Staring at her hand and the small greenish ball of light sitting in it, Nabiki slowly sat up on her bed. Risking looking away for a moment she glanced around her small dormitory apartment, noticing the way the otherwise dark room was lit by a flickering illumination from the ki manifestation in her hand, then returned her attention to it. "Holy crap," she mumbled. "I did it. I can't believe it." She'd been intermittently trying to recreate the feeling she'd had the time Ranma had walked her through the process a couple of weeks ago, managing to produce small flashes of light and short-lived glows, but nothing stable. Yet, suddenly, something had sort of clicked and it all came together. Now she had an egg-sized ball of light sitting on her palm.
Wide-eyed, she lifted her hand to her face and inspected it carefully from a few inches away. The internal structure of the thing was more complex than she'd ever realised from watching the others, something she found fascinating. Raising her other hand she gently tipped the ball into it, watching with a grin as it rolled around like it was a physical object. "Holy crap," she said again. Growing more confident she passed it from hand to hand, then started tossing it into the air and catching it. Her experimentation came to an abrupt end when she fumbled the catch and the ki ball dropped to the floor, where it exploded with a sharp crack that made the windows rattle.
"Oh, shit!" she yelped, looking at the scorch mark on the carpet. A small amount of smoke rose from it, along with a smell of burnt plastic, causing her to dive for the window and quickly swing it open, hoping that the smoke detector wouldn't go off. It was about eleven at night, the chaos of a sudden fire alarm would be extremely embarrassing. Luckily the smoke drifted away without triggering anything untoward. Slowly relaxing, she stared at the carpet. 'There goes my deposit on this place. I wonder what I can say caused that!' A knock on the door made her jump violently, then look guilty. Standing she moved to the door and slowly opened it, to see a girl she knew from across the hall looking at her with mild worry.
"Hey, Nabiki. What on earth was that noise? It sounded like an explosion! Are you all right?" She smiled a little.
"I'm fine, Miki. I knocked over a lamp and the bulb broke. It was quite loud." The short-haired girl sniffed.
"Smells like something got burned. Are you sure everything is OK?"
"Yes, the carpet got a little scorched though. It stinks. I'm going to have to clean it up now, which is a pain, before I can go to sleep." Miki smiled sleepily.
"All right. I was just a little worried, that's all. Good night."
"Night, Miki. Thanks for being concerned." The girl headed back to her room and Nabiki closed the door again, leaning against it and feeling relieved that she'd been able to come up with a believable story on the fly. 'I hope no one else heard it,' she mused, kneeling down and looking at the carpet, which was definitely the worse for wear. A spot some ten centimetres across was badly burned, almost crumbling to dust, while around it a blackened ring stretched another ten centimetres or so. The floor under the carpet seemed mostly intact although blackened as well. 'Ick. That's kind of scary, I don't think that had any power at all in it compared to what Ranma and Kasumi can manage, but look at the damage. That would really hurt if someone got in the way.' Thinking about it, she shook her head slowly. 'I did that. All by myself. I can't believe it.' Gradually, a huge grin spread across her face.
Soun watched with Genma as his youngest daughter jumped back and forth across the floor of the Dojo, deflecting the blows Shampoo was raining down on her with precision and grace. Wincing a little as a kick got through and nailed her in the ribs, he then smiled as she grabbed the other young woman's leg, using it as leverage to spin her through the air and into the wall. Shampoo caught herself mid-flip, bouncing off the wall and back into the fight, smiling slightly. He turned to his old friend.
"I'm very impressed. Some of those moves are remarkable. She's improved a lot in the last few weeks." Genma nodded, watching the sparring with a practised eye.
"Yes. I have to say, my friend, I would never have thought a year ago that she would ever reach this level." He glanced at Soun slightly apologetically. "You understand why." The other man nodded, returning his gaze to the match.
"I do. Very much so. I agree as well. What those two girls did for her is... incredible. Not to diminish the work my daughter has put in herself in any way, but without Yori and Chou I very much doubt she'd ever have gotten this good. She has a long way to go, I think, but I also think she could become very good indeed. Shampoo seems to be improving as well, she was getting rusty." Genma laughed.
"I think that was the whole idea behind Cologne suggesting this. The girl needed a sparring partner, so she arranged to make one. I'm surprised that the old woman would trust Akane with these techniques, but impressed with how well she's learning." They watched as the two young women traded blows for a few minutes, before Shampoo suddenly accelerated to a much higher speed and took Akane down easily, pinning her on the mat. The youngest Tendo winced a little, then indicated submission. Standing Shampoo offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet.
"Well done. You've got that set of moves running very smoothly now, we just need to work on your speed. Once you master that we can learn the next set." Akane grinned, picking a towel off the bench along the wall and wiping the sweat from her face, tossing Shampoo another one with her other hand.
"I still can't believe how much faster than me you can go," she replied, picking up a bottle of water and unscrewing the cap. Shampoo laughed.
