Our story so far:
All of the suspects were gathered in the drawing-room. No one would meet the
eyes of the cigar-smoking hardboiled detective Kasumi.
Who killed the rich eccentric, Soun Tendo? Was it destitute playboy Nabiki, or
his beautiful, brainless plaything, Genma, who's bare midriff was even now
distracting Professor Akane? Perhaps it was the aging butler, Ryouga? Or maybe
the upstairs maid, Ranma. Detective Kasumi locked the drawing-room door, and
announced he now knew who the murderer was...
"A Short Discussion about `The Universe'"
by Neil Reynolds
Chapter 7: We Throw Away That Which We Most Desperately Need
While doing her homework, that night, a squirrel holding an acorn leaped upon
her open window sill. It stared Nabiki directly in the eye, twitched it's nose
twice, and at some hidden signal, leaped away, dropping the acorn to roll onto
Nabiki's desk.
The acorn cap popped off of the acorn, and instead of a continuation of the
wooden shell, Nabiki noticed a rolled up peace of paper. Apparently the shell
had been hollowed out and the kernel removed, making the shell and cap into a
little box, which held the tiny strip of paper.
Written on the paper were two haiku and a note:
Treasure Discarded If Nabiki's twin
Childish Self-mutilation Is not cherished, and valued
Abandoned Chances She'll be lost for good
Instead of a signature, there was a note which read "Sorry about the
doggerel, but it's expected."
At this point, there's a knock on her door. She opens it and finds Ranma
standing there with his right hand resting on the back of his head. "Sorry to
bother you, Nabiki, but Ran'neko thought there might be someone to play with
in your room."
"Another invisible spirit?"
"I don't know. Ran'neko's disappointed. Apparently it's already left. Sorry,
to interrupt your homework." Ranma turns to leave.
"Wait." Nabiki responds, louder than she'd intended. Calming, she asks "Could
it have looked like a squirrel?"
"No idea. Ran'neko didn't see it, just felt it enter your room by the window."
"What do you mean, felt it?"
"I don't know that either. Ran'neko may be always babbling, but he's not
really using words, if you know what I mean."
"A squirrel just delivered a message to me. Who would find a squirrel more
convenient than the mail or the phone?"
"Kuno likes to use methods like ninja and arrows to deliver messages..."
"True but as far as I know, trained squirrels are beyond them, and if Ran'neko
detected a spirit involved, then the squirrel wasn't just a trained animal."
"What'd the message say?"
"Now now, Ranma, you don't ask about a young lady's personal mail. But that
does remind me. Where's my father? If he has something to do with this, he's
in deep trouble!"
* * *
"I swear, Nabiki. I don't know anything about you having a twin."
"If I find out that you are hiding anything, even if it's for our own good,
you'll be in so much trouble, you'll be begging Happosai to take you on
another ten year training trip. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I
have methods you can't comprehend. I will succeed. You'd be better off
confessing everything, than let me find out the hard way. Falsified medical
records, lies, and vows of silence wont keep me from finding out the truth."
Soun is too scared to break into a crying fit. "I know nothing about anything
like that. I swear I've never heard of anything like that. Before you were
born, we had an ultrasound done to check for medical complications, and the
doctors told us that we'd have one daughter. I saw the pictures, there was
only one of you there. I may have passed out during the birth, but I remember
the ultrasound clearly!"
Nabiki nodded to herself. When her father started babbling like that, his
memory connected directly to his mouth, making it impossible to successfully
conceal anything. In the unlikely event that she had been born a twin, several
doctors would have had to be working in collusion, and kept everything from
her father. If the acorn-message wasn't a complete fabrication, then twin must
be a metaphor, or have some other meaning than the mundane idea than having
been born with another baby. Daddy's mention of an ultrasound even ruled out
the spirit of a stillborn twin.
Unfortunately, if 'twin' was a metaphor, then the number of possibilities
become huge. If the metaphor was stretched far enough, it could refer to any
of the 4 billion people on the planet. If you can call any man, your brother,
then a twin could be any person, regardless of gender. Adding in humanistic
spirits, and the number grows still farther.
