and cohort whom he'd paid an assassin to get rid of. He didn't know how much Yomi might know or suspect. He didn't know how Yomi might have changed in the centuries since then. Kurama signed, he hated walking into a situation with so many unknown factors but sometimes there was just no helping it.
When the attack came Kurama instantly recognized it for the test that it was. He dispatched the five lesser demons with a cool efficiency then waited for Yomi to declare the results of the test.
When the tall, dark-haired demon stepped out of the shadows Kurama was surprised to realize Yomi was blind. Yomi inclined his head in the direction of is advisor. "I told you he shouldn't be under-estimated."
Kurama stepped forward. "Yomi, what is the meaning of this? You invited me here. I came."
"Kurama, if you were the man I remembered, I knew they wouldn't trouble you. And I've learned it is best to get these formalities out of the way early on. You know that no one here will respect your words until they've seen proof of the power backing them."
"If this tediousness is resolved, lets get to business. Why did you summon me Yomi?" Kurama demanded.
"Always the same old Kurama. All these long years you must have thought me dead, but not a word about the past. Why I didn't come back, how I survived, none of that matters today. Not to you," Yomi remarked. "You warned me not to attack that castle, didn't you? How you lectured me on tempering my recklessness, on having patience. It must have driven you to distraction that I never listened. I charged directly at whatever I wanted, ignoring what it cost us in men and risk."
Yomi shook his head and smiled in a self-depreciating manner as he and Kurama walked back toward his capital city. "It was only with the loss of my light," he gestured to his dead eyes, "that I finally learned the lessons you sought to teach me. Ironic isn't it? Without that most disastrous defeat I never would have reached the point where I am today: One of the three great kings of Demon World."
Kurama gave Yomi a side-long glance. 'Was Yomi implying he knew, knew and forgave? Because it all turned out alright in the end. Does he think me a fool to be put off-guard by such nonsense? One doesn't forgive attempts on one's life.'
"I doubt you brought me here simply to reminisce about old times," Kurama said.
"Of course not. Raizen is on the verge of death. I've come this far by adopting your methods, I intend to achieve the goal we aspired to so long ago, to rule Demon World. Is it so strange that I would seek you out as an advisor at such a critical juncture?"
Kurama looked at Yomi speculatively.
"Come, meet my Advisory Council," Yomi invited.
"I'm home Mom," Ranma called as he took off his shoes.
Shiori smiled to herself. It had been a month since she'd adopted Ranma and almost immediately he'd taken it into his head that he ought call her 'mother', but he always stumbled over the word. Informality, though, that came naturally to him. In that he couldn't have been more different from her Suichi. Suichi had never been less than formal when addressing her. Even when he'd been a toddler he'd always called her 'Mother', never 'Mom' or 'Mommy'.
She and her husband had actually worried a great deal when Suichi had been so slow to speak. Of course, now she knew the reason why: Suichi, no Kurama had been born with an adult's memories, his dignity wouldn't tolerate baby-speak so he'd remained silent until he'd developed enough for proper speech. When he finally had begun speaking it had been with perfect enunciation and in full, grammatically proper sentences. Who would believe that her baby's first words were "Mother, may I please go out to the garden?"
Suichi had always been so polite, formal and a tad bit distant even after he'd discovered for himself that they were family. Shiori knew now that Suichi's determination to be a model child had been driven by his belief that he'd taken the place of her 'real' child.
Lately she'd been seeing traces of that same behavior in Ranma. His efforts were clumsier, he didn't have Kurama's knowledge of custom and academics to draw upon, but the drive to be 'worthy' of having a loving family was the same. Since his adoption Shiori had actually had to tell Ranma that he'd studied enough for the night and he should relax a bit and do the things he enjoyed. But the last few days he'd seemed more himself again. Shiori admired his resilience. He seemed to be recovering from the blow Saotome Nodoka had dealt him.