"I've been doing this since I was about six or seven. I've got a lot of years practice on you, but trust me, you're picking it up well. I was the village champion, you remember. There aren't a lot of people who could beat me, even as out of practice as I've let myself become." Akane nodded, smiling, as she drained the bottle. "Great Grandmother wants to see how you're coming along at some point in the next couple of weeks. Lets work on getting those sequences quicker, that should impress her. A few more months like this and I think she'll teach you some of the special techniques. Those are fun." Looking pleased, Akane nodded. A sound from the doorway attracted her attention and she looked over to see Nabiki leaning there, grinning at her.
"I only caught the last few seconds of that, but it looks like you're getting pretty good, sis," the older woman said, straightening up and walking over to them. She nodded to Shampoo, who smiled back, then looked very slightly puzzled as she inspected the elder Tendo sister. After a moment she shook her head a little, dismissing whatever she thought she'd felt.
"She's coming along very well, Nabiki," the Chinese woman said, looking pleased. "Faster than I'd hoped, in fact. It's a pity she couldn't have begun this training ten years ago, she might have ended up almost as good as I am!" Grinning at her friend, she giggled when Akane rolled her eyes, then smiled. Nabiki snickered.
"Well, there were extenuating circumstances..."
"OK, girls, push off now, we need the Dojo for classes," Soun said with a grin as he came over followed by Genma. "The students will be here soon." Akane nodded, smiling at him. "Well done, by the way, Akane. I'm very proud of your progress." She looked pleased, grinning at the praise, before she and Shampoo turned and left. Nabiki watched them go, then turned to her father.
"She's definitely becoming quite good from what I saw," she said. Soun nodded, also watching as the two women left the Dojo.
"Yes. I'm both proud and impressed." He looked at his middle daughter, smiling. "How are your own studies going? Are you back for long?"
"They're going very well, and just for the weekend. I needed a break, I haven't been home for over a month. How are your classes going?" Soun turned to watch as his students began to arrive.
"Very well. We haven't picked up any more students since Christmas, but there have been one or two enquiries. To be honest, this is probably the most we can handle right now, but as they learn we'll be able to take on a few more. Mariko is really becoming quite good. She's got a lot of promise. That young lad Kyo also shows signs of some real talent if he keeps at it. He's not as strong as he should be yet but he's remarkably quick." Genma went over to the group of students and began talking to them, explaining the lesson plans for the day. Turning back to his daughter the Tendo elder smiled again. "It's nice to see you, daughter. I need to get to work now, but we'll talk later." Nabiki nodded, smiling back, then walked toward the door. Soun watched her go with an affectionate look, tempered with slight puzzlement. There was something very slightly different about her he couldn't quite put his finger on...
After a moment he shrugged, chalking it up to his imagination, then walked over to his friend and their students. Soon they were involved in the lesson.
"That's it. Now, put your hands like this, near your waist. Yes, like that. It's not essential, but it helps focus it at this point. Put a little more power in, yep, that's good. Now, push your hands out and concentrate on forcing the energy towards the target." The orange-sized ball of green ki shot across the room and hit the pile of steel plates with a loud bang, leaving a slightly glazed spot and a curl of vapour. "Perfect. Very good indeed. The energy output isn't huge yet, but it's not bad at all for only two months practice." Ranma grinned at his sister-in-law, who grinned back, impressed with herself.
"I still can't believe I can do that," she burbled, full of joy at her own growing abilities. Ranma laughed.
"I know what you mean. I felt the same way when I first worked it out. It took a long time before I just took it for granted, and even now sometimes I find myself wondering how things got to this point. It's pretty weird." He studied her for a moment. "How do you feel? Tired, depleted at all?" She thought for a moment, probing her own ki levels in the manner she'd slowly learned over the past few weeks.
"Well, I can feel the difference. But it's not huge. I could do that quite a few times before it really took it out of me." Nodding, he smiled.
"Good. That agrees with what I can sense. It's important not to deplete your reserves too much, you need that energy, it is after all your own life. If at all possible try never to let it drop below about half what you start with, unless you have a real emergency. When you get more practice I'll show you techniques for pulling ki from the environment to replenish your reserves, which can speed up the recharging, but at this point it's more important to learn how to manipulate what you already have naturally. Now, lets try that again a few times, You've got the precision but we need to speed the process up, you're still too slow. Then we can go upstairs and join the others in the practice room for the breathing and visualisation exercises." Nabiki nodded, turning to face the practice target again. A few seconds later the room rang to the sound of another ki shot hitting the target.
"Good. Again." Another bell-like crack. "Again. Faster."
Eventually she turned back to him. "That's it. I'm starting to feel it now."
"OK. That was very good. You've speeded up quite a bit. A few more sessions then we can work on increasing the power a bit." Nodding, Nabiki looked thoughtful.
"I have a question." He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "I've been looking at the ki ball, or more specifically the internal structure of it." Now he looked slightly puzzled.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I noticed that first time that the ball is more than just a ball, it's quite a complicated three dimensional structure. It reminded me of something, so I did a little research. The nearest thing I can find to what I can see in it is the sort of complex magnetic field structure that is being researched as a method of creating a stable fusion reactor, in what they call a tokomak. It's not identical, and clearly it's not a magnetic field, but there are similarities." He was nodding slowly.
