Chimidoro no Ryuu
Chapter 5
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Hino, Ron
================================================================================
*** WARNING! FIRST DRAFT! ***
Chapters 3-6 are in desperate need of revision, perhaps even total rewrites of the plot. I've sat on them for a while, but I'm not sure what elements I want to keep and what's a useless pile of biological waste. I've been told I let people get too far out of character, but sited examples and suggestions would be much appreciated, as well as anything else that sucks about it. Please review these chapters and then forget you ever saw them! Only Chapters 1 & 2 should be considered ready for public viewing.
Suggestions to hinoron@hotmail.com
Thanks much for your assistance.
================================================================================
Just a brief foreword:
1. Ranma and friends are owned by... aw fuck it! I own them. That's right,
their mine! Anyone from Viz Communications reading this should be contacting me
about sending me back royalties. All you little fanfic authors will receive
their subpoena shortly... and your little dogs too! BWAHAHAHAHA!
(The preceding paragraph was, obviously, in jest. All hail Rumiko Takahashi-
sama!)
2. "Chimidoro no Ryuu" means, loosely translated "Bloody Dragon". That would
make the full name of the School "Chimidoro no Ryuu Ryu" (ryu meaning a martial
arts school/style). To avoid the confusion, it will always be written as the
Chimidoro no Ryuu School, or the shorter Chimidoro school, though in the second
case it is a reference more to Reiko's family name then the school's title.
3. I've stopped going through and manually wordwrapping each line, (Except for
this foreword, of course) so download this and read it with a word processor.
We last left our emotionally damaged heroine facing off against Shin, one of the two Chinese ex-Amazons hired as assassins by Cologne. Akane and Shin's older sister Xian watch. If Shin loses, Xian will take her place, but Akane has promised Reiko not to interfere no matter what happens. Which is good, because either of these former Amazons could take her with both arms tied behind their backs.
Shin is armed with a pair of Cat's Claws (blades attached to the forearm. Mousse wore one in the second movie, and StreetFighter's Vega wears one as well). At her hips were a pair of long daggers just in case the Cat's Claws should be ripped off her arms. By their nature, they were not a weapon that could be quickly picked up and used again if lost; they required time to be strapped into place. This was actually one of their advantages; they could not be dropped like a normal weapon if their owner was struck dizzy for a moment.
Reiko, of course, carried no weapons. They faced off and prepared to determine who would be the victor, and who the corpse. This was a battle to the death. The two Chinese were here to assassinate Reiko, and she had made it clear that she would treat the two of them in the same way, out of respect, apparently.
This is where this humble author had left you before, teasing and taunting about cliffhangers, and resisting the urge to say, "same bat time, same bat channel".
Guess what? That jerk is going to do it again. ;)
***
While this tale does bump Ranma out of his comfortable spot as the lead character, it is not exclusively from Reiko's point of view. Events do not happen in a vacuum, and shortly after Reiko and Akane had snuck out for the night, a third figure did so as well.
Now, anyone who knows even the slightest bit about Ranma could describe him as a machoistic, overprotective manly man (read: an ass), who would feel the need to follow the two girls to the challenge just in case they needed his help. It wasn't that he felt they couldn't handle themselves (well, Akane maybe, but Reiko definitely could) it was an instinctual need to protect that he had always had a great deal of trouble fighting down. His father's 'man among men' upbringing hadn't helped either. Many (both male and female) would argue that this type of instinct is not a bad thing, except when it acted out of turn and humiliated the woman Ranma was trying to protect.
In any case, all that was immaterial. Akane had been with Reiko when she received the challenge letter, Ranma had not been. He didn't have a clue where the two were going at this hour, but he didn't have a problem with it. As already established, he knew Reiko could take care of herself, so Akane was safe with her wherever they went. Their being awake until now had forced him to leave a little later than he had intended, but it was easier to sneak past the wary Reiko's room (she still slept in Akane's bedroom, actually) if she was absent rather than merely asleep.
Giving the pair enough time to get a couple blocks down the street, Ranma left the house and traveled by way of rooftop, thankful that the girls had not been heading in the direction he had wanted to go. He was late already, and making a wide detour would not have helped him any.
Finding the building he wanted, he hopped down behind it and reached for the handle of the back door. It opened by itself, or rather, by the hand of a rather irritated young woman inside.
"You're late!" She said accusingly.
"Sorry." He said sheepishly. "I had to wait for everyone to fall asleep."
"Yeah, me included." She said with a yawn. "I think we're going to have to cut these late night visits down to once or twice a week. I don't know about you, but I'm really falling behind on sleep. Actually, twice on the weekend might work out ok." She smiled. "Now if only we could find a way for you to spend the whole weekend with me, instead of just late-night visits."
Ranma followed her inside, mirroring her slightly naughty grin. "Actually, I've thought about that, or something like it. If I could go on a training trip, I'd have an excuse not to be at the Dojo regularly for at least a week. Unfortunately, I usually go on things like that with Pop, so I'd have to figure out a way to get him to stay out of it. Plus, you'd have to keep going to school or someone would suspect something was up. Remember when you came with us when I had that Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion thing? Akane was only a couple days behind."
"Yeah." Ukyou sighed. Putting an arm around his waist as they walked casually into the restaurant proper. "Well, keep thinking about ways to lose that stupid panda, and I'll be here to help. Run your plans by me before you try them out, okay? Two heads are better then one."
"Right." They sat down on a pair of stools at the counter.
"You know, I bet if I waited two days into the week, I could pretend to be sick and no one would suspect anything. A couple of days of coughing and no one would suspect that I was going home to be with you for a few days. I could even close the restaurant down for illness."
"Wouldn't you lose business that way?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. The restaurant does quite well the rest of the year you know. I can afford to shut down for a few days. Heck, I'm not even open full time as it is, seeing how I have to go to school and all."
"Okay, so it's just Pop I need to deal with."
"_We_ will think of something Ranchan." She took both his hands in hers. "Ranchan, can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Ucchan."
Ukyou looked shyly down at their hands, rubbing her thumbs across his knuckles. "Why'd you choose me, or have you?"
"What do you mean, 'have I'? You think I visit Shampoo, or that lunatic Kodachi some nights?"
"No..." Ukyou said, but her expression told him she'd at least considered the possibility. More to the point, Akane was easy to visit, being just down the hall from his bedroom.
"Hmph! Well, let me ask you another question. If I was that kind of guy, would I deserve your love?"
"Ranchan I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did."
She leaned forward and hugged him around the waist. "I'm sorry! I just get so scared. Everybody wants you, and I worry that someone else might be trying hard enough to get you, if I'm not careful!"
Ranma stroked her head, mentally kicking himself. He'd meant to tease her a bit about her jealousy, but finding how deep her fears ran was a bit shocking.
"Ucchan, don't cry! Listen, I _have_ chosen you. I don't want you to ever be afraid that I haven't. That's not something you ever need to worry about again."
"sniff Really?"
"Really. So stop crying. Hmm, how about I answer your question. Will that convince you?"
"What question?"
"About how I decided?"
Ukyou wiped a last tear out of her eye and sat in is lap, hugging him tightly. "I don't doubt you any more, but could I hear anyway?"
(I bet the honorable readers would like to know as well.)
"Sure." Ranma smiled, patting her back. "I thought about all the people that get hurt, both emotionally and physically, by all this fiancée fighting garbage. I knew none of you were likely to drop out of the running, and it was just going to get more and more out of control. So two weeks ago, I sat myself down in the dojo and meditated for an entire night. I had to sort out my own feelings. I thought about how I felt when I was with each one of my fiancées. First was the most obvious, the one I was living with.
"When I'm around Akane, I'm always either angry or uncomfortable, not to mention terrified when she cooks." He looked down to see if Ukyou would be cheered up a bit by his joke. She smiled up at him, a little. He continued. "The rest of the time I'm mostly indifferent to her, and the same is true for her with me. Every time I try to be nice it backfires. Deep down I think we don't have any real dislike for each other. Mostly it's all misunderstandings and insensitivity, but why on Earth would anyone think that would change if we got married? I don't want to live the rest of my life angry, or being pounded on because she is.
"Now the second most obvious was Shampoo. I'm not going to lie and say there's no attraction there. She's very beautiful, extremely sexy, and to my great misfortune, she knows how to use it too." Ukyou buried her face in his chest, not wanting him to see how much she was hurt by his words. "When I'm around her, I'm usually feeling awkward, embarrassed, or angry at her for making me feel that way. Like I said, she knows how to use her best features, but she uses them _way_ too much for me to ever get comfortable around her. I also get the sense that she's trying to act like she's the perfect housewife in order to please me. I mean, isn't the Joketsuzoku a female dominant society? Why would she be willing to bow and scrape to me so blatantly? I don't think that's how it would be if I married her. Once the ring goes on, she'd drag me back to Nhu Che Zhu and that would be the end of her desire to go all out to please me. Not that I _want_ an anything-you-want-dear kind of girl, but she's just lying to me in order to get me to marry her. If she even wanted a chance, she'd have to show me the real her.
"Thirdly, we have Kodachi. She scares me. End of story.
"Finally, we come to Ucchan." He said, giving her a playful squeeze around her shoulders. Ukyou pressed her face even tighter into his chest. Why was she last? Why was she the least likely to become his bride in his eyes? Even Kodachi came ahead of her.
"Ucchan was my childhood friend, and I made her the same when I met her again. She's my very best friend. Unfortunately, I realized that I was _only_ thinking of her as such. I wasn't even considering her seriously as part of the running. I knew how she felt, and it wasn't fair to her for me to feel that way. I owed it to my best friend to at least consider her seriously. So I thought about how I feel when I'm with Ucchan. I'm comfortable, relaxed. I can talk to Ucchan about anything in the world, and I'll know she'll listen. She might smack me upside the head with a giant utensil, but only if I really deserve it (as opposed to Akane, who will smack me because the temperature outside is an even number). If I married Ucchan, emotionally, not a whole lot would change. I'd still be comfortable around her, able to talk to her about anything, and she'd still lay one on me if I deserve it." Ranma said with a chuckle. "I realized I loved Ucchan, and not just as a friend like I'd thought."
Ukyou had lifted her head slowly as his words sank in. He could see the tracks of the tears that she had shed silently as he spoke. He took her face in his hands.
"Then I realized a few other things I'd never thought about before. Namely, that my best friend is beautiful," he kissed away a tear under her left eye, "and sexy," under her right eye, "and the idea of being apart from her makes my stomach twist into knots." He kissed her gently on the lips. "I can't bear it." He kissed her again and she kissed back, the kiss waxing long and passionate.
"You won't ever have to." She promised, when they broke apart. "I can't live without you either."
"I'm sorry it took me so long to sort out my own head."
"It was worth the wait." She smiled. "Promise me you'll never leave?"
"Er... what about the Tendos? If I'm not there in the morning-"
"I meant leave completely, silly. You're allowed to be out of my sight for short periods."
"Oh good. Though I'd like to work on making it so that I don't have to be out of your sight for longer than a bathroom break."
"I could learn to love that."
They kissed again. When they finished, Ukyou just leaned her head on his chest and held him for a while enjoying the feel of his warm, strong arms around her.
Ranma felt like discussing something else. "Say, Ucchan? I'm getting a little hungry." He grinned.
Ukyou sighed. She really didn't feel like firing up the grill at this time of night. Everything was packed up and turned off.
"I guess you wouldn't be Ranma if you didn't want to eat constantly." She sighed, getting off his lap. "What do you want, sugar?"
"I'll have one Deluxe Okonomiyaki Chef." Ranma said, grinning even wider.
"Right. One deluxe..." she trailed off as his last word sank in. By the time he had turned her around her grin was as wide as his. He kissed her deeply as he pressed her against his body.
"And how would you like it served sir?" She teased. He scooped her up and laid her down on the counter, her left shoulder and hip resting on the blackened steel of the cooking surface.
"Hot," he said, "off the grill."
She giggled and pulled him in for another kiss as he began untying the belt from her Okonomiyaki jacket, unfolding the two halves and exposing her wrapped chest. He stroked them gently through the bindings.
"You know, ever since I've seen these things in detail a week ago, I've been wondering why you still bind your chest. Almost everyone knows you're really a girl now."
"Just habit I guess. Why?" She asked as she loosened the ties on his Chinese shirt, running her hands over the lean muscles of his tightly chiseled chest.
"Well, now that I've seen them in their full glory, I know for a fact that they're far too beautiful to be kept hidden."
She smiled up at him, reaching behind her for one of the kitchen knifes she kept near the counter. She rarely used them, having personally sharpened all her mini-spatulas to the point where you could shave with them.
"Then you've just signed the death warrant on these bandages."
He took the knife from her. "Death by the blade?"
"Do your duty, executioner.
"It's a perverted job, but somebody's got to do it." He said with a strait face.
She giggled. "You know perfectly well you're the only one who I'd let do this job. It's not without it's hazards." She said, holding her breath as he slipped the razor shape blade down her cleavage. He had the edge pointed up of course, but the point was right against her skin.
He paused and looked seriously into her eyes. "The trust means a lot." He said as he pulled upwards, carefully ripping the cloth without driving the point into her skin.
She smiled up at him. "I don't think I'd have cared as much if anyone else told me to stop binding my chest either." She stopped talking as he went past her breasts (now almost entirely exposed) to cut the last half of the tape around her upper abdomen. She sucked in her stomach.
"No, push out."
"What?"
"Push your stomach out. It's a lot easier to avoid stabbing you if you're convex as opposed to concave."
"Oh." She said and pushed her stomach out, feeling rather embarrassed about looking fat. She quickly returned it to its normal flat washboard look once he cut the bandages away.
"Mmm. Much better." Ranma sighed as he gently rubbed her large mounds. He had found out earlier that her breasts were a bit tender just after she untied them, until the circulation returned to normal. He was quite willing to softly massage them better.
"If you like, I'll stop dressing like a boy too." She said.
Ranma cocked his head as he thought about that. "I don't think that's the same thing as binding your breasts." He said. "Dressing like a boy and disguising yourself as a boy are two different things. One's a fashion statement, the other's a deception, know what I mean?"
"I guess."
"I think you should wear whatever you're most comfortable in, and don't worry what other people think. You're a girl (a beautiful girl) and you don't have to prove it to anyone. You just shouldn't have to hide it either, is all I'm saying."
Ukyou hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much! I wonder a lot if I'm feminine enough for you."