Perhaps it was time to talk to him about his engagements. Before it hadn't been her place, but as his mother she had a responsibility to get involved and to try to straighten out the mess they'd made of his life.
"Ranma, would you help me get the things for tea?" Shiori called.
Once they were both comfortably situated with tea and snacks Shiori said. "Ranma, as your mother I need to tell you that I'm not comfortable with the notion of you marrying anyone until after you've graduated from High School at the very least."
A look a sheer relief broke out on Ranma's face.
Shiori grinned a bit conspiratorially. "You are a minor and I am your mother. I don't think it would be completely out of line for me to officially forbid you to marry for the next two years. I believe Tendo-san and your friend Ukyo would just have to accept that."
"Have I mentioned how totally cool you are?" Ranma asked happily. For the first time he had an adult on his side in the whole Fiancee Disaster. Two whole years to sort things out without worrying about getting dragged to the alter by one claimant or another! It was like his birthday, Christmas all rolled up into one.
"We also need to discuss this multiple engagement situation," Shiori said cautiously. "If you like I can be the 'bad guy' and simply declare the engagements null as they were made with the Saotome family, and side-step the whole honor question on a technicality. However, I know that both you and the girls have an emotional involvement in the situation. Your change of name is unlikely to change their feelings, or yours." Shiori paused. Then she asked. "Ranma, do you want to marry Tendo Akane or Kuonji Ukyo?"
"I don't want to hurt either of them," Ranma answered quickly.
"I know and I worry that if you marry one of them for the wrong reasons everyone involved could end up unhappy," Shiori replied. "But I don't know how you feel about the girls, beyond the simple fact that you don't want them hurt."
"Ucchan was my best pal. I like her a lot and I hate that Pop hurt her, leaving her behind like that. Then he had the nerve to say it was my fault! Just 'cause I said I liked okonomiyaki better then Ukyo. Stupid Panda, he's gotta know it's the dowery and the girl or nothing at all, not the dowery or the girl." Ranma grimaced. "I like Ukyo, I don't want her to stop liking me... but I don't like her like she want me to."
"And Akane?" Shiori asked.
Ranma smiled wistfully. "Akane's so cute when she smiles... But she doesn't smile as much as she used to, and I think it's pretty much my fault. And Akane doesn't trust me, not even a little bit." He stopped and chewed on his lip for a time, not looking at Shiori. "I don't want to marry someone who's always gonna be thinking the worst of me."
Shiori hesitated. "It will be easier to break things off with both girls than with just one," she admitted. "But I have to warn you, breaking this to the girls is most likely going to be nasty business, even if it's for the best in the long run."
Ranma took a deep breath. "I don't want to drag this out anymore, I don't want to get married to either Akane or Ukyo."
Kurama studied the graphs Yomi's advisor had displayed of the strengths of the three great demon kingdoms as they stood at present and the predictions for a year in the future. He wasn't particularly impressed. All the graphs truly showed was that Yomi, Muruko and Raizen where comparable in power now, but in a year Raizen would be dead. He'd known as much before leaving Living World.
In fact Kurama knew considerably more about conditions a year from now than any of Yomi's advisors. They were simply compiling reports, Kurama planned to control the balance of power.
Kameda assumed that with Raizen's passing power in his kingdom would fall to nothing. Kurama knew Yusuke would be a force to be reckoned with. In the absence of any other action Yusuke could decide the battle between Mukuro and Yomi by siding with one or the other after his ancestral father passed away.
Furthermore, within a year's time, he and Hiei would be positioned as Yomi and Mukuro's right-hands respectively. They would also have the needed power to sway the balance. And Kurama was still inclined to believe that it would be a disaster for Living World if Yomi became the undisputed ruler of Demon World. If it came to that it was Kurama's intention to take Yomi's kingdom down from within.