"OK, I can see that. I have to admit, I never really thought of that before, but now you mention it there is a similarity. I remember seeing a TV program on that subject last year sometime."
"I saw the same one, that's what gave me the idea. Anyway, I was wondering if it was possible that the internal energy structure could be modified?" Leaning against one of the pillars in the basement Ranma studied her with interest.
"To what end?" She waved a hand slightly, trying to put into words what she'd been puzzling over.
"I'm not completely sure. But I have this nagging feeling that it might be useful. Look, the amount of energy in the ki ball is something you can control, right?" He nodded. "The damage you can cause with it is down to the amount of energy. But, it's also down to the energy density, as far as I can work out. Like, for instance, a brick moving at one speed and a bullet moving at a much higher speed could have the same total energy, but the bullet will cause more damage in a smaller area specifically because that energy is applied over that smaller area." He nodded again, slowly and thoughtfully.
"Interesting. Once again, I didn't think of it in those terms. But it makes sense. Hmm." Holding out his hand he produced a small ki ball and inspected it closely. "I've noticed the structure inside it before, it's difficult not to when you're using your own life energy, after all. But I didn't really give it a lot of thought. Perhaps I should have. It's all patterns, like our magic is, after all. Everything is ultimately a pattern in energy, even matter." He grinned at her. "Physics becomes metaphysics, in a way. Even though magic and physics only have a nodding acquaintance at best." She laughed, then watched as he studied the ki ball on his hand.
"I wonder..." he mumbled, looking at it, then half-closed his eyes. "Hmm. OK, yes, perhaps if I..." After a moment the ball shivered and began to shrink. Nabiki watched wide-eyed. "Wow. That's interesting." The shrinkage continued, the ball glowing brighter and brighter, until it was a pinprick of brilliant blue-white light that was eye-searingly bright. Shading her eyes Nabiki squinted at it. She could feel that the total energy was basically the same but it radiated danger in a way that the original ball didn't. "Now that is interesting," Ranma mused, staring at it for a moment. Turning he faced the target plates, then over his shoulder, said, "Stand behind me," waiting until Nabiki was directly behind him peering around his body before he fired the tiny ki ball at the target.
It screeched across the room with a high-pitched whine, disappearing inside the top plate and leaving a hole a couple of millimetres across. Almost instantly there was a huge bang, causing the top plate to bulge, then slowly tip forwards, crashing to the concrete floor with an echoing boom that shook the entire basement and made dust dribble from the ceiling. Both of them slammed their hands over their ears as the echoes died away.
"Holy shit!" Nabiki squeaked. Ranma muttered to himself, walking over and staring at the thick steel plate on the floor. There was a substantial crater on the back of it where the compressed ki ball had exploded, showing signs of extreme heat, with splashes of molten steel sprayed outwards from it.
"That was impressive," he said quietly. Turning to his sister-in-law, he grinned. "Congratulations. You just came up with your first special technique." She stared at him.
"You're the one who just blew up half the basement."
"But it was your idea. Therefore it's your technique." Laughing, he squatted down and easily picked the ton-plus plate up, returning it to it's original position. "Now, we just have to make sure you can use it." Motioning her back to the start position, he asked her to form a ki ball again.
"Right. Now, feel the internal structure. Got it?" She nodded. "OK, what I did was basically squeeze it. It took a couple of attempts to kind of get hold of it, I guess, but then I pushed from all around and it shrank. Give it a try." She looked at him, then at the ball of energy in her hand, before tentatively poking it with her ki abilities. Nothing much happened the first few times but eventually her eyes widened as it slowly began to compress down.
"It's working," she yelped with delight. He grinned.
"Keep at it. Don't let go or it will try to expand again." Her brow furrowed as she concentrated, sweating a little.
"It's pushing back."
"I know. Push harder. When you get to a point you think you can't squeeze any harder, just try to hold it there." This point came when the ball was about a quarter the size it had originally been. It was now glowing very brightly, although it was a long way off the intolerable brilliance of the one Ranma had produced. "Very good. Can you make it any smaller?" She shook her head, sweating fiercely.
"No. This is as much as I can hold. It's really pushing back hard now."
"That's OK. It's not bad for your current level. Try firing it at the target." Facing the stack of plates she went through the exercise she was now familiar with, watching as the ball shot downrange to impact with a much louder bang than any of her previous shots. The plate visibly jumped a few millimetres off the floor, while there was a fist-sized dent in it, dribbles of molten steel running down the plate.
"Wow." She slumped a little. "That was very difficult." Ranma went and examined the impact zone, returning with a grin on his face.
"But worth it. That increased the damage to a pretty impressive level even though the total power was fairly low. Pumping a lot of power into it would be extremely dangerous indeed." He seemed pleased. "That's a very effective technique. I wonder if it works with the ki beams as well as that? I'm not going to try indoors, that's for sure!" Putting his hand on her shoulder he looked proud.
"Very well done indeed, Nabiki. I've been using these ki techniques for about six years and I never thought of that. I don't know that anyone has. You have a gift for this sort of thing." She smiled, rather tiredly. "Come on, let's get something to eat. You look and feel pretty depleted. That took a lot out of you. Don't worry, you'll get more efficient at it with practice." Heading for the elevator they went upstairs.