"Oh you are!" Ranma grinned, massaging a little more deeply into Ukyou's chest, resulting in appreciative moans from her. "Everyone seems to think that I'm looking for a girl who's 100% feminine, the traditional Japanese housewife. If that's the type I loved, I'd be considering marrying Kasumi."
"So what type do you love?"
Ranma leaned forward, planting a kiss on her neck with each sentence, trailing slowly down to her chest.
"Ucchan's the type I love! I love her strengths [kiss]. I love her faults [kiss]. I love insecurities [kiss]. I love her pride [kiss]. I love her dark, tiny little secrets that I know she could never tell anyone but me [kiss][kiss]. I love that I can tell her mine."
"Ranma..."
"What can I say? You're the girl I love."
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Ranma, tonight, would you like to make me the _woman_ you love?"
He blinked at her. "Ucchan, are you sure? I don't want you to think this is something you have to do. I wouldn't leave if you said no. I wouldn't even be upset."
"I know you wouldn't, that's why I offered." She smiled.
"You're not scared? You're sure you wouldn't regret this?"
"I am a little nervous, but I know that if I don't do this, I _will_ regret it."
Ranma swallowed. "Alright then."
"Ranma, are _you_ nervous?"
"Enough to qualify as 'scared'."
"Really? You've never done this before?"
"With who? Think about it. Akane would bash me into the dirt if I even tried to kiss her. Shampoo comes on way too strong for me, and she'd probably drag me off to China the minute we finished. Kodachi... I'd be worried about getting my equipment back."
"Hey, you never said anything about Reiko." Ukyou realized.
"Oh her? She was never _in_ the running. Until her family problems are solved, she needs to be engaged to me, remember? That's all there is to it."
"I remember, but she is beautiful."
"I guess so, but in her case, I KNOW I wouldn't get my equipment back. She said so on the first day."
Ukyou giggled. "Good. I kinda like her. Sorry for assuming this wasn't your first time too, but I guess I just figured that since you were so good with your hands, you'd already done it before."
"Sometimes being cursed to turn into a girl has its advantages."
"You masturbated as a girl?"
"A few times. Don't you?" The question brought a bright red colour to her cheeks.
"Do I? Well, actually, um, no I don't."
"Huh? Nabiki told me all girls do."
Ukyou blinked. "Well she's wrong, or lying. How did you get into that kind of conversation anyway?"
"I'm pretty sure she was just trying to get pictures of when I did. I made sure to avoid her whenever I tried it though. Are you sure girls don't do that? Having done it myself, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't." Ukyou saw he seemed really embarrassed by it, now that it wasn't 'normal'.
"I'm sure some girls do. I've just never tried it myself. I guess I don't really know whether most girls do or not. I'm not exactly in that many social circles, most girls thinking I'm a guy and all that. So... what's it like?"
"Huh? Oh. Well, it's similar to when you're a guy, but not as localized. Sort of like all over your body."
"And how would I know what it feels like for a guy?" Ukyou growled playfully, punching him in the arm.
"Ow. Oh yeah. Um, well... actually it's really hard to describe. Sort of like a fire spreading through you, but it doesn't burn. It's just this wonderful, pleasantly warm sensation."
"I feel a little like that when you touch my breasts."
"Ah, thought so. Well, it gets better. Much better, until at one point you can't even think."
"Well then," Ukyou said with a cat-like grin (which made Ranma a bit nervous for reasons that had nothing to do with the Neko-ken), "I think it's about time you showed me _exactly_ what it feels like. Not here though, in my bedroom."
Ranma grinned and scooped her up in his arms. "I guess I'll take my Deluxe Okonokiyaki Chef to go then."
Ukyou giggled as he dashed upstairs, hugging his neck tightly.
(And now, lest my honorable readers think I'm growing sappy, back to violence and bloodshed.)
(And no, you do _not_ get to peak in the window while Ranma and Ukyou play Hide the Spatula. I think they deserve some privacy.)
***
Reiko let Shin make the first attack, weaving back a little too slow, and getting three deep cuts in her upper arm for her trouble. Shin had prepared a more powerful, yet slower follow-up attack, but was taken by surprise when Reiko instantly countered with a solid reverse punch to the solar plexus.
What the hell was that? Shin wondered as she backed off to recover. She acted like I didn't even hit her. She should have at least winced.
Reiko backed off for a moment as well, focusing her ki around her hands, making them hard as steel. It wasn't nearly as effective as her Ryuunotsume (See Ch. 1) and was in fact a fairly common technique of many styles (even the author can pull it off, to a slightly lesser degree ^_^). Still, it would be enough to break those Cat's Claws off and remove the slightly smaller girl's reach advantage. Now that she had an idea of her opponent's speed, Reiko needed every advantage she could get.
As Shin was preparing to renew her attack, Reiko charged. A flurry of fast blows were traded back and forth, until Reiko saw her opening and destroyed the left-hand Cat's Claw with a chop of her steel-like hand.
Shin's eyes flicked to the broken weapon ever so briefly, and thus was caught by Reiko's palm heel to the chin. She was knocked rolling. When she stood back up, she ripped the remains of the Cat's Claw from her arm and reentered the fray.
Martial arts at a certain level is more like chess than anything else. When your arms and legs are moving faster than you can effectively keep track of, it becomes a game of strategy; how many moves can you plan ahead? How many of your opponents moves can you predict and work their counters into your combination? Simply striking and reacting won't get you far in a fight at this level.
Shin was planing her attacks a stunning 9 moves ahead. A difficult accomplishment for any fighter of any style.
Reiko was doing 11.
The other Cat's Claw followed the first a minute later. Shin stood with her back to a wall, hands up in a guard. The daggers were at her hips, but reaching for them meant dropping at least one hand, something Reiko had made clear would be a bad idea. On the other hand, Reiko was standing close enough that a committed strike now could be blocked and countered easily from Shin's present guard. Frankly, both were standing a little closer than either was comfortable with.
They were at a stalemate. The first one who moved risked taking a serious (perhaps final) hit. They stood staring at each other, refusing to so much as blink.
Akane watched intently. She was a little less tense now that Reiko had gained the advantage. She jumped suddenly when she realized Xian was standing beside her.
"You friend of Reiko?"
"Um... yes."
Xian did not look at her, but watched the fight intently. Akane saw a great deal of worry in her eyes.
"I think Reiko win. She say this fight to death. Is true, or just talk?"
Akane hadn't actually thought about it much. Everybody had been throwing the word death around so much at the beginning, so casually.
After a moment, Akane answered. "Reiko's school normally treats all challenge matches as fights to the death. She's had to kill many times before. Recently she swore an oath that she wouldn't kill anyone unless her own life was in danger. She was quite happy to have that oath standing over her, but since you and your sister are here to kill her..."
"Then kill assassins no break oath."
"I'm afraid not. I'm really not sure what she'll do. She doesn't really enjoy killing, but she already said this would be a fight to the death."
Xian closed her eyes tightly, as though trying not to cry. "Shin is little sister. Only family left. I no can watch her die. If Reiko move for deathblow, I take Reiko friend hostage, make her stop. Xian promise no hurt Reiko friend for real, only stop Shin from dying. Is okay?"
Akane looked at the big woman. She could understand the loyalty between sisters. "A-All right. If you promise not to hurt me. I don't really want to watch her kill anyone either."
"Xian give word as Ama- as woman of honor."
Akane nodded.
Shin's patience was apparently not as long as Reiko's; she avoided the obvious move for her weapons and attacked barehanded.
It was a mistake.
The added range her weapons gave her was the only thing that had saved Shin this long. Once Shin was fully within Reiko's reach, the fight was over.
Shin found herself being held against the wall, Reiko with one hand on her shoulder, the other drawn back. Shin might have tried to counter this final strike, had not both her arms and one leg been broken at the knee and elbow joints.
"Stop fight now!" Xian roared.
Reiko turned her head, finding the Xian had a knife to Akane's throat. The larger ex-Amazon pulled up on the blade, forcing Akane to stand on her toes to live.
"Let Shin go. Fight over. Shin lose. No need to kill."
Reiko's expression (or lack thereof) did not change in the slightest. "This was to be a fight to the death, as all of us agreed. You can't back out now. You wouldn't have done the same if I had asked."
"I kill her!" Xian screamed. "I kill your friend!"
Reiko responded by lashing forward with her hand. She had been focusing her ki again, but this time around a single finger. This steel-like finger sank completely into Shin's heart and was followed by a small fountain of blood when it was removed.
Reiko stepped back from the dying girl as Xian ran forward with a scream, tossing Akane aside. Reiko walked around until she stood between Xian and Akane, in case the assassin changed her mind. She didn't have to hurry; Xian and Shin still had at least 30 seconds to share last words. She respected that time they had together and stood well out of earshot, not that she understood Mandarin.
Xian held Shin to her and sobbed. Her little sister smiled and whispered something to her.
Akane turned to Reiko who had turned her back to the private moment.
"Why did you kill her?"
"Because she would have killed me."
"But I was a hostage, I could have been killed." Akane almost pleaded. Does my life mean that little to you? she wondered, but could not bring herself to ask.
Reiko looked her in the eyes, her unfeeling expression never softening. "She wouldn't kill you."
"She's an assassin!"
"And she still wasn't going to kill you."
"How could you know that?"
"Because," Reiko's eyes narrowed, "you weren't scared at all."
"Huh?"
"That's how I could tell that the two of you had planned it ahead of time."
Akane turned away guiltily. "You make it sound like we conspired against you."
"And you didn't?" Reiko asked in that flat, toneless voice.
Akane shook her head. "It was more like... she warned me ahead of time of what she planned to do."
"Still, you didn't try to warn me."
"Warn you of what? If she succeeded in fooling you, all that would have happened was that her sister would be alive. You crippled her, she wasn't a threat anymore."
Reiko let out a sigh. "Let me share with you a little life lesson, Akane. An assassin hired to kill you is no longer a threat when he or she is dead. Anything less means that they'll try to kill you again. If I let either of them walk away tonight, their honor demands that they keep trying until they kill me."
"So, you beat her before, couldn't you have done it again?"
"Exactly. Which is why next time, it wouldn't have been a challenge letter. It would have been a bullet from a long-range sniper rifle. You and I would be sitting down to eat lunch in the schoolyard and my head would suddenly explode, right before your eyes."
Akane had nothing to say to that.
Reiko glanced back at the Chinese. "I still have to take care of Xian. I'm pretty confidant I can handle her without a problem. She doesn't look as fast as her sister, plus she's upset over Shin's death. You don't have to watch if you don't want to. You can wait for me at home if you prefer."
Akane shook her head. "I'll stay."
"If you're sure..."
Akane nodded. She certainly didn't _look_ sure.
"Okay. I'll try to keep this quick." Reiko said, turning back to her would-be assassins. By her estimate, Shin should have been gone for several seconds now, which meant Xian would be putting her down shortly.
Xian laid Shin gently to the ground, placing her arms folded across her stomach, and kissing her on the forehead. Then she rose and turned.
"I suppose you have three reasons to kill me now." Reiko mused. "Duty, revenge, and of course, money."
"Money mean nothing now! Only important before to keep food in stomach. Xian will throw money back in Cologne's face, then spit on honorless Matriarch!" Xian snarled, sliding her preferred weapon, a set of brass knuckles fitted with circular blades, onto her hand.
Reiko smiled. "I'm afraid I can't leave you alive, but I will spit in the old woman's face for you, and tell her who it's from."
"Xian thank you, but not going to lose." She said sharply, taking a fighting stance.
"Well, so long as somebody spits on the old crone." Reiko smirked. "If it means anything," she said, becoming serious and taking a side stance, "I wish I hadn't had to kill your sister..."
Xian charged with a battle cry filled with pain. Reiko sidestepped and spun. Both halted abruptly, facing opposite directions.
Xian, facing Akane (whose eyes were very wide), looked down slowly at the small tip of the blade protruding from her chest. Reiko released her grip on Shin's dagger, which she had hidden until now, and allowed Xian to fall forward.
"Or you." Reiko finished, not turning around. She took a deep sigh, as she looked up at the stars. Eventually, she turned to see Xian still moving, if barely.
"I'm sorry, I should have made sure you were finished." Reiko said, pulling the dagger free and turning Xian over. "Go be with your sister now." Reiko said softly, stroking a stray lock of Xian's hair back into place tenderly. With the dagger gone, blood poured rapidly from the hole through her body. In only seconds, Xian closed her eyes and exhaled for the last time.
Akane had come to stand behind her friend.
Reiko squatted there by Xian's body for a while, then sighed again and moved to take the fallen woman by her shoulders, dragging her a few feet before wincing at the pain the deep cuts in her arm brought her. She no longer had adrenaline to protect her from the sensation.
"Akane, could you help me with this?"
Somewhat reluctantly, Akane took Xian's feet and lifted. "Where are we taking her?"
"To the water." Reiko answered. "They picked the docks for a reason. They didn't know I'd be bringing a friend to take my corpse home."
"Shouldn't they get some kind of service or something?"
Reiko looked at her a moment. "We'll do what we can." She said.
They laid the heavy woman on the edge of the dock, then did the same with Shin. All the weapons were wiped of fingerprints and then tossed into the bay, save one.
Reiko stood beside Akane for a few minutes, trying to think of what to say.
"Tonight, we bid farewell to Xian and Shin of the Tiel family. I did not know them long, but I know that they are more honorable Amazons than the Matriarch of their former tribe. It's kind of ironic: if we had met under different circumstances, we might have been friends."
Reiko turned to Akane. "You want to say anything?"
Akane shook her head. "I knew even less of them than you did. I think that's good enough anyway."
Reiko nodded. "Right. Rest in peace, you two. I hope you're more fortunate in your next life." She said as she rolled Xian then Shin over the edge.
They stood for a moment in respectful silence. Then Reiko turned. "Let's go home, Akane." She said tiredly.
***
Reiko didn't come inside the house when they arrived home.
"Don't you want to go to bed?" Akane asked. "It's nearly 3:00 AM."
Reiko shook her head. "I need to do some thinking. You go ahead."
Akane nodded and opened the door.
"Akane?"
She stopped and turned to her friend, who was looking out at the garden.
"You asked me earlier what it felt like to kill a person. It's not a nice feeling. I have killed when I had to; either because my father forced me to or when my continued survival depended on it, like tonight, but I've never once enjoyed it."