That was naturally easier said than done. A thousand years ago, when they'd run together Kurama had been uncertain of his ability to take Yomi in a straight fight. During the intervening years Kurama had run afoul of Spirit World and had been hunted practically to the point of death by their Elite. He'd taken refuge in the Living World and been reborn as the human Minamino Suichi. He'd only barely recovered the strength he'd lost in the process. Yomi had grown well beyond what he'd been a thousand years ago.
Kurama doubted his ability to kill Yomi even using a knife in the back. Moreover he doubted that he could catch Yomi off-guard. He was certain that Yomi at least suspected his involvement in the assassination attempt that had ended their previous partnership.
"Could you add the powers of the second-ranked fighter in each kingdom?" Kurama requested.
Kameda scowled at Kurama's impertinence in questioning his analysis of the situation but at a nod from Yomi he provided the requested information.
Kurama was honestly surprised by just how insignificant the seconds' powers were. He'd expected a notable divide since Kameda hadn't bothered to display the seconds to start with, but the truth was even more extreme than he'd dared to hope.
"I can bring in six fighters, each with a power greater than 10,000," Kurama declared.
Six fighters who could collectively sway the balance. Six fighters Kurama knew to have been firmly converted to Yusuke's passion for honorable combat. He would bring them here and trust that when the time came they would back Yusuke in his play for power. If Hiei couldn't persuade Mukuro from his pursuit of anarchy then their best option would be to place Yusuke on the throne.
In a year's time Yusuke would be much stronger but it was unlikely that he would be ready to step into Raizen's place in the balance. Even if Yusuke did become strong enough Yomi and Mukuro wouldn't believe it. When Raizen perished Demon World would go to war. But if internal strife were to remove Yomi and Mukuro from the equation, then by Kameda's charts Yusuke would be well positioned to assume unilateral control over Demon World.
Still Kurama wondered at what had become of the other S-Class demons. Surely Raizen, Yomi and Mukuro couldn't have killed them all in their rise to power.
At the request of Minomino Shiori and her son, Ranma, Saotome Genma, Kuonji Ukyo, Tendo Soun and his daughter Akane all gathered in a park in central Nerima one Saturday afternoon.
Genma and Ukyo immediately noticed that Ranma seemed badly on edge.
Akane hoped that, whatever it was, it wouldn't take long. Keiko had promised her another cooking lesson. Akane knew the other girl was instructing her as if she were an infant, but Keiko had the grace to never say as much. Under her careful tutelage Akane had managed to produce a few dishes which had been consumed without complaint by the rest of the family.
Soun was happily distracted from the whole proceeding as Atsuko hd decided to share his bed the night before and the morning had passed without excessive drama on the parts of his daughters. Certainly the food Kasumi had put in front of him had been cold and poorly seasoned, a definite sign of her displeasure, but that had been positively friendly in contrast with the first time they'd been caught.
"Thank you all for coming," Shiori said with serious formality. "I assume you're all aware of Ranma's change in circumstances."
Genma grimaced. Ukyo and Akane nodded.
"I feel it is important that we clarify how my adoption of Ranma affects the various marriage contracts Saotome-san arranged on Ranma's behalf," Shiori continued.
Her wording caught Soun's attention and sent his mood plummeting from ecstacy to despair. "The schools will never be joined!" he wailed.
Genma elbowed him. "She hasn't said it yet," he hissed.
Akane stared at Shiori in bewilderment.
"I don't see that it affects my engagement," Ukyo said. "My dowry was accepted years ago. The contract's signed, sealed and delivered as far as I'm concerned. All that's left is the wedding."
"I'm afraid the situation isn't that simple," Shiori replied. "From a legal standpoint, Saotome Nodoka's actions ended the existence of Saotome Ranma, as thoroughly as if he had died."
Ukyo appealed directly to Ranma. "Tell her that doesn't matter. I never gave a damn about the Saotome family. I can't stand your old man, always thought he was a waste of breath. The engagement was never about your family, it was just you I wanted."
Ranma bit his lip, his expression pained. He'd hoped they could get through this without him stating his position. "Then you went to your pop and asked him to make a deal with my pop. I wish you'd just asked me, it would have saved you a lot of time and misery."