Cologne sat calmly inspecting the two women sparring in the back yard of the Cat Cafe, Mousse beside her looking quite impressed. "She's not bad," he commented, his eyes on Akane as she ducked a swing from Shampoo, returning a series of punches at least a third of which landed on the other woman's ribs. Shampoo controlled her expression masterfully but it was clear to the elder that she'd felt it. Akane wasn't as fast as her great-granddaughter but she was extremely strong.
"Indeed. As I suspected, she has the makings of a fine warrior now that her uncontrollable rage seems to be... controlled." A small smile came and went. Mousse raised an eyebrow, that was perilously close to funny. The two women fought until Cologne rapped her cane on the ground. "Enough." Both combatants immediately halted, bowing to each other before turning to the Amazon elder. Shampoo was favouring her left side while Akane winced a little when she put her weight on her right leg.
"Shampoo, well done. You have taught Akane very effectively. I'm glad to see that you seem to be regaining the abilities you so amply showed when we were in the village. I'm sorry I allowed you to slack off so much." The younger woman nodded, looking pleased and embarrassed in equal measure.
"Thank you, elder," she said formally. Cologne smiled a little. Turning to Akane she inspected her.
"Akane Tendo. I'm genuinely impressed. This was at least half an experiment, but I'm very pleased to see how seriously you seem to be taking it. I see no reason to stop at this point. I think that in, let's say, two months, with similar progress I will start you on some of the secret special techniques." Akane grinned, then nodded.
"Thank you, elder," she said, also formally. The old Amazon woman smiled more widely.
"Well done, Akane. I'm very pleased. Keep it up. Shampoo, take Akane and feed both of you, you look hungry. When you've both eaten I'll have a look at your ribs and Akane's knee, it's obviously not quite right." They nodded and headed inside, Shampoo helping her friend who was now limping noticeably. The elder watched them go.
"What are you thinking, elder?" Mousse asked respectfully but curiously. After a moment Cologne turned her head and looked at him.
"I'm not quite sure," she said slowly. "This was, as I said, something of an experiment. I wondered if the Tendo girl had what it took to be a decent warrior. Oh, she made an impressive berserker, there was little doubt about that, but such people are usually more of a problem than a solution except in very specific and unusual circumstances. Since those magical girls fixed her unpleasant infection and set her on the path to something approaching sanity, though, I wanted to see if she could suppress her temper and really learn to fight properly. Apparently she can. I wasn't sure what would happen, but this is better than I hoped for." Falling silent she stared at the young man for a moment, then smiled.
"It will be interesting to see how far she progresses. I was getting bored, this is a pleasant surprise." Cackling with laughter, she hopped up onto her cane. "It will also be interesting to see her reaction to some of the other, more difficult training methods..." As she hopped away Mousse winced in sympathy.
"Good luck, Akane. You're going to need it. That old bat has a nasty streak," he muttered to himself, before getting up and going to look for some food himself.
Tamiko sighed. "Mom, I've got everything I need. You've seen this apartment, it's fine. You don't have to keep buying me stuff." Kasumi listened quietly, pouring them each a cup of tea, a small smile on her face. "No, I've got a washing machine. You've seen it. Yes, it's a good one. No, there's a dryer as well." She rolled her eyes and Kasumi giggled silently.
"Yes, I have enough plates. And saucers. No, there are plenty of bedclothes. Yes, they're clean. Mom. Mom. I'm fine! I've been living here for three months so far." She sighed quietly again. "Yes, I love you too. Give my best to the others. I'll stop by tomorrow. OK. Bye." Pressing the disconnect button she dropped the phone to the table and glanced at Kasumi, shrugging with a smile.
"You see?"
"Yes, I do. Is she always like that?" The older woman handed her a cup. Tamiko accepted it with a nod of thanks, slumping a little on the sofa.
"Afraid so. Actually, I got away more easily than normal then. She can go on for hours." Laughing, Kasumi looked up as Ranma and Nabiki entered the room from the direction of the practice room, talking together and smiling. Ranma was currently female, dressed in her practice silks.
"How did it go?" the eldest Tendo sister asked. Ranma grinned.
"Pretty well. She's got quite a decent battle aura now when she tries, although her control needs work." Nabiki looked incensed.
"Do you know what she did?" she asked, aggrieved. "She made me hold a ki sphere in my hands while she tried to hit me with a bo staff, and poked me in the ribs if I let it fade. It's really hard to concentrate on holding the ki stable when someone's trying to hit you!" Rubbing her abused ribcage she looked momentarily annoyed, them smiled again. "I guess that's the point."
"Exactly. And you're coming along quite well. You only lost it three times today. Last week it was five." The red-head grinned. "We do need to start you on some proper basic hand to hand of some sort, but you seem to be getting faster even so. I nearly had to work at hitting you!" Nabiki giggled.
"Now, I know that's not true. You're so much faster than I am I can't believe it."