Akane didn't say anything for a minute, then "I read once that that's the difference between a killer and a monster." Then she went inside and to bed.
Reiko sighed and then jumped to the roof, looking up at the ever-watching stars.
"But what if I don't feel anything when I kill? What am I then?"
Reiko was still pondering hours later, shortly before dawn, when she saw a figure hopping along the rooftops towards her. The figure dropped down to the street in front of the Tendo house, and the streetlights revealed his face to her.
"Ranma?"
Ranma was nearly home, having avoided jumping directly to the Tendo roof so as not to wake anyone with his footfalls. He had just closed the gate behind him when Reiko jumped to the ground in front of him, nearly startling him into screaming.
"Hey Ranma, what are you doing out so late?" She looked him over. His hair was out of place, and his clothes very wrinkled. "Geez, you look like the morning after."
Ranma made a choking noise. "M-morning after w-what?" He stammered.
Reiko frowned. She reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him close, and sniffing him.
"W-what are you doing? H-HEY!" He nearly yelled as Reiko grabbed his waistband and sniffed again. She released him with an amused frown.
"Well, I guess it IS the morning after. Does Akane know about this?"
"K-know about what?"
Reiko raised a who-do-you-think-you're-trying-to-fool eyebrow. "Ranma, unless you came in your pants in both of your forms tonight, you were out having sex with someone."
"How can you tell that?"
"You smell like pussy, stupid! Now does Akane know?"
"Well, of course not."
"Well, she will if you get within a metre of her."
"You're not going to tell her?" Ranma asked, half pleading.
Reiko cocked her head, thinking about that. "Well, she is my friend, but then so are you I suppose. More than that though, this is really none of my business."
"Thanks, Reiko. You're a good friend."
Reiko rolled her eyes. "I don't know if I'd go that far. Can I at least ask who's the lucky girl?" She grinned wickedly, "Though in your personal case, I suppose it could have been a guy."
"HEY!"
"Shhh!"
"Oops. That ain't funny."
"Sorry, couldn't resist. So who?"
"Um... Ucchan."
"The cross-dressing okonomiaki chef?"
"She's not a cross-dress- well, I guess technically she is." Ranma mumbled.
"I didn't mean it that way. Actually, she's kinda nice. Not a bad match if you ask me."
"Um, thanks."
"I really think you should tell Akane soon though. It would be really bad if it had been her that smelled the sex on you."
"Yeah I guess you're right."
"Ranma," Reiko frowned, sensing his reluctance, "Akane is probably the best friend I have now. Keeping a secret from her is not something I want to do for very long, do you understand? Tell her soon!"
"Alright, I promise."
Reiko nodded. "Good. Now to deal with that smell." She grabbed his shirt again and rolled backwards with her foot in his chest, sending him flying into the pond.
Between his surprised yell and the huge splash, it was perhaps not surprising when Akane poked her head out the window.
"Ranma! What are you doing in there?"
"Uh..."
Reiko hopped up to the roof, hanging by the rafters near her window. "He said something unflattering about my being out all night. I thought throwing him in would be more fun than explaining how I spent most of the night on the roof stargazing."
Akane scowled. "I should've known. I hope you catch cold out there!" She yelled at Ranma before letting Reiko in and closing the window. "He's such a jerk!"
"True, but sometimes his being a jerk can be rather convenient." Reiko mused.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Never mind. I'm just tired. It's Sunday, so we can sleep in. Let's get some rest."
"Oh. Okay."
***
Shampoo locked the door at the end of a fairly slow Monday night and turned off the front light. She sat down at a table by herself.
She wondered what she should do. The letter from Shin Tiel had vanished, but she had read it. If she wanted to protect her great-grandmother, the letter would have to be found and destroyed.
Did she?
If what he letter said was true, then her duty as a member of the Joketsuzoku tribe, as a child of Nhu Che Zhu village, was to report her great-grandmother's crimes to the council, Matriarch or no. If it were true.
What if it was?
Could Shampoo turn on her own beloved mentor like that? On family like that? And mightn't that not be a little hypocritical? Shampoo was not exactly obeying the law to the letter either. She had failed to kill the female outsider who defeated her (excusable, since Ranma wasn't really a female). She had failed to marry the male outsider who had defeated her (so far). She had not administered the Kiss of Death to Reiko Chimidoro (all her survival instincts plus her great-grandmother, the Matriarch, said that was a bad idea).
Of course all those were failures, not crimes. She had done her best on all three occasions, and simply not succeeded for one reason or another. What the Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku was doing was a little different. She was disobeying the spirit of the law as well as the letter of it. Amazon's should face their opponents head-on, with honour, not pay others to do their fighting for them. That was the way of cowards.
What if it was true?
What had happened this morning certainly indicated that it was.
Reiko had entered the Nekohanten at noon, probably on her school lunch break. She had marched in and demanded to see Cologne, who hopped out from the kitchen, frowning at the girl's rudeness. Shampoo had watched warily, as she stood near a table she had just served to.
Reiko tossed something to the ground at Cologne's feet (well, the base of her walking stick, anyway). Shampoo saw it was a broken Cat's Claw.
"Xian and Shin send their regards." Reiko growled.
Cologne's back was to Shampoo, so she couldn't see the old woman's face, but the Matriarch slipped an inch down her staff in shock.
"Xian also wanted to give you something, for insulting their honour and thinking them to be cowards like yourself." Reiko said. Shampoo drew in a sharp breath. NO ONE called the Matriarch a coward! The girl dropped her serving tray in horror as Reiko actually spit right in Cologne's face.
"I'm disappointed in you, old woman. I was under the impression that you were the Matriarch of the Amazons; an example of their honour to all others, both within and without the tribe. Two real Amazon's are no longer in your employ, or anyone else's for that matter." Reiko snapped, being careful not to say outright that she had killed them. With that, she turned on her heel and left the restaurant, and all its stunned occupants.
Cologne reached up slowly to wipe the spittle from her cheek.
"[That arrogant child is going to die a long, lingering death!]"
Yes, that little incident put credence to the idea that the old woman had hired assassins; Shampoo remembered the names from the letter. Still, it could all be an elaborate trick by Reiko, except that the letter had been written in Chinese. Shampoo was quite sure that Reiko didn't speak a word of her native tongue, so if that were true than she would have needed help from someone Chinese.
Mousse was missing.
He'd gone missing yesterday, the same day the letter arrived. In fact, she vaguely remembered batting him aside in the hallway as she ran to tell her great-grandmother about the letter.
The letter which was gone when she and Cologne returned.
She hadn't seen Mousse since then.
Well, it was pretty clear who had the letter now. Yes, that made more sense then him writing it. The letter had definitely been done in a feminine hand. So what would he do with it now? He had no love for her great-grandmother. Would he attempt to expose the Matriarch?
'Remember that if you wish to confront her with this letter, you should make and hide a copy before doing so.'
Yes, Mousse would have almost certainly taken that part of the letter to heart. He probably went to an all-night copy place right away. What would he do next?
Mail copies to friends for safekeeping? That was reasonable.
Mail a copy home, to the council? That was almost treason. Furthermore, it might not be accepted as testimony coming from a mere male like him. But it could be, and it would at least arouse suspicions. Cologne would be investigated, perhaps even overthrown as Matriarch.
And now the loaded questions:
Was that what Shampoo wanted?
Was that what her great-grandmother deserved?
These were questions she had to figure out soon, before Mousse returned to confront Cologne.
***
"The beach?" Reiko blinked.
"Yeah! It's hot enough now, and we've got a long weekend." Akane said cheerfully. "The whole family's going. You'll come with us, won't you?"
Reiko hesitated slightly, but Akane's eager smile wasn't easy to refuse.
"Of course." She said with a sincere smile. If Akane wanted her to come, she would bear any awkwardness that might come her way.
The awkwardness Reiko was expecting came around 11:00.
The group had arrived at 8:00, Ranma-chan going off to play in the surf, Soun and a large panda playing shogi (what else!), Kasumi making sure everyone had ice tea if they wanted it, and Akane, Nabiki, and Reiko deciding to suntan.
Early on, Nabiki had been debating whether or not to try and convince Reiko to start an amateur modeling career. She had a figure at least on par with Ranma-chan's, if not better, especially in the bikini she was wearing. Nabiki would act as her agent of course (professional modeling was unacceptable, as the agents of professional models only got a 10% cut. Nabiki wanted to see if she could get Reiko to go with 50%). However, as Reiko's skin began to brown as the morning wore on, the white lines of her many scars stood out visibly even through Nabiki's sunglasses. Sadly, Reiko was too marked up to have any success in the superficial business of modeling. Selling racy snapshots wouldn't bring in enough to warrant the risk to Nabiki's health either. Nabiki secretly hated attitudes like that: beauty through perfection. Did a beautiful girl suddenly become ugly because of one or two minor blemishes in the wrong places? Conversely, the obsession with superficial looks was a weakness that Nabiki frequently abused to earn/extort money. Case in point: Kunou and his photos of Akane and the Pig-tailed-girl. However, even though she'd make use of the attitude for her personal profit, she still hated it.
Which might have been why she did something today that she rarely did: help someone for free.
"EWW! Look at that girl!"
"Oh gross! Scars all over!"
The two girls who had set up a blanket near the Tendo group had not been quiet enough that Reiko could of missed their words, unless she was sleeping. She was lying on her back with an arm over her eyes to block the sun.
But she was not sleeping. Nabiki saw the muscle in her face twitch. That was the only sign Reiko gave.
"Can you imagine having marks like that... everywhere like that?"
"Why doesn't she wear a one-piece or something?"
"Geez, in her case she'd have to wear a whole wetsuit to cover them. Her arms and legs are sliced up too."
"She must be one of those S&M sickos."
"EWW!"
Both of them giggled.
Akane was less inclined to let things be. At first, she had merely watched Reiko's reaction, waiting to see if she would have to pry the scarred girl's hands from one of the bitches' throats. When Reiko did nothing however, and the heartless bitches continued to make fun of her, Akane decided Reiko could be the one to do the prying. No one made fun of her friends that way! Reiko was beautiful! How dare they laugh and say otherwise!
It was Nabiki's hand that caught her shoulder when Akane started to get up, just as Reiko was whispering for her to let them be. The middle Tendo leaned in and whispered.
"Calm down Akane. There's much better ways to get revenge than just pounding the crap out of them. More satisfying ways."
Reiko looked up at them from under her arm, intrigued.
Akane reluctantly sat back down. "Fine. How much?"
Nabiki pursed her lips in thought. "In this case, free."
"Really?"
"Not that I'm going to be making a habit of this, you understand."
"Naturally."
"Okay. First, go get Ranma in out of the water and change her to a him. Then..."
The two girls, who had become somewhat quieter upon realization that some of the sunbathing group were awake, looked up as three very cute guys walked up the beach.
"Oh wow, check it out!"
"Isn't that guy Mikado Sanzenin? The figure skater?"
"He's so dreamy!"
"And look at the bods on the other two!"
"They're cute too."
"Hell, all three are hot!"
"SHH! Here they come! Be quiet and look sexy!"
The three boys in question walked right by the pair desperately trying to subtly catch their attention, and stopped just beyond them to stare at the Tendo group of sunbathers, who were still short Akane.
"Whoa, check out that chick!" Ranma cried.
"Yeah, she's got more scars than any of us." Ryouga agreed.
"That's so cool. I've got to hear the story behind that big one across her stomach."
"I must admit, in all my years of martial arts paired figure skating, I've taken my share of skate blades into the skin, but I can't compete with that one, or the one on her shoulder either."
"Think she'd want to swap scar stories?" Ranma asked.
"Let's hope so." Ryouga said bashfully.
"I wonder if she'll let me kiss them better?" Mikado pondered aloud.
"Ah, I think they've healed already." Ranma deadpanned.
"Think she'll let me anyway?"
"I doubt it." Ryouga muttered.
"Well, in any case, why are we still standing here?" Mikado asked.
"Good point. Let's go talk to her." Ranma agreed.
The two girls watched in shock as three very cute guys walked over and sat down in the sand, rousing Reiko and striking up conversation. Reiko responded with a smile and in a few minutes, the boys were proudly pointing out their own scars and telling the wildly embellished tales of their grueling martial arts training that went with each minor wound.
One miffed and confused girl turned to he other. "My mother's kitchen knives are pretty sharp."
"How long do you think it'll take us to heal so we're ready for the beach again?"
"I dunno. At least a week."
"Geez! What we go through to catch a man!"
The pair continued to grumble as they gathered up their beach stuff and went home, obviously having no chance until their own bodies were covered in interesting stories.
Akane came back and sat beside Nabiki, who was watching the 'scar wars' story telling contest with amusement.
"The bitches left. This was a great idea Nabiki. They looked miserable."
"Yup. Where'd you find Ryouga by the way?"
"He was just walking around the beach asking for directions to the dojo. I stopped him and asked him to help out. Once I told him how mean those other girls were being, he volunteered immediately."
"Hmph. Just lucky I guess."
"How'd you get Mikado?"
Nabiki smirked. "He still hasn't got his 1000th kiss yet. I told him Reiko might be grateful if he helped boost her ego a bit."
"Nabiki!"
"Hey, I said 'might'. It's not like I promised she wouldn't belt him across the ocean when he eventually makes his move, right?"
"sigh"
Azusa was water-skiing farther out, when Mikado came skimming by across the water, holding his groin with both hands and sobbing (in a voice several octaves higher than normal) about still being at 999.
"Oh, Miki. You so fast! You're going even faster than Pépi!" Pépi being the name she had given the motor boat her butler Jean-Pierre (whose real name was Al) was towing her with. She had also named each of her water skis, but why spend more time in Azusa's empty head than necessary?
"Hey Akane, do you want to come for a swim?" Reiko asked. She had wanted to go a while ago, but Akane seemed quite content to spend the whole day on the sand.
"Um... no. You go ahead." Akane said nervously.
"It's no fun swimming alone. Come on! You'll burn if you suntan much longer."
"I don't feel like it."
Reiko put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Come on. We're going to leave in a couple of hours. You can't come all the way to the beach an not swim."
"Sure I can."
Nabiki lifted her shades and looked at her sister. "Why don't you just tell her Akane?"
"Because I don't want to!"
Reiko sighed and scooped Akane up, throwing protesting girl over her shoulder. "Relax, I promise you'll have fun. Just get in the ocean already!"