Ukyo flinched as if Ranma had slapped her.
"Ucchan, you were my best friend back then and I'd like to think you still are. But I honestly thought you were a boy, we both know I wasn't thinking about marrying you back then."
"But, you said I'm cute," Ukyo protested miserably.
Ranma smiled sadly. "I meant it. You're cute and capable, a good fighter and a great cook. You mange to run your own business and you're no older than I am, I think that's pretty incredible. I hate the idea of someone as neat as you are wasting their life on something as empty as revenge. But it doesn't mean I want to marry you."
Ranma took a deep breath. "I'm sorry Ukyo. I should of told you that I just didn't see you that way when I first found out about the engagement. But I was hoping if I stalled I could figure out a way for us to still be friends."
Ukyo's back stiffened, her lips compressed into a thin line and her eyes gleamed with the suspicion of tears. "I suppose this means you're marrying Akane," she said.
Ranma glanced at Akane then looked back to Ukyo. "No," he said. "What my mother says goes for all the engagements my P- no, Saotome-sensei made."
"I guess that's something," Ukyo said. "But Ranma, if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath for the day when I'd want to call you a friend again."
Ranma swallowed harshly. "Yeah, I figured as much. I am sorry for what it's worth."
"Not a whole hell of a lot," Ukyo said. Then she turned to Genma. "Expect a visit from my father's legal advisors about reimbursing the cost of my dowry."
Genma nodded distractedly. When Ranma had given him the title of sensei in place of calling him father he'd been plunged deep into scheming mode. He had plans to make, he didn't want to be bothered by the drama between Ranma and the Kuonji girl.
For Akane the realization that Ranma was ending their engagement with the support of his adopted family was just beginning to sink in. She'd been protesting the engagement since the moment she and Ranma's fathers had announced it. But she'd done so always believing that it was out of her control.
At first she simply hadn't known what to make of Ranma. A boy who turned into a girl. A boy she was supposed to welcome into her home, whom she was supposed to marry. A boy who could defeat her effortlessly, who made her skills as a martial artist look like a bad joke. But over the months Ranma had stayed with them Akane had grudgingly come to like him and believe that he meant her no harm.
She started trying to be more domestic for him, true her efforts had bee an unqualified disaster but she'd tried. It hurt that Ranma never appreciated the effort she went to. It hurt that she was apparently no good at being a proper girl.
Akane was jealous of Shampoo and Ukyo. She wasn't just jealous of their skills in cooking, fighting and getting Ranma to notice their looks. More than anything else Akane was jealous of the way that they could both state what they wanted and go after it without fear. They didn't care about how it looked to others and they weren't afraid of what might happen if Ranma ever took them up on what they were offering. Akane might have come to like Ranma, but she was still deeply ambiguous about the whole notion of being married.
Still, even with the other girls making claims on Ranma Akane had never thought that she and Ranma wouldn't be married someday. Her dad and Uncle Genma were determined so eventually, whether or not she liked it, it was going to happen. Only Ranma was standing there saying it wasn't.
"But we have to," Akane protested.
For a long moment Ranma just started at her, shocked to hear an objection from that quarter. "You've never wanted the engagement," he said. "I found a way to get us out of it."
Akane opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out. How could she take back all the times when she'd said she didn't want to be engaged to him and not look like a fool? Worse yet, she knew how their fathers would react if she stopped protesting. Even if she didn't want to see the door shut on the possibility of marrying Ranma she really didn't want to marry anyone right now.
Ranma gave her a sad look. "It's for the best. We fight too much and that ain't a good sign, no matter what they say," he jerked a thumb toward Genma and Soun.
Akane nodded numbly. She thought they'd been getting along better lately.
"Saotome, he's your son," Soun protested. "Say something."
Genma gave Ranma a dramatically mournful look. "Not my son anymore. But you are still my student aren't you boy?"