"Oh, that's true enough but honestly, you have gotten a lot quicker. And tougher, I poked you pretty damn hard a few times, most people would have ended up with a cracked rib once or twice but you've only got some bruises. Nice ones, though." She smiled at the middle sister, who rubbed her ribs and winced.
"Don't remind me." Laughing, Ranma ran her hand down the other woman's side, the blue glow quickly erasing the bruises. "I still find that incredible." Looking down at herself Nabiki felt her side, then smiled.
"One day I expect you'll be able to do it, sister," Kasumi said, offering her a cup of tea.
"You really think so?" The older woman nodded calmly.
"I do. It will take a while, but the basic healing is essentially ki based. Your control is coming along nicely. It will probably be a year or so before you can manage it, and the more complex parts require our magic as well which we haven't started you on yet, but I don't doubt you will be good at it." Looking pleased Nabiki sat beside her sister while Ranma dropped down beside Tamiko.
"Where are the other three lunatics?" she casually asked, reaching out for the plate of sandwiches on the table. Tamiko smiled at her, accepting the one she was handed.
"Aiko is with her mother, helping her with some shopping. Misaki is at the garage rebuilding a Honda NSX engine, she's been working on it for three days now. I'm not sure where Fumiko is, she wandered off a while ago to meet some friends." Nibbling her sandwich she looked pensive. "It's been incredibly quiet the last few weeks. We haven't had to do the magical girl bit for ages. I can't work out if that's good or bad, but at least we're not running around in the cold. I don't mind it in the summer, or even the spring, but until recently it's been much too cold for bare legs." Ranma snickered.
"But they're such nice legs! You're always telling us that." Nabiki started laughing while Tamiko grinned.
"That's true. But they look better a healthy skin colour, not so blue." Smiling gently Kasumi took a sandwich as well.
"I've been working on the clothing spell some more. I think I might be close to working out a method to switch it off." Sitting up Tamiko stared at her.
"Really? That would be wonderful. All joking aside, it's a massive pain." Nodding Kasumi looked pleased.
"Yes, it's a complicated little spell but I'm making some progress. It will require some delicate, um, editing, I suppose is the right word, of your inherent magic, but I think it's possible. I want to be sure I have it right before I try it, though. Perhaps a couple of weeks or so and we could try it."
"The others will be very pleased," Tamiko said happily. Turning to Nabiki, she asked, "How is the rest of your training coming along?" The brunette smiled.
"Better than I ever expected. The ki shots are pretty easy now, and I've got the compression to about eight times. It's really hard to go further than that, I just don't have the power." Tamiko nodded understandingly.
"I know. I can manage about fifteen or so, Misaki can do nearly twenty. That's a very powerful technique you invented." The other woman looked a little embarrassed.
"It was just an idle thought. I had no idea it would work so well." Ranma smiled at her.
"That's how a lot of the best ideas work. My ki beams and the healing were basically the same way. There are some other techniques I came up with at the same time that are even better, but it will be a while before any of you are at a level to use them." Tamiko and Nabiki exchanged curious glances. The red-head smirked. "It's a surprise."
"We'll have to start you all on hidden weapons at some point soon," Kasumi suggested, sipping her tea. "You're nearly at a level where you could start to use it." Nabiki looked interested.
"I thought they already used something like that?" she asked slowly. "I mean, their weapons seem to disappear in that manner, and Misaki must have about fifty kilos of food stashed away somewhere."
Tamiko giggled. "It's not quite the same thing. Our magic gives us access to a smallish subspace pocket we keep the weapons and a few essentials in, but it's nothing like as flexible or effective as their hidden weapons technique. That allows for multiple ki pockets, which are much larger than we can manage. It's a lot more useful." Nodding with understanding, Nabiki looked at her sister.
"I'd certainly like to learn that technique. I know how useful you find it."
"You have a little way to go yet before you could really use it, but you're close. All of you are coming up to a similar level in ability, although the others have more raw power for obvious reasons. You'll catch up eventually, though." Kasumi took another sandwich, looking content. Ranma looked at the clock.
"We're going to have to get back to the university soon. The coursework is starting to pile up and we each have several lectures we need to attend in the next couple of days." Nodding, Tamiko stood.
"Thanks for the tea and the sandwiches, guys. I'll see you later. Nabiki, nice to see you again. Keep up the training, I want to be able to see what you can do at some point." She grinned, then left the apartment. The middle sister looked at the other two.
"I need to get back as well, I have a paper due in three days. I don't think I'll be able to come over until Thursday." Hugging her quickly, Kasumi stood.
"Keep practising the exercises," she advised. "But keep the power level low. We don't want you making any more holes in your carpet..." Nabiki laughed, getting up and picking up her coat.
"I'll try to keep the destruction to a minimum. See you guys later." Waving to Ranma who waved back she headed out the door, getting into the elevator and pressing the button for the ground floor. As she was entering the train station a few minutes later she noticed a familiar policeman walking past. She nodded to him, and Sergeant Harada nodded back politely although with a slightly puzzled expression. Privately amused she headed for her platform.