"NO!" Akane shrieked. "Put me down!"
Nabiki just sighed. It was Akane's own fault for being so embarrassed about it. Oh well, Reiko wouldn't let her drown in any case.
"Please! Reiko, please put me down!" It was the genuine fear in Akane's voice that stopped Reiko. She put Akane on her feet in front of her.
"What's the big fuss?"
Akane calmed down and then looked at the ground. "I can't swim."
Reiko shrugged. "Why didn't you just say so? I'll teach you."
"I don't think that'd help. Lots of people have tried teaching me before, and I just never get it. I don't think it's something I can be taught."
"I don't believe that." Reiko said. Akane didn't look like she was changing her mind. "We'll, anyway, we can still have fun in the water even if you can't swim."
"Really? Like what?"
Reiko smiled. "I'll show you."
That was how Akane found her self in chest-deep water, playing tag, and giggling like a child. She soon found out that to move with any semblance of speed, she had to pull herself through the water with her hands. They played other games, like the one where they had to duck under the water together and see which one could make the other laugh by making faces, which would force the other to go back up for air. Since they did it in the same chest-deep water, Akane could always find the air if she needed it, and didn't choke on any water at all. It wouldn't be until another day that she realized Reiko was teaching her the basics (the extremely basic basics) of swimming without her realizing it.
After a while, Reiko stopped the games for something more challenging. She went back to shore and produced two scuba masks and pairs of flippers.
"Akane, out a little farther is a beautiful coral reef. It's something everyone should see sometime. I can take you there if you hold onto my back."
"But it's deep there, isn't it?"
Reiko nodded. "Yes it is, but if you hold onto me there'll be no problem. Do you trust me?"
Akane hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Okay, let's go."
They donned the masks and flippers, Akane being told that she didn't have to move hers at all. Reiko would do the work, so Akane didn't have to worry about screwing up and drowning them both.
"Don't we need snorkels?"
"They're useless unless you want to just glide along the surface. We want to get a much closer look than that."
Akane wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she put her arms around Reiko's neck anyway. They set out away from shore, Reiko using a modified breast stroke to keep both their heads above water. She would occasionally stick her face down into the water to see if they were at the right place yet.
"Okay, we're here. Akane, I want you to take a deep breath, and then we're going to dive. Don't be scared, you're with me. If you think you can't hold it much longer, tap me, and we'll go back up for a while. I don't think that should be a problem, you can probably hold your breath almost as long as I can."
Akane was shaking, and it wasn't entirely because the ocean was cold. "O-Ok."
"Ready? Big breath now."
Akane took a big breath and down they went.
It was scary at first, having water completely around her head, and no footing to push off of, but Reiko had asked her to trust her. She focused at what she could see.
It was beautiful. White-brown coral twisting into interesting shapes. Lush green seaweed moving slowly in the current, waving to her as they passed by. Schools of colourful fish swimming by and darting away from them in fear. Creatures that seemed more like plants. There was just so much _colour_!
Then Akane began to feel the burning in her lungs becoming more uncomfortable. In a panic she began rapidly tapping Reiko's chest with one hand with her arms still tightly wrapped around the other girl's neck. Reiko obediently started upwards, then stopped and pulled firmly on Akane's arms. NO! She was trying to dislodge Akane and leave her down here! Akane clung even tighter as Reiko started to jerk in alarm. The raven-haired girl began rapidly tapping Akane's arms instead of pulling, then something clicked in Akane's head. When she had practiced chokeholds and antilevers (such as armbars), a tap was the signal to ease up.
She had been choking Reiko.
Akane immediately loosened up, and Reiko ripped her arms away, coming around behind Akane before the terrified girl had any idea what was going on. Keeping out of reach of Akane's arms, Reiko cupped her chin and began to drag her upward that way with long, powerful strokes. Akane stopped thrashing as she realized Reiko was finally taking her up.
As they broke the surface, Reiko kept behind Akane, pulling her out so Akane floated on her back, while keeping herself mostly out of reach of the panicked non-swimmer.
"gasp Why'd you let me go?"
"huh because I didn't want huh you to choke me again." Reiko answered.
"I thought you were huh going to leave me."
"Never!" Reiko said fervently. "I promised I wouldn't let you drown. I guess I should have made you promise not to drown me at the same time, huh?"
"I'm sorry I choked you."
"Well, you got scared. You have to calm down. Didn't you say you trusted me?"
"Well, yes."
"Then you better remember that down there! I won't leave you, and I won't let you drown! You have to stay calm. If you're panicked, you'll use up your air supply faster."
"Sorry." Akane said meekly.
Reiko sighed. "Do you want to go back in now?"
Akane was still taking deep breaths, calming herself. "Actually, I kinda want to see more."
Reiko laughed. "Figures. Now you want to go swimming and I'm the reluctant one." She moved around in front of Akane again. "We'll do it a little differently this time." She said, pulling Akane's arms under her own, and placing Akane's hands behind her head, in the hold wrestlers would recognize as a Full Nelson. "Let's see you choke me now!"
"But I can still break your neck." Akane teased, remembering exactly why this hold was banned from most forms of wrestling.
"Don't even think about it!" Reiko snapped playfully as she warned Akane to take another big breath and they went down again.
They did two more dives, and each time, Akane managed not to panic when her lungs began to burn. She simply tapped the back of Reiko's neck and they began their ascent. On the third dive, Reiko led them a little too close to a piece of coral and scratched Akane's leg. She flinched, which Reiko felt. The dark-haired girl turned her head curiously, giving a thumbs up to ask if Akane needed air. Akane shook her head and pulled her leg forward to show Reiko that that was all it was. A deep scratch certainly, but nothing a Band-Aid wouldn't fix.
Now it was Reiko's turn to panic. She immediately left for the surface, moving as fast as she had that first time when both of them had been nearly out of air due to their struggles. Akane didn't get it. She wouldn't need air for another 20 seconds at least, and Reiko was better at holding her breath than her.
"What's up?" Akane asked as they broke the surface of the water.
"You're bleeding!"
"So? It's just a little scratch. I'm fine, really."
"Do you have any idea how far away a shark can smell a single drop of blood in the water?" Reiko screamed.
"Uh..." Akane said intelligently. Any response she might have eventually have formulated was cut off as she spotted the dorsal fin approaching in the distance behind Reiko.
Her wide eyes warned the other girl, who spun (as best she could while still holding Akane up) and cursed violently.
"I'll have to lead it away."
"But I can't swim without you!" Akane cried in panic, as the shark began to circle them.
"Actually, that's good. Normal swimming makes the type of splashes that attract sharks. I need you to do something different."
"O-ok."
"Take a deep breath, fill your lungs with air, all the way, right down to your stomach. From now on, take only little breaths so that you stay mostly full of air the whole time. That'll keep you afloat. Now lie on your back and reach over your head with both arms and pull the water down beside you, like you did when we were playing tag."
Akane did this as Reiko spoke it, and noted that she moved a bit away from Reiko as she did so.
"Good." Reiko pointed her towards shore. "Now don't go too fast. If you make big splashes the shark will pay attention to you."
"Is this a type of swimming?"
"No. It's called... strafing."
"Oh good, because I don't know how to swim."
"Exactly." Reiko muttered.
"What? I didn't hear you."
"Never mind. Get going."
"But what about you?"
"I'll lead it away."
"No! Why don't you just strafe back with me?"
"Because if I don't it'll eventually zero in on that scratch of yours. Go! I'll be ok!"
"A-alright!" Akane said as she began to 'strafe' back to shore.
Reiko took off in another direction with a splash-inducing front crawl. After she was a little ways away, she checked the shark's position to make sure it was following her. She couldn't see it. Cursing again, she dug her fingernails deeply into her forearm, drawing blood and swishing it about in the water. Akane's little scratch had probably already stopped bleeding, so Reiko's would be the only fresh blood around.
Reiko swam a little farther away from Akane, stopping to check again. Sure enough, she could see the dorsal fin advancing on her again. Akane was halfway back to shore.
Akane was still 'strafing', and trying hard not to let her panic to speed up her movements, when a hand tapped her shoulder.
"Hey Akane, when'd you learn how to swim like that?" Ranma-chan asked, standing in chest-deep water.
"This is swimming?"
"Yeah. I think it's called a modified back stroke or something like that."
Akane promptly sank like a rock.
Ranma-chan sighed and lifted her flailing fiancée to her feet.
Akane sputtered as she grabbed Ranma-chan by the shoulders urgently. "We have to get a boat! Reiko's in the water with a shark!"
"What!" Ranma-chan cried in shock.
"Come on! Hurry!"
Reiko dodged the shark's charge again, pushing off the shark's head at the last second to slip out of reach. It was reminiscent of Ranma's moves when he spared against Akane.
It was also just delaying the inevitable.
"There she is!" Akane cried and pointed. She was standing at the head of the lifeguard boat they had commandeered (the lifeguards hadn't moved fast enough to satisfy Ranma and Akane, and were left behind).
"Rei! Hold on, we're coming!" Akane cried as Ranma-chan steered the small motorboat toward the dark-haired girl in the water.
Reiko turned at the sound of the cry and waved with relief.
Of course, this meant taking her eyes of the frustrated shark, who got hold of her leg and pulled her under.
Akane screamed in denial as Reiko was dragged beneath the waves. Ranma-chan stopped the boat right about where she had gone under and joined Akane in looking frantically over the side.
Both caught their breath as a thick cloud of red blood billowed up through the waters.
Akane was about to jump in, when she recalled she couldn't swim (and 'strafing' wouldn't help here).
"Ranma! You have to go in and get her!"
Ranma-chan gripped the edge of the boat with white knuckles and spoke with a tight throat.
"Akane... look at all that blood. It's too late now. She's gone."
"NO!" Akane screamed, even as she sank down into the bottom of the boat in tears. Ranma-chan was right. Why did she have to be right?
Ranma-chan just stared down grimly at the red waters below her...
...and nearly shit in her one-piece when a hand reached out of the water and clamped down on the edge of the boat.
"YAAAAHH!" She cried out as she rapidly backed up as far as the small boat would let her. Akane looked up just as Reiko pulled her head up over the edge, gasping for breath.
"Reiko! You're alive!" Akane cried and rushed forth to hug her friend. Ranma-chan was a little more practical, once she calmed down.
"Hey! Don't just sit there! Pull her in!" She cried and moved forward to do just that. Akane let go of Reiko's neck and pulled up on her arm.
Once they had the gasping Reiko all the way into the boat, they could see the self-inflicted cuts on her left forearm, and the deep bite marks in her right calf.
It also was noted that she had the shark's jaws in one of her hands, still with several pieces of meat clinging to it.
Ranma-chan gawked. "Is... is that..."
Reiko held it in front of her proudly. "I've always wanted one of these. I think I'll mount it and hang it on the wall." She chuckled as she began idly ripping the remaining bits of flesh off the bone.
"So all that blood wasn't yours..."
Reiko grimaced. "Well, most of it wasn't. The little bastard bites pretty deep." She complained, holding her bleeding leg.
Akane found a first aid kit in the bow and began to wrap it up for her.
"So you weren't in danger after all." Ranma-chan scoffed.
"I wouldn't say that. With all the blood in the water, sharks must be coming from miles around. In fact, there's probably a feeding frenzy going on underneath us as we speak. I'm quite happy not to be in the middle of it."
Ranma-chan swallowed. "Feeding frenzy? Um... how about we go back to shore now.
The other two girls nodded eagerly.
Akane watched her friend with concern as she sat in the front of the boat wringing seawater out of her long hair, as Ranma-chan drove the boat.
"Hey! Wait a minute Reiko!"
The dark-eyed girl blinked at her. "What's wrong?"
"What about your curse?"
"Oh that. My twin is back in town visiting friends."
***
"Hi Reiko! What can I get you?." Ukyou smiled at Ranma's semi-fiancée. Actually, she was smiling at everyone today, including Tsubasa (even while she simultaneously sent him flying across the city for pretending to be one of her stools).
Reiko grinned as she slid onto the stool (odd, Ukyou seemed to be one short today). "Seafood special please."
"It'll be done in just a minute!" Ukyou beamed.
"Sooo..." Reiko began. "It seems you and Ranma spent the night a rollin' betwixt the sheets. How'd the boy do?"
Ukyou hadn't dropped an Okonomiyaki in eight years. So much for her record.
***
Ranma-chan snapped her fingers in recollection. "So that's what that clap of thunder was before we left the house. I was worried it was going to rain today."
Akane sat on the small seat beside Reiko, so they could talk without yelling over the engine.
"But I thought it was horrible for you when you change."
Reiko nodded. "Well yes, but you seemed to really want to go to the beach, so..."
"Oh my God! Reiko, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot about your curse!"
Reiko waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I had a lot of fun today," She chuckled, "even got to play with some marine life." She waved the jaws. "I won the game."
"You have to get used to changing." Ranma-chan said as they beached the boat and got out. "Jyusenkyo-cursed people attract water like magnets."
"Since when do magnets attract water." Akane mumbled to Reiko.
Reiko nodded to Ranma-chan. "It's been getting a little better. I think I... we only blacked out for a few seconds this time."
Akane still felt really guilty, and it showed on her face.
Reiko put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "Hey, come on now. Tell me, did you have fun today?"
Akane smiled a little and nodded.
Reiko grinned and patted her shoulder. "Then it was worth it. Let's go home."
***
And off they walked into the setting sun.
(er... hold on a minute. Tokyo's on the east side of Honshu, so the closest beaches would be on the east coast, walking inland and therefore facing west...)
Yep. Into the setting sun. There's a nice little ending... for now.
What will Shampoo do about her great-grandmother?
How does Ranma intend to handle the rest of his fiancees? (running for the hills sounds good!)
How does Ukyou feel about sharing the good news with Reiko?
How will Reiko almost get killed next episode?
Will her desire to make Akane fall in love with her be thwarted by a horrible case of hertosexuality? (Oops! I didn't spoil anything, did I? Nah, you guys are smart. I'm sure you saw it coming!)(Of course, anyone who didn't is going to hate me now. -_-)
Will the author run out of inane leading questions anytime this page?
Find out next time.
contact at hinoron@hotmail.com. Comments, critizisms, advice, suggestions... useless flames will be printed, folded into little airplanes and launched at my cat next time she pukes on the carpet.
Ja na!