Ranma grinned, happy that his father was still trying to claim some relationship with him in spite of the whole being disowned thing. "That's right, I'm still a practitioner of Saotome-style Anything Goes, even if I'm not a Saotome anymore."
Genma smiled toothily. "That's right m' boy. Why don't you drop by the Dojo later? There were a couple of techniques I never got around to teaching you. I developed them myself and they're pretty impressive I have to say."
"Really? Cool," Ranma replied.
Genma collected up Soun and Akane. "But the engagement?" Soun protested as they left.
"Not now Tendo," Genma hissed. "Not with that harridan right there to muck things up."
"There is one last thing I'd like to show you," Yomi remarked to Kurama.
He led the kitsune deep into the bowls of his high-tech castle. They paused in front of a heavy door secured with an impressive lock. "I found the demon who took my light."
Kurama forced his expression to remain impassive, mildly curious at most.
"He's nothing more than a hired assassin," Yomi continued with a shrug. "But he's proven quite stubborn thus far, refusing to give up the one who hired him."
Yomi undid the lock and allowed the heavy door to swing open. The winged demon chained to the far wall of the cell was still recognizable to Kurama but the once powerful warrior had been reduced to a pitiful wreck. His wings were useless, tattered remnants, his body resembled a withered husk. Kurama noted that Yomi must employ truly skilled torturers to have done so much damage and to have their victim remain alive.
"It's been years since we've gotten an intelligible word out of him," Yomi remarked as he callously jerked the other demon's dead back, shocking him into a semi-aware state. "I doubt he's capable of it any longer."
Kurama was as careful to mask his relief as he had been his earlier concern.
"There was a time when seeing, if you'll excuse the term, him like this brought me great satisfaction," Yomi said. "But lately it's gotten old. You, tell me who hired you and I'll release you from this."
The demon looked up at Yomi with dull eyes and Kurama realized that they'd been allowing him to recover, most likely in anticipation of Kurama's arrival.
In a halting voice, made harsh by years of screaming the demon said. "Never... told name." He paused for a time to gather what little strength remained in him. "Long... silver hair... Gold, cold eyes."
'The jig's up,' Kurama thought with cool fatalism. In a way, it was almost a relief not to have to guess at what Yomi might know any longer.
'I've been spending too much time with Yusuke, Ranma and Hiei,' Kurama thought to himself with a touch of amusement. 'I've no appetite for intrigue left.'
Calmly Kurama killed his assassin. Then he waited for Yomi's response.
"Your heart had already given you away," Yomi remarked. "The loss of my eyes gave me more than patience. I heard your pulse accelerate when I mentioned his capture and relaxed again when you saw the condition he was in."
"Do I need to ask again why I was invited here?" Kurama sighed.
Yomi laughed. "You always were the cool one."
"I've come so far since the day when I fought this creature. I'm on the verge of realizing a goal that would have been crying for the moon back then. It is a time for me to think on the future not the past."
"Your circumstances have changed as well," Yomi continued. "A human mother, now a sibling who is almost human. And from all reports you gain no advantage through your association with them... Though the boy is startlingly powerful, going through him wouldn't be a trivial matter for anyone harboring ill-intentions toward your mother. Going around him however..."
Angry gold flecks sparkled in Kurama's eyes.
"He doesn't have much in common with you does he? A straight-forward thinker, open, impulsive, even rash." Yomi chuckled. "Honestly, he reminds me a bit of the way I used to be. A part of me thinks I owe it to him to tell him how our association ended."
"I do not control whom Ranma speaks with," Kurama remarked with studied casualness. "Or what he believes. In my experience he makes up his own mind."
"Going through him would be challenging," Yomi replied, baring his teeth in a predatory sneer. "Not impossible."
Then he smiled, the mask of urban civility dropping over his features once more. "We really should speak in more detail about how you are going to help me achieve my goals."