Nodoka stepped to the door of the kitchen, peering out at the yard while drying her hands on a towel, having just finished cleaning the sink. The sun was bright and it was surprisingly warm for early April. She could hear noises coming from the Dojo as Soun and her husband taught their students, synchronised yells and cracking sounds showing they were working on some sort of power training exercise. Hanging the towel up she walked into the garden, looking around at the various plants which were beginning to sprout vigorously. 'I'm going to have to start pruning and tidying up,' she mused, bending to investigate a rose bush. A thump behind her attracted her attention, making her look over her shoulder. Shampoo was standing on the lawn having clearly just jumped over the wall, looking up at the top of it where a pair of hands could be seen holding on. She was grinning.
"Come on, Akane, it's not that difficult. Just jump over the thing. It's only three metres or so." A stream of vicious mutters came from the other side of the wall, making Nodoka smile to herself. The hands disappeared and she could hear footsteps heading away, then rapidly approaching again. A grunt of exertion and Akane got half-way over the wall, her knees thumping into it and making her belly-flop over the top, then slowly tip into the garden and land on the ground on her back with a thud.
"Ow."
Shampoo was rolling on the ground laughing hysterically, while Nodoka smiled, amused. Walking over she offered the youngest Tendo girl her hand. "Are you all right, Akane?" she asked. The younger woman nodded, painfully levering herself to a sitting position, then standing with the aid of the Saotome matriarch. She glared at her friend who stared back wide-eyed, before collapsing in renewed laughter.
"I'm fine, thanks, Auntie," she said, limping over to Shampoo and kicking her in the leg. Nodoka chuckled.
"That looked like it hurt."
"It wasn't comfortable, that's for sure," Akane groused, rubbing her kneecaps. Shampoo sat up still giggling.
"You need more up and less forward," she helpfully suggested. The other young woman scowled.
"Thanks a bunch," she replied, not looking all that thankful.
Snickering, Shampoo bounced to her feet. "You need to learn this. Everyone else can roof-hop, even Kodachi, and you're probably better than she is now. I know you're more than strong enough, you just need to get the coordination and the ki control. Even Genma can do it and look at the size of him!" Nodoka muffled a sudden laugh, making both young woman glance at her with small smiles.
"He is quite large," his wife admitted, giggling a little.
"Come on, let's try again. Remember, more up." Sighing, Akane followed her friend across the garden, then watched as Shampoo ran back towards the wall, lightly jumping on top of it, then gracefully running back and forth for a moment, before motioning to the other woman. Gritting her teeth, Akane charged the wall, putting everything she had into a vertical leap. Her height was impressive, easily clearing the top of the wall this time, although her aim left something to be desired as she flew over the top of it flailing her arms. A descending scream ended in a loud crash somewhere on the other side. Nodoka winced as Shampoo turned to look down into the street with an amused expression.
"Too much up that time, Akane," she called, dropping off the wall. Shaking her head but smiling Nodoka went back into the house.
"Are you sure this won't hurt?" Fumiko said nervously, looking at Kasumi. The older woman smiled at her comfortingly.
"You won't feel anything, I think. It certainly won't be painful. Just lie down and relax." Looking slightly worried, the other woman did as requested, lying back on the bed in one of the spare rooms, her sister and the rest of her team watching intently. They'd drawn straws for the first one to try Kasumi's modification to their clothing magic, Fumiko having won. Or lost, depending on your point of view. Ranma peered over his wife's shoulder with interest while Nabiki watched from next to the other three girls.
"All right, I'm going to start now. Don't move, please, Fumiko." The girl nodded slightly then lay quietly. Kasumi ran her hands a few centimetres away from her body as if she was looking for something, zeroing in on a point over her chest. "Ah. There you are," she mumbled to herself, looking at something that wasn't physically present. Poking her finger into the middle of whatever she could see Kasumi moved it around a little, while Ranma watched. "See? This bit here? That's the connection to this part, which is the clothing transformation spell. I need to either cut it or block it. Hmm. OK, let's try this." She concentrated, moving her hands around in a complex and delicate manner. Ranma nodded.
"That looks reasonable. You could tie it off there and we could test it before you make any permanent changes."
"That's a good suggestion." Kasumi nodded, prodding the magic some more, then pulled her hands back. "All right, that should do for a test. Fumiko, try powering up, let's see what happens." The girl on the bed was wearing some old, sacrificial clothing she didn't mind becoming a new uniform. She nodded, then flipped the mental trigger that activated her magic boost. The familiar internal sensation came and went, but her clothes didn't change. She grinned.
"Fantastic." Kasumi looked pleased.
"Does everything else feel normal?" After a moment's thought Fumiko nodded, smiling.
"Yes. Everything is working perfectly but that part. That's wonderful work, Kasumi."
"I'm not done yet, so power down, and lets make the change permanent." After a little more work she sat back. "That should do it. Try it again." Once more Fumiko powered up with no visible change. Nabiki could feel that her power level had increased very substantially, with the mental effect she was coming to associate with active magic as distinct from ki, but other than that she looked perfectly normal.
"That's amazing, Kasumi," Aiko said, smiling broadly. "I only wish we could have worked this out years ago. It would have been a lot less embarrassing." The eldest Tendo sister smiled.