Chapter 5
A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Hino, Ron
================================================================================
*** WARNING! FIRST DRAFT! ***
Chapters 3-6 are in desperate need of revision, perhaps even total rewrites of the plot. I've sat on them for a while, but I'm not sure what elements I want to keep and what's a useless pile of biological waste. I've been told I let people get too far out of character, but sited examples and suggestions would be much appreciated, as well as anything else that sucks about it. Please review these chapters and then forget you ever saw them! Only Chapters 1 & 2 should be considered ready for public viewing.
Suggestions to hinoron@hotmail.com
Thanks much for your assistance.
================================================================================
Just a brief foreword:
1. Ranma and friends are owned by... aw fuck it! I own them. That's right,
their mine! Anyone from Viz Communications reading this should be contacting me
about sending me back royalties. All you little fanfic authors will receive
their subpoena shortly... and your little dogs too! BWAHAHAHAHA!
(The preceding paragraph was, obviously, in jest. All hail Rumiko Takahashi-
sama!)
2. "Chimidoro no Ryuu" means, loosely translated "Bloody Dragon". That would
make the full name of the School "Chimidoro no Ryuu Ryu" (ryu meaning a martial
arts school/style). To avoid the confusion, it will always be written as the
Chimidoro no Ryuu School, or the shorter Chimidoro school, though in the second
case it is a reference more to Reiko's family name then the school's title.
3. I've stopped going through and manually wordwrapping each line, (Except for
this foreword, of course) so download this and read it with a word processor.
We last left our emotionally damaged heroine facing off against Shin, one of the two Chinese ex-Amazons hired as assassins by Cologne. Akane and Shin's older sister Xian watch. If Shin loses, Xian will take her place, but Akane has promised Reiko not to interfere no matter what happens. Which is good, because either of these former Amazons could take her with both arms tied behind their backs.
Shin is armed with a pair of Cat's Claws (blades attached to the forearm. Mousse wore one in the second movie, and StreetFighter's Vega wears one as well). At her hips were a pair of long daggers just in case the Cat's Claws should be ripped off her arms. By their nature, they were not a weapon that could be quickly picked up and used again if lost; they required time to be strapped into place. This was actually one of their advantages; they could not be dropped like a normal weapon if their owner was struck dizzy for a moment.
Reiko, of course, carried no weapons. They faced off and prepared to determine who would be the victor, and who the corpse. This was a battle to the death. The two Chinese were here to assassinate Reiko, and she had made it clear that she would treat the two of them in the same way, out of respect, apparently.
This is where this humble author had left you before, teasing and taunting about cliffhangers, and resisting the urge to say, "same bat time, same bat channel".
Guess what? That jerk is going to do it again. ;)
***
While this tale does bump Ranma out of his comfortable spot as the lead character, it is not exclusively from Reiko's point of view. Events do not happen in a vacuum, and shortly after Reiko and Akane had snuck out for the night, a third figure did so as well.
Now, anyone who knows even the slightest bit about Ranma could describe him as a machoistic, overprotective manly man (read: an ass), who would feel the need to follow the two girls to the challenge just in case they needed his help. It wasn't that he felt they couldn't handle themselves (well, Akane maybe, but Reiko definitely could) it was an instinctual need to protect that he had always had a great deal of trouble fighting down. His father's 'man among men' upbringing hadn't helped either. Many (both male and female) would argue that this type of instinct is not a bad thing, except when it acted out of turn and humiliated the woman Ranma was trying to protect.
In any case, all that was immaterial. Akane had been with Reiko when she received the challenge letter, Ranma had not been. He didn't have a clue where the two were going at this hour, but he didn't have a problem with it. As already established, he knew Reiko could take care of herself, so Akane was safe with her wherever they went. Their being awake until now had forced him to leave a little later than he had intended, but it was easier to sneak past the wary Reiko's room (she still slept in Akane's bedroom, actually) if she was absent rather than merely asleep.
Giving the pair enough time to get a couple blocks down the street, Ranma left the house and traveled by way of rooftop, thankful that the girls had not been heading in the direction he had wanted to go. He was late already, and making a wide detour would not have helped him any.
Finding the building he wanted, he hopped down behind it and reached for the handle of the back door. It opened by itself, or rather, by the hand of a rather irritated young woman inside.
"You're late!" She said accusingly.
"Sorry." He said sheepishly. "I had to wait for everyone to fall asleep."
"Yeah, me included." She said with a yawn. "I think we're going to have to cut these late night visits down to once or twice a week. I don't know about you, but I'm really falling behind on sleep. Actually, twice on the weekend might work out ok." She smiled. "Now if only we could find a way for you to spend the whole weekend with me, instead of just late-night visits."
Ranma followed her inside, mirroring her slightly naughty grin. "Actually, I've thought about that, or something like it. If I could go on a training trip, I'd have an excuse not to be at the Dojo regularly for at least a week. Unfortunately, I usually go on things like that with Pop, so I'd have to figure out a way to get him to stay out of it. Plus, you'd have to keep going to school or someone would suspect something was up. Remember when you came with us when I had that Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion thing? Akane was only a couple days behind."
"Yeah." Ukyou sighed. Putting an arm around his waist as they walked casually into the restaurant proper. "Well, keep thinking about ways to lose that stupid panda, and I'll be here to help. Run your plans by me before you try them out, okay? Two heads are better then one."
"Right." They sat down on a pair of stools at the counter.
"You know, I bet if I waited two days into the week, I could pretend to be sick and no one would suspect anything. A couple of days of coughing and no one would suspect that I was going home to be with you for a few days. I could even close the restaurant down for illness."
"Wouldn't you lose business that way?"
"Oh, don't worry about it. The restaurant does quite well the rest of the year you know. I can afford to shut down for a few days. Heck, I'm not even open full time as it is, seeing how I have to go to school and all."
"Okay, so it's just Pop I need to deal with."
"_We_ will think of something Ranchan." She took both his hands in hers. "Ranchan, can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Ucchan."
Ukyou looked shyly down at their hands, rubbing her thumbs across his knuckles. "Why'd you choose me, or have you?"
"What do you mean, 'have I'? You think I visit Shampoo, or that lunatic Kodachi some nights?"
"No..." Ukyou said, but her expression told him she'd at least considered the possibility. More to the point, Akane was easy to visit, being just down the hall from his bedroom.
"Hmph! Well, let me ask you another question. If I was that kind of guy, would I deserve your love?"
"Ranchan I didn't mean-"
"Yes you did."
She leaned forward and hugged him around the waist. "I'm sorry! I just get so scared. Everybody wants you, and I worry that someone else might be trying hard enough to get you, if I'm not careful!"
Ranma stroked her head, mentally kicking himself. He'd meant to tease her a bit about her jealousy, but finding how deep her fears ran was a bit shocking.
"Ucchan, don't cry! Listen, I _have_ chosen you. I don't want you to ever be afraid that I haven't. That's not something you ever need to worry about again."
"sniff Really?"
"Really. So stop crying. Hmm, how about I answer your question. Will that convince you?"
"What question?"
"About how I decided?"
Ukyou wiped a last tear out of her eye and sat in is lap, hugging him tightly. "I don't doubt you any more, but could I hear anyway?"
(I bet the honorable readers would like to know as well.)
"Sure." Ranma smiled, patting her back. "I thought about all the people that get hurt, both emotionally and physically, by all this fiancée fighting garbage. I knew none of you were likely to drop out of the running, and it was just going to get more and more out of control. So two weeks ago, I sat myself down in the dojo and meditated for an entire night. I had to sort out my own feelings. I thought about how I felt when I was with each one of my fiancées. First was the most obvious, the one I was living with.
"When I'm around Akane, I'm always either angry or uncomfortable, not to mention terrified when she cooks." He looked down to see if Ukyou would be cheered up a bit by his joke. She smiled up at him, a little. He continued. "The rest of the time I'm mostly indifferent to her, and the same is true for her with me. Every time I try to be nice it backfires. Deep down I think we don't have any real dislike for each other. Mostly it's all misunderstandings and insensitivity, but why on Earth would anyone think that would change if we got married? I don't want to live the rest of my life angry, or being pounded on because she is.
"Now the second most obvious was Shampoo. I'm not going to lie and say there's no attraction there. She's very beautiful, extremely sexy, and to my great misfortune, she knows how to use it too." Ukyou buried her face in his chest, not wanting him to see how much she was hurt by his words. "When I'm around her, I'm usually feeling awkward, embarrassed, or angry at her for making me feel that way. Like I said, she knows how to use her best features, but she uses them _way_ too much for me to ever get comfortable around her. I also get the sense that she's trying to act like she's the perfect housewife in order to please me. I mean, isn't the Joketsuzoku a female dominant society? Why would she be willing to bow and scrape to me so blatantly? I don't think that's how it would be if I married her. Once the ring goes on, she'd drag me back to Nhu Che Zhu and that would be the end of her desire to go all out to please me. Not that I _want_ an anything-you-want-dear kind of girl, but she's just lying to me in order to get me to marry her. If she even wanted a chance, she'd have to show me the real her.
"Thirdly, we have Kodachi. She scares me. End of story.
"Finally, we come to Ucchan." He said, giving her a playful squeeze around her shoulders. Ukyou pressed her face even tighter into his chest. Why was she last? Why was she the least likely to become his bride in his eyes? Even Kodachi came ahead of her.
"Ucchan was my childhood friend, and I made her the same when I met her again. She's my very best friend. Unfortunately, I realized that I was _only_ thinking of her as such. I wasn't even considering her seriously as part of the running. I knew how she felt, and it wasn't fair to her for me to feel that way. I owed it to my best friend to at least consider her seriously. So I thought about how I feel when I'm with Ucchan. I'm comfortable, relaxed. I can talk to Ucchan about anything in the world, and I'll know she'll listen. She might smack me upside the head with a giant utensil, but only if I really deserve it (as opposed to Akane, who will smack me because the temperature outside is an even number). If I married Ucchan, emotionally, not a whole lot would change. I'd still be comfortable around her, able to talk to her about anything, and she'd still lay one on me if I deserve it." Ranma said with a chuckle. "I realized I loved Ucchan, and not just as a friend like I'd thought."
Ukyou had lifted her head slowly as his words sank in. He could see the tracks of the tears that she had shed silently as he spoke. He took her face in his hands.
"Then I realized a few other things I'd never thought about before. Namely, that my best friend is beautiful," he kissed away a tear under her left eye, "and sexy," under her right eye, "and the idea of being apart from her makes my stomach twist into knots." He kissed her gently on the lips. "I can't bear it." He kissed her again and she kissed back, the kiss waxing long and passionate.
"You won't ever have to." She promised, when they broke apart. "I can't live without you either."
"I'm sorry it took me so long to sort out my own head."
"It was worth the wait." She smiled. "Promise me you'll never leave?"
"Er... what about the Tendos? If I'm not there in the morning-"
"I meant leave completely, silly. You're allowed to be out of my sight for short periods."
"Oh good. Though I'd like to work on making it so that I don't have to be out of your sight for longer than a bathroom break."
"I could learn to love that."
They kissed again. When they finished, Ukyou just leaned her head on his chest and held him for a while enjoying the feel of his warm, strong arms around her.
Ranma felt like discussing something else. "Say, Ucchan? I'm getting a little hungry." He grinned.
Ukyou sighed. She really didn't feel like firing up the grill at this time of night. Everything was packed up and turned off.
"I guess you wouldn't be Ranma if you didn't want to eat constantly." She sighed, getting off his lap. "What do you want, sugar?"
"I'll have one Deluxe Okonomiyaki Chef." Ranma said, grinning even wider.
"Right. One deluxe..." she trailed off as his last word sank in. By the time he had turned her around her grin was as wide as his. He kissed her deeply as he pressed her against his body.
"And how would you like it served sir?" She teased. He scooped her up and laid her down on the counter, her left shoulder and hip resting on the blackened steel of the cooking surface.
"Hot," he said, "off the grill."
She giggled and pulled him in for another kiss as he began untying the belt from her Okonomiyaki jacket, unfolding the two halves and exposing her wrapped chest. He stroked them gently through the bindings.
"You know, ever since I've seen these things in detail a week ago, I've been wondering why you still bind your chest. Almost everyone knows you're really a girl now."
"Just habit I guess. Why?" She asked as she loosened the ties on his Chinese shirt, running her hands over the lean muscles of his tightly chiseled chest.
"Well, now that I've seen them in their full glory, I know for a fact that they're far too beautiful to be kept hidden."
She smiled up at him, reaching behind her for one of the kitchen knifes she kept near the counter. She rarely used them, having personally sharpened all her mini-spatulas to the point where you could shave with them.
"Then you've just signed the death warrant on these bandages."
He took the knife from her. "Death by the blade?"
"Do your duty, executioner.
"It's a perverted job, but somebody's got to do it." He said with a strait face.
She giggled. "You know perfectly well you're the only one who I'd let do this job. It's not without it's hazards." She said, holding her breath as he slipped the razor shape blade down her cleavage. He had the edge pointed up of course, but the point was right against her skin.
He paused and looked seriously into her eyes. "The trust means a lot." He said as he pulled upwards, carefully ripping the cloth without driving the point into her skin.
She smiled up at him. "I don't think I'd have cared as much if anyone else told me to stop binding my chest either." She stopped talking as he went past her breasts (now almost entirely exposed) to cut the last half of the tape around her upper abdomen. She sucked in her stomach.
"No, push out."
"What?"
"Push your stomach out. It's a lot easier to avoid stabbing you if you're convex as opposed to concave."
"Oh." She said and pushed her stomach out, feeling rather embarrassed about looking fat. She quickly returned it to its normal flat washboard look once he cut the bandages away.
"Mmm. Much better." Ranma sighed as he gently rubbed her large mounds. He had found out earlier that her breasts were a bit tender just after she untied them, until the circulation returned to normal. He was quite willing to softly massage them better.
"If you like, I'll stop dressing like a boy too." She said.
Ranma cocked his head as he thought about that. "I don't think that's the same thing as binding your breasts." He said. "Dressing like a boy and disguising yourself as a boy are two different things. One's a fashion statement, the other's a deception, know what I mean?"
"I guess."
"I think you should wear whatever you're most comfortable in, and don't worry what other people think. You're a girl (a beautiful girl) and you don't have to prove it to anyone. You just shouldn't have to hide it either, is all I'm saying."
Ukyou hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much! I wonder a lot if I'm feminine enough for you."