Still, assuming that 'twin' was a strong metaphor, it might be possible to
guess who's meant, assuming I even know this twin. What do I know from the
haiku about my twin? She isn't cherished and valued, and she's either lost or
in danger of being lost. Perhaps she's the treasure mentioned in the first
haiku, but what do they mean by self-mutilation and abandoned chances?
Is Kyakuzumi being taken for granted? I'd better find her fast!
* * *
At that point Akane and Kyakuzumi were walking back to the Tendo home,
laughing uproariously. Akane finally says "I should have known it was
you. How'd you do it?"
"I told you I had an affinity for changing the color of things. I just made
parts of the blackboard chalk-white, and some of the pre-existing chalk-marks
blackboard-gray."
"So that's why Ikabiru-sensei couldn't erase it!"
At that point Nabiki rushed up. "Nabiki! You've got to hear what Kyakuzumi
pulled on Ikabiru-sensei in class! When he finished writing something on the
board, he turned around, and the whole class read what looked like he had
written on the board, but it read 'I'm called Ikabiru because I love kissing
squid!' He didn't know what happened until he turned around, and then he
couldn't erase it!"
Nabiki smiled and said "He always was a stick-in-the-mud. Just don't let on
that you know how it was done, Akane, or he'll try to punish you on general
principle."
Kyakuzumi added "He better not, or I'll make the back of his shirt a giant red
heart with a squid in the middle!"
"Cologne was right, It's best not to get the attention of bored spirits."
Nabiki commented, "And if you are the butt of their jokes, to try and take it
in good grace. What were you doing at school anyway?"
"Classrooms are great! No one's supposed to laugh, and everyone's bored out
of their minds. Including the teachers! The only drawback is trying to keep
from going wild, and just pulling one or two jokes at a time. That reminds
me. Today while you were changing for gym, and Sakura was picking up her
bloomers from the bottom of her locker, I thought of putting a big red heart
on the back of her panties, but I didn't because I didn't know how she'd take
it."
"Oh, that'd be perfect. Up until last year she was still wearing ones with
teddy-bears and other things printed on it. Now she's trying to wear more adult
clothes."
* * *
After showing Kyakuzumi the note, and relaying it's origins and her
"discussion" with her father, Nabiki asked Kyakuzumi her opinion. "Well,
you've already gotten mixed up in something that seems to target you
directly. If we knew who the twin was, we'd have a good grasp of whether it's
due to something in your past, or if it's due to the studies you're going
through right now."
Nabiki commented "'Twin' has to be a metaphor. For there to be a real twin of
me, would require a cover up by several physicians and nurses. Anything done on
that scale more than once would have lead to a scandal large enough that I
could easily uncover. So how do we figure out who they mean by a twin? If they
mean someone born on the same day as I, that limits our search to a mere
million people."
"If it's one of those million people, there's nearly as many people who are
qualified to solve it. The only reason you would be chosen in that case is if
you were the best qualified of those million, which is improbable, and
simultaneously the fact that you were born on the same day was vital, which is
improbable. We're talking vaguely possible, but extremely unlikely. Much less
than a million to one shot."
"So we need another meaning to the twin metaphor, or something to seriously
corroborate the first hypothesis before we waste time tracking down a million
people's birth records. Thank god, but what? What should we be looking for?"
"No clue. But we shouldn't be concentrating on just the 'twin'
reference. We're given alot of clues, 'twin' is just the one that looks
easiest to unravel. For the sake of argument, the haiku deal with two people,
okay? You, and your twin. Therefor everything in the haiku probably refers to
events that happened to one or both of you. If something in them referred to a
third person it should have been mentioned."
"Unless we include the author. 'Nabiki's twin' was referred to in the third
person, so we can assume the author wasn't the twin."