"Thank you. I'm sorry it took so long to devise a fix, it's a very complicated bit of magic and I didn't want to risk damaging anything." She looked back to Fumiko. "I had an idea and changed it slightly from what I was originally intending. Essentially I set the default state of the clothing change to off, but left it in place. I patched it with a control section. Can you feel this?" Her hand glowed slightly as she moved it over the other woman's chest. Fumiko nodded slightly.
"Yes. That's a little like the normal boost trigger."
"I added it to that point. Now, here's the difference. See?" Once more Fumiko nodded. "Set it like that and power up, it will do what it's always done. Leave it off and the clothes don't change. Give it a try." With slight concentration Fumiko powered down, held the other mental trigger in the right state and powered up again. Her clothes instantly shifted into the familiar skimpy uniform. She grinned.
"I see. I can't think when that would be required, but it's there if I need it. Thanks, Kasumi." She sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "Your turn, sis," she said to Misaki, standing and moving out of the way. Her sister eagerly took her place.
Half an hour later all four girls had the new clothing spell patch installed, all of them looking very pleased. Ranma and Nabiki were preparing lunch while the others laid the table. Kasumi had disappeared into the study, coming back a few minutes later with a pile of clothing in her hands. She dropped it on the table and looked at her friends, who were staring at her curiously. "I made these a while ago because I was sure we'd work out your magic eventually. I hope you like them." Lifting the top set of clothing off the pile she handed it to Aiko, who unfolded it with interest. She found herself holding a set of silk clothing clearly patterned on that of 'Yori' and 'Chou', only in the dark blue with gold trim colour scheme of their normal uniforms. Holding it up to herself with a delighted smile she saw it would fit perfectly.
The others looked at her, then at the pile. Kasumi laughed. "There's two sets for everyone. Plus the boots, and if you want them, the gloves." She handed them out to the other three as Ranma and Nabiki came into the room carrying lunch. Nabiki inspected the clothing that Aiko was still holding against herself and grinned.
"It suits you. Looks like you've got a team thing going on."
"Thanks, Kasumi. Again." Aiko said, folding the clothing carefully and putting it on the sofa, before hugging her friend.
"You're welcome. You need something to wear. We should see if we can work out some sort of instant clothing change spell like some of the other magical girls use, but for now at least you have something somewhat less... risqué." They all laughed, before sitting down to lunch.
"Ahhh!" Akane yelled as she plummeted off the roof, frantically grabbing at the side of the house as it went past, her fingers grazing a windowsill and allowing her to redirect her momentum sideways. She shot three metres to the left, bounced off the wall of the Dojo, then coiled her legs under her as she headed for the courtyard wall. Pushing off hard she rose nearly to the level of the roof before reaching out for it, just managing to hang on and roll onto the tiles. Lying on her back she closed her eyes and breathed heavily, hearing light footsteps approach across the roof. A shadow fell over her face and she opened her eyes to see Shampoo smiling down at her.
"That was almost impressive, Akane. Although the panicked scream let it down a little." The Chinese girl giggled, then sat cross-legged next to her as she recovered. Eventually she felt well enough to sit up.
"I really thought I was going to hit the ground then," she said, looking at the roof where her jump had been intended to land.
"You didn't. Which is the important thing," her friend said, glancing at her and snickering a little. "You almost made it, in fact. I think you slipped when you jumped and didn't quite get the distance. We'll try again in a moment." She nodded slowly, lying back on the roof and letting her spinning head recover. A few moments later a voice from below made her sit up and look over the edge. Nabiki was peering up at them, a quizzical expression on her face.
"You OK, sis? That was quite a scream." Akane smiled weakly.
"Sorry. I missed." Grinning, Nabiki waved up at her, going back inside the house. The youngest sister turned to her friend, to find her looking after the middle sister with a puzzled expression. "What's the problem, Shampoo?" she asked curiously. The Amazon shook herself a little.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm not sure there is one. It's just that lately, when I look at Nabiki, I get this weird feeling in the back of my head, like there's something I should be seeing but something's stopping me seeing it." She shrugged. "Must be my imagination. It's only Nabiki, after all." Standing, she dismissed the thought as unimportant. "Come on. Let's try again. I want to have you jumping across that gap at least nine out of ten times by this evening." Akane looked narrowly at her.
"And on the tenth time?"
"You fall, of course. That's the funny part." Shampoo laughed merrily.
Sergeant Harada looked up at the line of six young women running across the rooftops across the street in an implausible manner, smiling as each of them came to a gap in the buildings and somersaulted across it in turn. He could hear at least one of them laughing her head off in the process. Yori was in the front, while Chou brought up the rear. The other four he realised must be Aiko and her girls. In the last couple of weeks they seemed to have made a major change to their uniforms, the new ones showing a hell of a lot less skin but still looking very good, clearly based on Yori and Chou's normal clothing. He wondered what had brought that about. Glancing at Corporal Otani who was walking next to him, also watching the girls, he laughed.
"Did they join Yori and Chou, or did Yori and Chou join them?" he asked. Otani snickered.
"I can't really see Yori of all people joining another group. Can you?"