"Oh you are!" Ranma grinned, massaging a little more deeply into Ukyou's chest, resulting in appreciative moans from her. "Everyone seems to think that I'm looking for a girl who's 100% feminine, the traditional Japanese housewife. If that's the type I loved, I'd be considering marrying Kasumi."
"So what type do you love?"
Ranma leaned forward, planting a kiss on her neck with each sentence, trailing slowly down to her chest.
"Ucchan's the type I love! I love her strengths [kiss]. I love her faults [kiss]. I love insecurities [kiss]. I love her pride [kiss]. I love her dark, tiny little secrets that I know she could never tell anyone but me [kiss][kiss]. I love that I can tell her mine."
"Ranma..."
"What can I say? You're the girl I love."
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Ranma, tonight, would you like to make me the _woman_ you love?"
He blinked at her. "Ucchan, are you sure? I don't want you to think this is something you have to do. I wouldn't leave if you said no. I wouldn't even be upset."
"I know you wouldn't, that's why I offered." She smiled.
"You're not scared? You're sure you wouldn't regret this?"
"I am a little nervous, but I know that if I don't do this, I _will_ regret it."
Ranma swallowed. "Alright then."
"Ranma, are _you_ nervous?"
"Enough to qualify as 'scared'."
"Really? You've never done this before?"
"With who? Think about it. Akane would bash me into the dirt if I even tried to kiss her. Shampoo comes on way too strong for me, and she'd probably drag me off to China the minute we finished. Kodachi... I'd be worried about getting my equipment back."
"Hey, you never said anything about Reiko." Ukyou realized.
"Oh her? She was never _in_ the running. Until her family problems are solved, she needs to be engaged to me, remember? That's all there is to it."
"I remember, but she is beautiful."
"I guess so, but in her case, I KNOW I wouldn't get my equipment back. She said so on the first day."
Ukyou giggled. "Good. I kinda like her. Sorry for assuming this wasn't your first time too, but I guess I just figured that since you were so good with your hands, you'd already done it before."
"Sometimes being cursed to turn into a girl has its advantages."
"You masturbated as a girl?"
"A few times. Don't you?" The question brought a bright red colour to her cheeks.
"Do I? Well, actually, um, no I don't."
"Huh? Nabiki told me all girls do."
Ukyou blinked. "Well she's wrong, or lying. How did you get into that kind of conversation anyway?"
"I'm pretty sure she was just trying to get pictures of when I did. I made sure to avoid her whenever I tried it though. Are you sure girls don't do that? Having done it myself, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't." Ukyou saw he seemed really embarrassed by it, now that it wasn't 'normal'.
"I'm sure some girls do. I've just never tried it myself. I guess I don't really know whether most girls do or not. I'm not exactly in that many social circles, most girls thinking I'm a guy and all that. So... what's it like?"
"Huh? Oh. Well, it's similar to when you're a guy, but not as localized. Sort of like all over your body."
"And how would I know what it feels like for a guy?" Ukyou growled playfully, punching him in the arm.
"Ow. Oh yeah. Um, well... actually it's really hard to describe. Sort of like a fire spreading through you, but it doesn't burn. It's just this wonderful, pleasantly warm sensation."
"I feel a little like that when you touch my breasts."
"Ah, thought so. Well, it gets better. Much better, until at one point you can't even think."
"Well then," Ukyou said with a cat-like grin (which made Ranma a bit nervous for reasons that had nothing to do with the Neko-ken), "I think it's about time you showed me _exactly_ what it feels like. Not here though, in my bedroom."
Ranma grinned and scooped her up in his arms. "I guess I'll take my Deluxe Okonokiyaki Chef to go then."
Ukyou giggled as he dashed upstairs, hugging his neck tightly.
(And now, lest my honorable readers think I'm growing sappy, back to violence and bloodshed.)
(And no, you do _not_ get to peak in the window while Ranma and Ukyou play Hide the Spatula. I think they deserve some privacy.)
***
Reiko let Shin make the first attack, weaving back a little too slow, and getting three deep cuts in her upper arm for her trouble. Shin had prepared a more powerful, yet slower follow-up attack, but was taken by surprise when Reiko instantly countered with a solid reverse punch to the solar plexus.
What the hell was that? Shin wondered as she backed off to recover. She acted like I didn't even hit her. She should have at least winced.
Reiko backed off for a moment as well, focusing her ki around her hands, making them hard as steel. It wasn't nearly as effective as her Ryuunotsume (See Ch. 1) and was in fact a fairly common technique of many styles (even the author can pull it off, to a slightly lesser degree ^_^). Still, it would be enough to break those Cat's Claws off and remove the slightly smaller girl's reach advantage. Now that she had an idea of her opponent's speed, Reiko needed every advantage she could get.
As Shin was preparing to renew her attack, Reiko charged. A flurry of fast blows were traded back and forth, until Reiko saw her opening and destroyed the left-hand Cat's Claw with a chop of her steel-like hand.
Shin's eyes flicked to the broken weapon ever so briefly, and thus was caught by Reiko's palm heel to the chin. She was knocked rolling. When she stood back up, she ripped the remains of the Cat's Claw from her arm and reentered the fray.
Martial arts at a certain level is more like chess than anything else. When your arms and legs are moving faster than you can effectively keep track of, it becomes a game of strategy; how many moves can you plan ahead? How many of your opponents moves can you predict and work their counters into your combination? Simply striking and reacting won't get you far in a fight at this level.
Shin was planing her attacks a stunning 9 moves ahead. A difficult accomplishment for any fighter of any style.
Reiko was doing 11.
The other Cat's Claw followed the first a minute later. Shin stood with her back to a wall, hands up in a guard. The daggers were at her hips, but reaching for them meant dropping at least one hand, something Reiko had made clear would be a bad idea. On the other hand, Reiko was standing close enough that a committed strike now could be blocked and countered easily from Shin's present guard. Frankly, both were standing a little closer than either was comfortable with.
They were at a stalemate. The first one who moved risked taking a serious (perhaps final) hit. They stood staring at each other, refusing to so much as blink.
Akane watched intently. She was a little less tense now that Reiko had gained the advantage. She jumped suddenly when she realized Xian was standing beside her.
"You friend of Reiko?"
"Um... yes."
Xian did not look at her, but watched the fight intently. Akane saw a great deal of worry in her eyes.
"I think Reiko win. She say this fight to death. Is true, or just talk?"
Akane hadn't actually thought about it much. Everybody had been throwing the word death around so much at the beginning, so casually.
After a moment, Akane answered. "Reiko's school normally treats all challenge matches as fights to the death. She's had to kill many times before. Recently she swore an oath that she wouldn't kill anyone unless her own life was in danger. She was quite happy to have that oath standing over her, but since you and your sister are here to kill her..."
"Then kill assassins no break oath."
"I'm afraid not. I'm really not sure what she'll do. She doesn't really enjoy killing, but she already said this would be a fight to the death."
Xian closed her eyes tightly, as though trying not to cry. "Shin is little sister. Only family left. I no can watch her die. If Reiko move for deathblow, I take Reiko friend hostage, make her stop. Xian promise no hurt Reiko friend for real, only stop Shin from dying. Is okay?"
Akane looked at the big woman. She could understand the loyalty between sisters. "A-All right. If you promise not to hurt me. I don't really want to watch her kill anyone either."
"Xian give word as Ama- as woman of honor."
Akane nodded.
Shin's patience was apparently not as long as Reiko's; she avoided the obvious move for her weapons and attacked barehanded.
It was a mistake.
The added range her weapons gave her was the only thing that had saved Shin this long. Once Shin was fully within Reiko's reach, the fight was over.
Shin found herself being held against the wall, Reiko with one hand on her shoulder, the other drawn back. Shin might have tried to counter this final strike, had not both her arms and one leg been broken at the knee and elbow joints.
"Stop fight now!" Xian roared.
Reiko turned her head, finding the Xian had a knife to Akane's throat. The larger ex-Amazon pulled up on the blade, forcing Akane to stand on her toes to live.
"Let Shin go. Fight over. Shin lose. No need to kill."
Reiko's expression (or lack thereof) did not change in the slightest. "This was to be a fight to the death, as all of us agreed. You can't back out now. You wouldn't have done the same if I had asked."
"I kill her!" Xian screamed. "I kill your friend!"
Reiko responded by lashing forward with her hand. She had been focusing her ki again, but this time around a single finger. This steel-like finger sank completely into Shin's heart and was followed by a small fountain of blood when it was removed.
Reiko stepped back from the dying girl as Xian ran forward with a scream, tossing Akane aside. Reiko walked around until she stood between Xian and Akane, in case the assassin changed her mind. She didn't have to hurry; Xian and Shin still had at least 30 seconds to share last words. She respected that time they had together and stood well out of earshot, not that she understood Mandarin.
Xian held Shin to her and sobbed. Her little sister smiled and whispered something to her.
Akane turned to Reiko who had turned her back to the private moment.
"Why did you kill her?"
"Because she would have killed me."
"But I was a hostage, I could have been killed." Akane almost pleaded. Does my life mean that little to you? she wondered, but could not bring herself to ask.
Reiko looked her in the eyes, her unfeeling expression never softening. "She wouldn't kill you."
"She's an assassin!"
"And she still wasn't going to kill you."
"How could you know that?"
"Because," Reiko's eyes narrowed, "you weren't scared at all."
"Huh?"
"That's how I could tell that the two of you had planned it ahead of time."
Akane turned away guiltily. "You make it sound like we conspired against you."
"And you didn't?" Reiko asked in that flat, toneless voice.
Akane shook her head. "It was more like... she warned me ahead of time of what she planned to do."
"Still, you didn't try to warn me."
"Warn you of what? If she succeeded in fooling you, all that would have happened was that her sister would be alive. You crippled her, she wasn't a threat anymore."
Reiko let out a sigh. "Let me share with you a little life lesson, Akane. An assassin hired to kill you is no longer a threat when he or she is dead. Anything less means that they'll try to kill you again. If I let either of them walk away tonight, their honor demands that they keep trying until they kill me."
"So, you beat her before, couldn't you have done it again?"
"Exactly. Which is why next time, it wouldn't have been a challenge letter. It would have been a bullet from a long-range sniper rifle. You and I would be sitting down to eat lunch in the schoolyard and my head would suddenly explode, right before your eyes."
Akane had nothing to say to that.
Reiko glanced back at the Chinese. "I still have to take care of Xian. I'm pretty confidant I can handle her without a problem. She doesn't look as fast as her sister, plus she's upset over Shin's death. You don't have to watch if you don't want to. You can wait for me at home if you prefer."
Akane shook her head. "I'll stay."
"If you're sure..."
Akane nodded. She certainly didn't _look_ sure.
"Okay. I'll try to keep this quick." Reiko said, turning back to her would-be assassins. By her estimate, Shin should have been gone for several seconds now, which meant Xian would be putting her down shortly.
Xian laid Shin gently to the ground, placing her arms folded across her stomach, and kissing her on the forehead. Then she rose and turned.
"I suppose you have three reasons to kill me now." Reiko mused. "Duty, revenge, and of course, money."
"Money mean nothing now! Only important before to keep food in stomach. Xian will throw money back in Cologne's face, then spit on honorless Matriarch!" Xian snarled, sliding her preferred weapon, a set of brass knuckles fitted with circular blades, onto her hand.
Reiko smiled. "I'm afraid I can't leave you alive, but I will spit in the old woman's face for you, and tell her who it's from."
"Xian thank you, but not going to lose." She said sharply, taking a fighting stance.
"Well, so long as somebody spits on the old crone." Reiko smirked. "If it means anything," she said, becoming serious and taking a side stance, "I wish I hadn't had to kill your sister..."
Xian charged with a battle cry filled with pain. Reiko sidestepped and spun. Both halted abruptly, facing opposite directions.
Xian, facing Akane (whose eyes were very wide), looked down slowly at the small tip of the blade protruding from her chest. Reiko released her grip on Shin's dagger, which she had hidden until now, and allowed Xian to fall forward.
"Or you." Reiko finished, not turning around. She took a deep sigh, as she looked up at the stars. Eventually, she turned to see Xian still moving, if barely.
"I'm sorry, I should have made sure you were finished." Reiko said, pulling the dagger free and turning Xian over. "Go be with your sister now." Reiko said softly, stroking a stray lock of Xian's hair back into place tenderly. With the dagger gone, blood poured rapidly from the hole through her body. In only seconds, Xian closed her eyes and exhaled for the last time.
Akane had come to stand behind her friend.
Reiko squatted there by Xian's body for a while, then sighed again and moved to take the fallen woman by her shoulders, dragging her a few feet before wincing at the pain the deep cuts in her arm brought her. She no longer had adrenaline to protect her from the sensation.
"Akane, could you help me with this?"
Somewhat reluctantly, Akane took Xian's feet and lifted. "Where are we taking her?"
"To the water." Reiko answered. "They picked the docks for a reason. They didn't know I'd be bringing a friend to take my corpse home."
"Shouldn't they get some kind of service or something?"
Reiko looked at her a moment. "We'll do what we can." She said.
They laid the heavy woman on the edge of the dock, then did the same with Shin. All the weapons were wiped of fingerprints and then tossed into the bay, save one.
Reiko stood beside Akane for a few minutes, trying to think of what to say.
"Tonight, we bid farewell to Xian and Shin of the Tiel family. I did not know them long, but I know that they are more honorable Amazons than the Matriarch of their former tribe. It's kind of ironic: if we had met under different circumstances, we might have been friends."
Reiko turned to Akane. "You want to say anything?"
Akane shook her head. "I knew even less of them than you did. I think that's good enough anyway."
Reiko nodded. "Right. Rest in peace, you two. I hope you're more fortunate in your next life." She said as she rolled Xian then Shin over the edge.
They stood for a moment in respectful silence. Then Reiko turned. "Let's go home, Akane." She said tiredly.
***
Reiko didn't come inside the house when they arrived home.
"Don't you want to go to bed?" Akane asked. "It's nearly 3:00 AM."
Reiko shook her head. "I need to do some thinking. You go ahead."
Akane nodded and opened the door.
"Akane?"
She stopped and turned to her friend, who was looking out at the garden.
"You asked me earlier what it felt like to kill a person. It's not a nice feeling. I have killed when I had to; either because my father forced me to or when my continued survival depended on it, like tonight, but I've never once enjoyed it."