"Of course," Kurama replied easily. Their game was still on-going, it was just the stakes that had been redefined: Protect the future of Living World or protect Shiori and Ranma's immediate future. But then Kurama had a history of severely punishing anyone who thought they could use his family as leverage against him.
Ranma and Genma sat facing each other formally across a small space in the Tendo Dojo.
"Boy, before we begin there is a matter which we need to discuss," Genma declared. "Regardless of this nonsense with your mother, I mean Nodoka, you are and always will be my heir with respect to the art. I began teaching you Saotome-style Anything Goes the day you learned to walk and that can't be erased with a piece of paper."
Ranma smiled. "Thanks Pop."
"And!" Genma continued raising one arm to emphasize the point. "Tendo and I swore that the Schools of Tendo-style and Saotome-style Anything Goes would be joined! The engagement between you and Akane cannot be broken!"
Ranma stood up. There was a look of disgust on his face. "You know, sometimes you almost make me think that you might have something of a decent parent hiding somewhere in you... Then ya pull something like this."
"Akane and I are an awful couple, we've both known it since the day you stuck us together and she clobbered me with a table."
"To be honest boy, you deserved that," Genma interjected.
"Yeah, I pretty much did." Ranma admitted. "That's the point. I run on at the mouth and she takes everything personally. I'm a jerk and she's violent. We make a great couple," he finished sarcastically.
"It toughens you up," Genma rebutted with a shrug. "Or are you too much of a little girl to take it?"
"You want to repeat that in Genkai-sensei's hearing?" Ranma asked, unperturbed. "Or Colonge's, or Shampoo's, or Ukyo's? Any one of those 'little girls' could hand you your butt. Or, hell, even Atsuko and Shizuru would beat you back and blue for the crap you spew about girls and they aren't even Martial Artists."
Genma's mouth dropped open, he'd been using 'girl' as the ultimate insult for almost as long as he'd been training Ranma. It had never failed to get a rise out of him before.
"Yeah, I can take anything Akane can dish out, I can even stop her from touching me if I feel like it. After all she's had a life and all I've ever had is the Art. But it's no good for her, constantly being mad, and I'm sick of being the target of her tantrums. We've been getting along better lately, but that's only because we're not living together anymore and only have to put up with each other for a few hours each day."
Akane stood outside the dojo door, her face was bloodlessly pale and tears streamed from her eyes.
"If this is all you brought me here for..." Ranma shrugged. "Well, you said your piece and I said mine."
"Wait!" Genma called as Ranma turned to leave. "I really do have something to teach you!"
"Another 'attack of the crouching tiger'?" Ranma asked sardonically.
"Ranma, these techniques which I am about to impart to you are not to be used lightly," Genma declared pretentiously. "Their capacity for causing devastation is such that I resolved to seal them away. However times have changed."
Ranma rolled his eyes and took another step toward the door.
Genma grimaced, then with an effort he dropped his theatrical manner. "Look Ranma, I taught you to fight in tournaments, for glory not for blood. I know you and your friends are trying to do something about the demons who've been coming here to cause problems. I know those fights have been to the death. I think these techniques might be of some use to you."
Ranma stopped and turned back to Genma. "No strings attached?" he asked.
"No, this is about doing what I can to keep you safe," Genma sighed.
Ranma sat back down.
"All right Ranma, my boy. I'm going to demonstrate the Umisenken and the Yamasenken for you. Watch closely!"
Hours later Ranma and Genma exited the dojo looking exhausted but pleased. "You've grasped the secrets of my most fearsome techniques, now you simply require practice to complete your mastery of these arts."
"Thanks Pop. Seriously, thank you," Ranma said. "Being able to go unnoticed could come in real handy when I'm dealing with captives. And Kami knows I don't have enough power moves. Ranma shook his head in frustration and self-depreciation. "I'm just not built for it, and that's not even mentioning my girl-form."
Genma smiled and reminded himself that there were things more important to him than the engagement; not losing Ranma altogether for one.