"Not really. She's more of a leader than a follower. Sometimes I think we've joined her..." Both of them chuckled, walking back to the station while behind them the line of magical girls leapt another gap, leaving a trail of giggles behind them.
Sitting on the back porch beside Nodoka, Cologne accepted a cup of tea with a smile of thanks on her prune-like old face. They watched as Shampoo and Akane jumped back and forth on the roof of the Dojo, sparring with each other, although clearly Akane was occasionally having to concentrate more on staying in the roof than the fighting. Shampoo was carefully controlling the match to ensure the other woman didn't come to grief. The Amazon elder nodded to herself. "Not bad at all. She's coming along very well."
"Was this the outcome you hoped for, Elder?" Nodoka asked quietly, sipping her tea, her eyes on the two young woman. Beside her the much older woman nodded slowly.
"Hoped for, yes. Expected, not quite. I feared that the young lady would find it too difficult and give up, or allow her temper to control her. I'd have had to bring it to a halt at that point. But she's both surprised and impressed me with her dedication. Pity we couldn't have gotten her to this point a decade ago, or even five years ago, but better late than never I suppose." She drank some tea looking satisfied. "If she can keep up this pace of learning, in a few years she will be very formidable. Just the last four months has brought her on immensely." Looking up at the other woman, she asked, "How are your husband and Soun getting along with their own efforts?"
Nodoka smiled slightly. "Much better than I expected. I have to admit, although I love my husband, I haven't thought much of him as a person for some time. You understand why, of course." Cologne nodded with a rusty chuckle.
"Oh, indeed I do."
"But, that said, he does seem to be trying to redeem himself in some way. He managed to pull poor Soun out of a bottle, which even now amazes me when I think about it, and he was the driving force behind the pair of them resuming teaching. He still has a lot to answer for, they both do really, but they seem to be doing surprisingly well at making good. From what I know their students are coming along well and they're earning enough to keep the Dojo and the household solvent, remarkably enough." Cologne nodded, returning her attention to the two women on the roof opposite. She winced slightly as Akane caught Shampoo in the shoulder with an impressive kick, making the other woman have to quickly flip backwards to evade the follow-up blow.
"Good strike," she murmured. "And Nabiki? I haven't seen her for a while."
"She's back for the weekend, but she popped out to the shops. She'll be back any moment. From what I gather her studies are going very well. She seems to have decided to become something called a forensic accountant after she graduates. I believe it combines most of her interests and skills, including the... less proper... ones." Nodoka looked amused as Cologne chuckled again.
"Yes, that girl always impressed me with her ability to find things out. It's a good thing she didn't want to go into the shadows to earn a living, although I suspect she'd be very good at that. Better to be more or less legal."
"She seems to be spending quite a lot of her free time with her friends, those two medical students. They're very nice girls, even if they have a somewhat non-traditional relationship." The Amazon laughed.
"I'm very familiar with those 'non-traditional' relationships, Nodoka. In our culture they're not uncommon, neither are they looked down on." The other woman flushed a little.
"I have to admit I still have slight difficulty with it. My own upbringing, you understand. My mother would have been very... unimpressed. But she was always rather difficult." Cologne glanced at the woman beside her with a slightly raised eyebrow, thinking of the irony of that statement, while knowing full well that the other woman didn't see it. With a small smile she went back to watching Shampoo and Akane.
Ten minutes later the front door opened and closed, followed by footsteps approaching through the house. The middle sister appeared beside them, looking at her sister and Shampoo on the roof. Nodoka looked up. "Hello, Nabiki, did you get what you needed?"
The young woman nodded. "Yes, thanks, Auntie. Hello, Elder Cologne. How are you? I haven't seen you since Christmas."
"I'm well, thank you, Nabiki," Cologne said, her eyes still on the two girls on the roof. "How are you doing?" She glanced up, then froze, staring at Nabiki, who was watching her sister spar. 'What the hell...?' For a moment as she looked at the young woman with other than her eyes, she felt that something enormous and incredibly dangerous was looking back, not in a particularly friendly manner either. 'What is that?' she wondered, cautiously reaching out with a magical probe. The pain that went through her instantly made her realise far too late that this had been a spectacularly bad idea...
Nodoka and Nabiki both glanced at the Amazon elder as she made a small noise, then shook her head. "Are you all right, Cologne?" Nodoka asked with concern. The old woman smiled weakly at her.
"Yes, I'm fine, Nodoka. A bit of tea went down the wrong way, I think." She coughed a couple of times. "I'll be all right. One of those small cakes would sort it out, I think." She reached for the plate Nodoka helpfully passed her. Nibbling a particularly good lemon cupcake appreciatively, she wondered what she'd been thinking about just then. It was just at the back of her mind, but she couldn't quite bring it into view. 'Hmm. Can't be all that important, then. If it is it'll come to me.' Glancing up at Nabiki she smiled at the slightly worried expression the much younger woman was giving her.
"Don't worry, dear, I'm fine. Sit down and tell me about how your studies are going." Nabiki nodded and sat beside them, taking the cup of tea that Nodoka passed her and accepting a cupcake as well.