Akane didn't say anything for a minute, then "I read once that that's the difference between a killer and a monster." Then she went inside and to bed.
Reiko sighed and then jumped to the roof, looking up at the ever-watching stars.
"But what if I don't feel anything when I kill? What am I then?"
Reiko was still pondering hours later, shortly before dawn, when she saw a figure hopping along the rooftops towards her. The figure dropped down to the street in front of the Tendo house, and the streetlights revealed his face to her.
"Ranma?"
Ranma was nearly home, having avoided jumping directly to the Tendo roof so as not to wake anyone with his footfalls. He had just closed the gate behind him when Reiko jumped to the ground in front of him, nearly startling him into screaming.
"Hey Ranma, what are you doing out so late?" She looked him over. His hair was out of place, and his clothes very wrinkled. "Geez, you look like the morning after."
Ranma made a choking noise. "M-morning after w-what?" He stammered.
Reiko frowned. She reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him close, and sniffing him.
"W-what are you doing? H-HEY!" He nearly yelled as Reiko grabbed his waistband and sniffed again. She released him with an amused frown.
"Well, I guess it IS the morning after. Does Akane know about this?"
"K-know about what?"
Reiko raised a who-do-you-think-you're-trying-to-fool eyebrow. "Ranma, unless you came in your pants in both of your forms tonight, you were out having sex with someone."
"How can you tell that?"
"You smell like pussy, stupid! Now does Akane know?"
"Well, of course not."
"Well, she will if you get within a metre of her."
"You're not going to tell her?" Ranma asked, half pleading.
Reiko cocked her head, thinking about that. "Well, she is my friend, but then so are you I suppose. More than that though, this is really none of my business."
"Thanks, Reiko. You're a good friend."
Reiko rolled her eyes. "I don't know if I'd go that far. Can I at least ask who's the lucky girl?" She grinned wickedly, "Though in your personal case, I suppose it could have been a guy."
"HEY!"
"Shhh!"
"Oops. That ain't funny."
"Sorry, couldn't resist. So who?"
"Um... Ucchan."
"The cross-dressing okonomiaki chef?"
"She's not a cross-dress- well, I guess technically she is." Ranma mumbled.
"I didn't mean it that way. Actually, she's kinda nice. Not a bad match if you ask me."
"Um, thanks."
"I really think you should tell Akane soon though. It would be really bad if it had been her that smelled the sex on you."
"Yeah I guess you're right."
"Ranma," Reiko frowned, sensing his reluctance, "Akane is probably the best friend I have now. Keeping a secret from her is not something I want to do for very long, do you understand? Tell her soon!"
"Alright, I promise."
Reiko nodded. "Good. Now to deal with that smell." She grabbed his shirt again and rolled backwards with her foot in his chest, sending him flying into the pond.
Between his surprised yell and the huge splash, it was perhaps not surprising when Akane poked her head out the window.
"Ranma! What are you doing in there?"
"Uh..."
Reiko hopped up to the roof, hanging by the rafters near her window. "He said something unflattering about my being out all night. I thought throwing him in would be more fun than explaining how I spent most of the night on the roof stargazing."
Akane scowled. "I should've known. I hope you catch cold out there!" She yelled at Ranma before letting Reiko in and closing the window. "He's such a jerk!"
"True, but sometimes his being a jerk can be rather convenient." Reiko mused.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Never mind. I'm just tired. It's Sunday, so we can sleep in. Let's get some rest."
"Oh. Okay."
***
Shampoo locked the door at the end of a fairly slow Monday night and turned off the front light. She sat down at a table by herself.
She wondered what she should do. The letter from Shin Tiel had vanished, but she had read it. If she wanted to protect her great-grandmother, the letter would have to be found and destroyed.
Did she?
If what he letter said was true, then her duty as a member of the Joketsuzoku tribe, as a child of Nhu Che Zhu village, was to report her great-grandmother's crimes to the council, Matriarch or no. If it were true.
What if it was?
Could Shampoo turn on her own beloved mentor like that? On family like that? And mightn't that not be a little hypocritical? Shampoo was not exactly obeying the law to the letter either. She had failed to kill the female outsider who defeated her (excusable, since Ranma wasn't really a female). She had failed to marry the male outsider who had defeated her (so far). She had not administered the Kiss of Death to Reiko Chimidoro (all her survival instincts plus her great-grandmother, the Matriarch, said that was a bad idea).
Of course all those were failures, not crimes. She had done her best on all three occasions, and simply not succeeded for one reason or another. What the Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku was doing was a little different. She was disobeying the spirit of the law as well as the letter of it. Amazon's should face their opponents head-on, with honour, not pay others to do their fighting for them. That was the way of cowards.
What if it was true?
What had happened this morning certainly indicated that it was.
Reiko had entered the Nekohanten at noon, probably on her school lunch break. She had marched in and demanded to see Cologne, who hopped out from the kitchen, frowning at the girl's rudeness. Shampoo had watched warily, as she stood near a table she had just served to.
Reiko tossed something to the ground at Cologne's feet (well, the base of her walking stick, anyway). Shampoo saw it was a broken Cat's Claw.
"Xian and Shin send their regards." Reiko growled.
Cologne's back was to Shampoo, so she couldn't see the old woman's face, but the Matriarch slipped an inch down her staff in shock.
"Xian also wanted to give you something, for insulting their honour and thinking them to be cowards like yourself." Reiko said. Shampoo drew in a sharp breath. NO ONE called the Matriarch a coward! The girl dropped her serving tray in horror as Reiko actually spit right in Cologne's face.
"I'm disappointed in you, old woman. I was under the impression that you were the Matriarch of the Amazons; an example of their honour to all others, both within and without the tribe. Two real Amazon's are no longer in your employ, or anyone else's for that matter." Reiko snapped, being careful not to say outright that she had killed them. With that, she turned on her heel and left the restaurant, and all its stunned occupants.
Cologne reached up slowly to wipe the spittle from her cheek.
"[That arrogant child is going to die a long, lingering death!]"
Yes, that little incident put credence to the idea that the old woman had hired assassins; Shampoo remembered the names from the letter. Still, it could all be an elaborate trick by Reiko, except that the letter had been written in Chinese. Shampoo was quite sure that Reiko didn't speak a word of her native tongue, so if that were true than she would have needed help from someone Chinese.
Mousse was missing.
He'd gone missing yesterday, the same day the letter arrived. In fact, she vaguely remembered batting him aside in the hallway as she ran to tell her great-grandmother about the letter.
The letter which was gone when she and Cologne returned.
She hadn't seen Mousse since then.
Well, it was pretty clear who had the letter now. Yes, that made more sense then him writing it. The letter had definitely been done in a feminine hand. So what would he do with it now? He had no love for her great-grandmother. Would he attempt to expose the Matriarch?
'Remember that if you wish to confront her with this letter, you should make and hide a copy before doing so.'
Yes, Mousse would have almost certainly taken that part of the letter to heart. He probably went to an all-night copy place right away. What would he do next?
Mail copies to friends for safekeeping? That was reasonable.
Mail a copy home, to the council? That was almost treason. Furthermore, it might not be accepted as testimony coming from a mere male like him. But it could be, and it would at least arouse suspicions. Cologne would be investigated, perhaps even overthrown as Matriarch.
And now the loaded questions:
Was that what Shampoo wanted?
Was that what her great-grandmother deserved?
These were questions she had to figure out soon, before Mousse returned to confront Cologne.
***
"The beach?" Reiko blinked.
"Yeah! It's hot enough now, and we've got a long weekend." Akane said cheerfully. "The whole family's going. You'll come with us, won't you?"
Reiko hesitated slightly, but Akane's eager smile wasn't easy to refuse.
"Of course." She said with a sincere smile. If Akane wanted her to come, she would bear any awkwardness that might come her way.
The awkwardness Reiko was expecting came around 11:00.
The group had arrived at 8:00, Ranma-chan going off to play in the surf, Soun and a large panda playing shogi (what else!), Kasumi making sure everyone had ice tea if they wanted it, and Akane, Nabiki, and Reiko deciding to suntan.
Early on, Nabiki had been debating whether or not to try and convince Reiko to start an amateur modeling career. She had a figure at least on par with Ranma-chan's, if not better, especially in the bikini she was wearing. Nabiki would act as her agent of course (professional modeling was unacceptable, as the agents of professional models only got a 10% cut. Nabiki wanted to see if she could get Reiko to go with 50%). However, as Reiko's skin began to brown as the morning wore on, the white lines of her many scars stood out visibly even through Nabiki's sunglasses. Sadly, Reiko was too marked up to have any success in the superficial business of modeling. Selling racy snapshots wouldn't bring in enough to warrant the risk to Nabiki's health either. Nabiki secretly hated attitudes like that: beauty through perfection. Did a beautiful girl suddenly become ugly because of one or two minor blemishes in the wrong places? Conversely, the obsession with superficial looks was a weakness that Nabiki frequently abused to earn/extort money. Case in point: Kunou and his photos of Akane and the Pig-tailed-girl. However, even though she'd make use of the attitude for her personal profit, she still hated it.
Which might have been why she did something today that she rarely did: help someone for free.
"EWW! Look at that girl!"
"Oh gross! Scars all over!"
The two girls who had set up a blanket near the Tendo group had not been quiet enough that Reiko could of missed their words, unless she was sleeping. She was lying on her back with an arm over her eyes to block the sun.
But she was not sleeping. Nabiki saw the muscle in her face twitch. That was the only sign Reiko gave.
"Can you imagine having marks like that... everywhere like that?"
"Why doesn't she wear a one-piece or something?"
"Geez, in her case she'd have to wear a whole wetsuit to cover them. Her arms and legs are sliced up too."
"She must be one of those S&M sickos."
"EWW!"
Both of them giggled.
Akane was less inclined to let things be. At first, she had merely watched Reiko's reaction, waiting to see if she would have to pry the scarred girl's hands from one of the bitches' throats. When Reiko did nothing however, and the heartless bitches continued to make fun of her, Akane decided Reiko could be the one to do the prying. No one made fun of her friends that way! Reiko was beautiful! How dare they laugh and say otherwise!
It was Nabiki's hand that caught her shoulder when Akane started to get up, just as Reiko was whispering for her to let them be. The middle Tendo leaned in and whispered.
"Calm down Akane. There's much better ways to get revenge than just pounding the crap out of them. More satisfying ways."
Reiko looked up at them from under her arm, intrigued.
Akane reluctantly sat back down. "Fine. How much?"
Nabiki pursed her lips in thought. "In this case, free."
"Really?"
"Not that I'm going to be making a habit of this, you understand."
"Naturally."
"Okay. First, go get Ranma in out of the water and change her to a him. Then..."
The two girls, who had become somewhat quieter upon realization that some of the sunbathing group were awake, looked up as three very cute guys walked up the beach.
"Oh wow, check it out!"
"Isn't that guy Mikado Sanzenin? The figure skater?"
"He's so dreamy!"
"And look at the bods on the other two!"
"They're cute too."
"Hell, all three are hot!"
"SHH! Here they come! Be quiet and look sexy!"
The three boys in question walked right by the pair desperately trying to subtly catch their attention, and stopped just beyond them to stare at the Tendo group of sunbathers, who were still short Akane.
"Whoa, check out that chick!" Ranma cried.
"Yeah, she's got more scars than any of us." Ryouga agreed.
"That's so cool. I've got to hear the story behind that big one across her stomach."
"I must admit, in all my years of martial arts paired figure skating, I've taken my share of skate blades into the skin, but I can't compete with that one, or the one on her shoulder either."
"Think she'd want to swap scar stories?" Ranma asked.
"Let's hope so." Ryouga said bashfully.
"I wonder if she'll let me kiss them better?" Mikado pondered aloud.
"Ah, I think they've healed already." Ranma deadpanned.
"Think she'll let me anyway?"
"I doubt it." Ryouga muttered.
"Well, in any case, why are we still standing here?" Mikado asked.
"Good point. Let's go talk to her." Ranma agreed.
The two girls watched in shock as three very cute guys walked over and sat down in the sand, rousing Reiko and striking up conversation. Reiko responded with a smile and in a few minutes, the boys were proudly pointing out their own scars and telling the wildly embellished tales of their grueling martial arts training that went with each minor wound.
One miffed and confused girl turned to he other. "My mother's kitchen knives are pretty sharp."
"How long do you think it'll take us to heal so we're ready for the beach again?"
"I dunno. At least a week."
"Geez! What we go through to catch a man!"
The pair continued to grumble as they gathered up their beach stuff and went home, obviously having no chance until their own bodies were covered in interesting stories.
Akane came back and sat beside Nabiki, who was watching the 'scar wars' story telling contest with amusement.
"The bitches left. This was a great idea Nabiki. They looked miserable."
"Yup. Where'd you find Ryouga by the way?"
"He was just walking around the beach asking for directions to the dojo. I stopped him and asked him to help out. Once I told him how mean those other girls were being, he volunteered immediately."
"Hmph. Just lucky I guess."
"How'd you get Mikado?"
Nabiki smirked. "He still hasn't got his 1000th kiss yet. I told him Reiko might be grateful if he helped boost her ego a bit."
"Nabiki!"
"Hey, I said 'might'. It's not like I promised she wouldn't belt him across the ocean when he eventually makes his move, right?"
"sigh"
Azusa was water-skiing farther out, when Mikado came skimming by across the water, holding his groin with both hands and sobbing (in a voice several octaves higher than normal) about still being at 999.
"Oh, Miki. You so fast! You're going even faster than Pépi!" Pépi being the name she had given the motor boat her butler Jean-Pierre (whose real name was Al) was towing her with. She had also named each of her water skis, but why spend more time in Azusa's empty head than necessary?
"Hey Akane, do you want to come for a swim?" Reiko asked. She had wanted to go a while ago, but Akane seemed quite content to spend the whole day on the sand.
"Um... no. You go ahead." Akane said nervously.
"It's no fun swimming alone. Come on! You'll burn if you suntan much longer."
"I don't feel like it."
Reiko put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Come on. We're going to leave in a couple of hours. You can't come all the way to the beach an not swim."
"Sure I can."
Nabiki lifted her shades and looked at her sister. "Why don't you just tell her Akane?"
"Because I don't want to!"
Reiko sighed and scooped Akane up, throwing protesting girl over her shoulder. "Relax, I promise you'll have fun. Just get in the ocean already!"
"NO!" Akane shrieked. "Put me down!"
Nabiki just sighed. It was Akane's own fault for being so embarrassed about it. Oh well, Reiko wouldn't let her drown in any case.
"Please! Reiko, please put me down!" It was the genuine fear in Akane's voice that stopped Reiko. She put Akane on her feet in front of her.
"What's the big fuss?"
Akane calmed down and then looked at the ground. "I can't swim."
Reiko shrugged. "Why didn't you just say so? I'll teach you."
"I don't think that'd help. Lots of people have tried teaching me before, and I just never get it. I don't think it's something I can be taught."
"I don't believe that." Reiko said. Akane didn't look like she was changing her mind. "We'll, anyway, we can still have fun in the water even if you can't swim."
"Really? Like what?"
Reiko smiled. "I'll show you."
That was how Akane found her self in chest-deep water, playing tag, and giggling like a child. She soon found out that to move with any semblance of speed, she had to pull herself through the water with her hands. They played other games, like the one where they had to duck under the water together and see which one could make the other laugh by making faces, which would force the other to go back up for air. Since they did it in the same chest-deep water, Akane could always find the air if she needed it, and didn't choke on any water at all. It wouldn't be until another day that she realized Reiko was teaching her the basics (the extremely basic basics) of swimming without her realizing it.
After a while, Reiko stopped the games for something more challenging. She went back to shore and produced two scuba masks and pairs of flippers.
"Akane, out a little farther is a beautiful coral reef. It's something everyone should see sometime. I can take you there if you hold onto my back."
"But it's deep there, isn't it?"
Reiko nodded. "Yes it is, but if you hold onto me there'll be no problem. Do you trust me?"
Akane hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Okay, let's go."
They donned the masks and flippers, Akane being told that she didn't have to move hers at all. Reiko would do the work, so Akane didn't have to worry about screwing up and drowning them both.
"Don't we need snorkels?"
"They're useless unless you want to just glide along the surface. We want to get a much closer look than that."
Akane wasn't sure how she felt about that, but she put her arms around Reiko's neck anyway. They set out away from shore, Reiko using a modified breast stroke to keep both their heads above water. She would occasionally stick her face down into the water to see if they were at the right place yet.
"Okay, we're here. Akane, I want you to take a deep breath, and then we're going to dive. Don't be scared, you're with me. If you think you can't hold it much longer, tap me, and we'll go back up for a while. I don't think that should be a problem, you can probably hold your breath almost as long as I can."
Akane was shaking, and it wasn't entirely because the ocean was cold. "O-Ok."
"Ready? Big breath now."
Akane took a big breath and down they went.
It was scary at first, having water completely around her head, and no footing to push off of, but Reiko had asked her to trust her. She focused at what she could see.
It was beautiful. White-brown coral twisting into interesting shapes. Lush green seaweed moving slowly in the current, waving to her as they passed by. Schools of colourful fish swimming by and darting away from them in fear. Creatures that seemed more like plants. There was just so much _colour_!
Then Akane began to feel the burning in her lungs becoming more uncomfortable. In a panic she began rapidly tapping Reiko's chest with one hand with her arms still tightly wrapped around the other girl's neck. Reiko obediently started upwards, then stopped and pulled firmly on Akane's arms. NO! She was trying to dislodge Akane and leave her down here! Akane clung even tighter as Reiko started to jerk in alarm. The raven-haired girl began rapidly tapping Akane's arms instead of pulling, then something clicked in Akane's head. When she had practiced chokeholds and antilevers (such as armbars), a tap was the signal to ease up.
She had been choking Reiko.
Akane immediately loosened up, and Reiko ripped her arms away, coming around behind Akane before the terrified girl had any idea what was going on. Keeping out of reach of Akane's arms, Reiko cupped her chin and began to drag her upward that way with long, powerful strokes. Akane stopped thrashing as she realized Reiko was finally taking her up.
As they broke the surface, Reiko kept behind Akane, pulling her out so Akane floated on her back, while keeping herself mostly out of reach of the panicked non-swimmer.
"gasp Why'd you let me go?"
"huh because I didn't want huh you to choke me again." Reiko answered.
"I thought you were huh going to leave me."
"Never!" Reiko said fervently. "I promised I wouldn't let you drown. I guess I should have made you promise not to drown me at the same time, huh?"
"I'm sorry I choked you."
"Well, you got scared. You have to calm down. Didn't you say you trusted me?"
"Well, yes."
"Then you better remember that down there! I won't leave you, and I won't let you drown! You have to stay calm. If you're panicked, you'll use up your air supply faster."
"Sorry." Akane said meekly.
Reiko sighed. "Do you want to go back in now?"
Akane was still taking deep breaths, calming herself. "Actually, I kinda want to see more."
Reiko laughed. "Figures. Now you want to go swimming and I'm the reluctant one." She moved around in front of Akane again. "We'll do it a little differently this time." She said, pulling Akane's arms under her own, and placing Akane's hands behind her head, in the hold wrestlers would recognize as a Full Nelson. "Let's see you choke me now!"
"But I can still break your neck." Akane teased, remembering exactly why this hold was banned from most forms of wrestling.
"Don't even think about it!" Reiko snapped playfully as she warned Akane to take another big breath and they went down again.
They did two more dives, and each time, Akane managed not to panic when her lungs began to burn. She simply tapped the back of Reiko's neck and they began their ascent. On the third dive, Reiko led them a little too close to a piece of coral and scratched Akane's leg. She flinched, which Reiko felt. The dark-haired girl turned her head curiously, giving a thumbs up to ask if Akane needed air. Akane shook her head and pulled her leg forward to show Reiko that that was all it was. A deep scratch certainly, but nothing a Band-Aid wouldn't fix.
Now it was Reiko's turn to panic. She immediately left for the surface, moving as fast as she had that first time when both of them had been nearly out of air due to their struggles. Akane didn't get it. She wouldn't need air for another 20 seconds at least, and Reiko was better at holding her breath than her.
"What's up?" Akane asked as they broke the surface of the water.
"You're bleeding!"
"So? It's just a little scratch. I'm fine, really."
"Do you have any idea how far away a shark can smell a single drop of blood in the water?" Reiko screamed.
"Uh..." Akane said intelligently. Any response she might have eventually have formulated was cut off as she spotted the dorsal fin approaching in the distance behind Reiko.
Her wide eyes warned the other girl, who spun (as best she could while still holding Akane up) and cursed violently.
"I'll have to lead it away."
"But I can't swim without you!" Akane cried in panic, as the shark began to circle them.
"Actually, that's good. Normal swimming makes the type of splashes that attract sharks. I need you to do something different."
"O-ok."
"Take a deep breath, fill your lungs with air, all the way, right down to your stomach. From now on, take only little breaths so that you stay mostly full of air the whole time. That'll keep you afloat. Now lie on your back and reach over your head with both arms and pull the water down beside you, like you did when we were playing tag."
Akane did this as Reiko spoke it, and noted that she moved a bit away from Reiko as she did so.
"Good." Reiko pointed her towards shore. "Now don't go too fast. If you make big splashes the shark will pay attention to you."
"Is this a type of swimming?"
"No. It's called... strafing."
"Oh good, because I don't know how to swim."
"Exactly." Reiko muttered.
"What? I didn't hear you."
"Never mind. Get going."
"But what about you?"
"I'll lead it away."
"No! Why don't you just strafe back with me?"
"Because if I don't it'll eventually zero in on that scratch of yours. Go! I'll be ok!"
"A-alright!" Akane said as she began to 'strafe' back to shore.
Reiko took off in another direction with a splash-inducing front crawl. After she was a little ways away, she checked the shark's position to make sure it was following her. She couldn't see it. Cursing again, she dug her fingernails deeply into her forearm, drawing blood and swishing it about in the water. Akane's little scratch had probably already stopped bleeding, so Reiko's would be the only fresh blood around.
Reiko swam a little farther away from Akane, stopping to check again. Sure enough, she could see the dorsal fin advancing on her again. Akane was halfway back to shore.
Akane was still 'strafing', and trying hard not to let her panic to speed up her movements, when a hand tapped her shoulder.
"Hey Akane, when'd you learn how to swim like that?" Ranma-chan asked, standing in chest-deep water.
"This is swimming?"
"Yeah. I think it's called a modified back stroke or something like that."
Akane promptly sank like a rock.
Ranma-chan sighed and lifted her flailing fiancée to her feet.
Akane sputtered as she grabbed Ranma-chan by the shoulders urgently. "We have to get a boat! Reiko's in the water with a shark!"
"What!" Ranma-chan cried in shock.
"Come on! Hurry!"
Reiko dodged the shark's charge again, pushing off the shark's head at the last second to slip out of reach. It was reminiscent of Ranma's moves when he spared against Akane.
It was also just delaying the inevitable.
"There she is!" Akane cried and pointed. She was standing at the head of the lifeguard boat they had commandeered (the lifeguards hadn't moved fast enough to satisfy Ranma and Akane, and were left behind).
"Rei! Hold on, we're coming!" Akane cried as Ranma-chan steered the small motorboat toward the dark-haired girl in the water.
Reiko turned at the sound of the cry and waved with relief.
Of course, this meant taking her eyes of the frustrated shark, who got hold of her leg and pulled her under.
Akane screamed in denial as Reiko was dragged beneath the waves. Ranma-chan stopped the boat right about where she had gone under and joined Akane in looking frantically over the side.
Both caught their breath as a thick cloud of red blood billowed up through the waters.
Akane was about to jump in, when she recalled she couldn't swim (and 'strafing' wouldn't help here).
"Ranma! You have to go in and get her!"
Ranma-chan gripped the edge of the boat with white knuckles and spoke with a tight throat.
"Akane... look at all that blood. It's too late now. She's gone."
"NO!" Akane screamed, even as she sank down into the bottom of the boat in tears. Ranma-chan was right. Why did she have to be right?
Ranma-chan just stared down grimly at the red waters below her...
...and nearly shit in her one-piece when a hand reached out of the water and clamped down on the edge of the boat.
"YAAAAHH!" She cried out as she rapidly backed up as far as the small boat would let her. Akane looked up just as Reiko pulled her head up over the edge, gasping for breath.
"Reiko! You're alive!" Akane cried and rushed forth to hug her friend. Ranma-chan was a little more practical, once she calmed down.
"Hey! Don't just sit there! Pull her in!" She cried and moved forward to do just that. Akane let go of Reiko's neck and pulled up on her arm.
Once they had the gasping Reiko all the way into the boat, they could see the self-inflicted cuts on her left forearm, and the deep bite marks in her right calf.
It also was noted that she had the shark's jaws in one of her hands, still with several pieces of meat clinging to it.
Ranma-chan gawked. "Is... is that..."
Reiko held it in front of her proudly. "I've always wanted one of these. I think I'll mount it and hang it on the wall." She chuckled as she began idly ripping the remaining bits of flesh off the bone.
"So all that blood wasn't yours..."
Reiko grimaced. "Well, most of it wasn't. The little bastard bites pretty deep." She complained, holding her bleeding leg.
Akane found a first aid kit in the bow and began to wrap it up for her.
"So you weren't in danger after all." Ranma-chan scoffed.
"I wouldn't say that. With all the blood in the water, sharks must be coming from miles around. In fact, there's probably a feeding frenzy going on underneath us as we speak. I'm quite happy not to be in the middle of it."
Ranma-chan swallowed. "Feeding frenzy? Um... how about we go back to shore now.
The other two girls nodded eagerly.
Akane watched her friend with concern as she sat in the front of the boat wringing seawater out of her long hair, as Ranma-chan drove the boat.
"Hey! Wait a minute Reiko!"
The dark-eyed girl blinked at her. "What's wrong?"
"What about your curse?"
"Oh that. My twin is back in town visiting friends."
***
"Hi Reiko! What can I get you?." Ukyou smiled at Ranma's semi-fiancée. Actually, she was smiling at everyone today, including Tsubasa (even while she simultaneously sent him flying across the city for pretending to be one of her stools).
Reiko grinned as she slid onto the stool (odd, Ukyou seemed to be one short today). "Seafood special please."
"It'll be done in just a minute!" Ukyou beamed.
"Sooo..." Reiko began. "It seems you and Ranma spent the night a rollin' betwixt the sheets. How'd the boy do?"
Ukyou hadn't dropped an Okonomiyaki in eight years. So much for her record.
***
Ranma-chan snapped her fingers in recollection. "So that's what that clap of thunder was before we left the house. I was worried it was going to rain today."
Akane sat on the small seat beside Reiko, so they could talk without yelling over the engine.
"But I thought it was horrible for you when you change."
Reiko nodded. "Well yes, but you seemed to really want to go to the beach, so..."
"Oh my God! Reiko, I'm so sorry! I completely forgot about your curse!"
Reiko waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I had a lot of fun today," She chuckled, "even got to play with some marine life." She waved the jaws. "I won the game."
"You have to get used to changing." Ranma-chan said as they beached the boat and got out. "Jyusenkyo-cursed people attract water like magnets."
"Since when do magnets attract water." Akane mumbled to Reiko.
Reiko nodded to Ranma-chan. "It's been getting a little better. I think I... we only blacked out for a few seconds this time."
Akane still felt really guilty, and it showed on her face.
Reiko put a reassuring arm around her shoulders. "Hey, come on now. Tell me, did you have fun today?"
Akane smiled a little and nodded.
Reiko grinned and patted her shoulder. "Then it was worth it. Let's go home."
***
And off they walked into the setting sun.
(er... hold on a minute. Tokyo's on the east side of Honshu, so the closest beaches would be on the east coast, walking inland and therefore facing west...)
Yep. Into the setting sun. There's a nice little ending... for now.
What will Shampoo do about her great-grandmother?
How does Ranma intend to handle the rest of his fiancees? (running for the hills sounds good!)
How does Ukyou feel about sharing the good news with Reiko?
How will Reiko almost get killed next episode?
Will her desire to make Akane fall in love with her be thwarted by a horrible case of hertosexuality? (Oops! I didn't spoil anything, did I? Nah, you guys are smart. I'm sure you saw it coming!)(Of course, anyone who didn't is going to hate me now. -_-)
Will the author run out of inane leading questions anytime this page?
Find out next time.
contact at hinoron@hotmail.com. Comments, critizisms, advice, suggestions... useless flames will be printed, folded into little airplanes and launched at my cat next time she pukes on the carpet.
Ja na!