"Fair enough. Some of that could refer to the author, but the author isn't
explicitly mentioned, so it seems likely that he's either uninvolved in the
haiku, or slightly involved, so lets assume everything for now either refers to
you or your twin, and perhaps we can discern your relation to your twin."
"Ok, for starters, we know my twin is in imminent danger of being lost, and is
either unloved, or likely to become unloved. She obviously threw away
something of value, and in some way damaged herself, as I've never done
that. Abandoned chances could apply to either of us. This vaguely reminds me
of Kodachi, but it's like doing a puzzle where you think you know where a
piece belongs, but it doesn't quite fit."
"'Abandoned Chances' is too vague to be useful except as conformation.
Everyone abandons chances every time they make choices."
"There's no obvious time constraints. We don't need to act just because
something should be done. It'd be just as stupid to go out on a limb and act
blindly than to ignore it. I guess we keep our eyes open, and see if Cologne
has any suggestions?"
* * *
Cologne comments "You've ignored the most interesting part of the message. The
note on the bottom. Whoever wrote this can obviously write clearly, and is
asking for help, but then neglects to do so. Theoretically the author could
have written 'Sally Jones is lonely and considering suicide. Her number is
555-1212, call after 7 pm.' What reasons would you have to obfuscate a message
like this if you were the author?"
Nabiki answers "Well, the obvious answer is if I was afraid of interception, I
would write a message only the recipient would understand. This is unlikely
since, one, a kami-affected squirrel delivered it to me, and was unlikely to
be intercepted, and two, I don't understand a bloody word of it, which makes
the code idea ludicrous."
Kyakuzumi adds "I might do it to intentionally tease or confuse someone, but
if that were the case it would be safe to ignore it, and subsequent messages
would occur. By itself, it's just a surreal message. For it to be of any
importance, it either has to mean something, or distract us from something
else that's important. And since it prompts us to be more aware of our
circumstances, there are many better ways of distracting us."
Cologne adds "I was thinking that the message is some sort of teaching
method. An aid to interpreting what will shortly occur, but who's
interpretation will lead to a better understanding of reality than a simple
instruction would. The author wants the problem solved with Nabiki in some
mindset, either as a teaching method for Nabiki, or to better aid Nabiki's
twin, who seems likely to be in some distress in the future."
Nabiki realizes "Like a Zen koan, but dealing with an emotional interpersonal
situation, rather than the perception of existence, and the search for
enlightenment."
"Exactly. The poem is a coded message, but intended for the person you will
become while you work on the problem."
"So why send it to me? All the bizarre messages are usually addressed to
Ranma."
"Why not you? You've been making waves through our lessons. Whoever is meant
as your twin is obviously related to you in some manner. Ranma's no longer the
only Nerimite to have stuck their finger into the pot of mysteries and given
it a good stir. Barring myself and Happosai, who have long since achieved a
sort of status quo with the great beyond, you are the most obvious human
maverick who doesn't have a Jhusenkyo curse. Ranma still tops you in
weirdness, but you outstrip the rest of your school in non-insane
bizarreness. Consider for a moment, only you and Ranma have kami linked with
you and acting as guides. Ranma has Ran'neko, which serves him as a companion,
and a sort of shield-brother, and you have Kyakuzumi, who is more of a guide,
and a culture repository for dealing with life's mysteries. Like it or not,
you will live in interesting times."
* * *
The next day in class, Nabiki noticed a squirrel sitting on the outside of the
window on the window-ledge. When only Nabiki was looking at it, it held it's
paws to it's cheeks, pulled it's mouth open and made a face at her. The rest
of the class noticed Nabiki's agitation, and while she was being questioned by
the teacher, the squirrel scampered away.
Later that afternoon, Nabiki gathered Akane, Ukyou, Ranma and Kyakuzumi during
lunch, and told them what she saw. Ranma started laughing and ceased to be any
help. Akane asked "So what do you plan to do?"
"Examine any suspicious squirrels."
Ranma interjected "Like the one 2 meters behind you, wearing an acorn cap on
it's head?" They turned to regard the squirrel with the jaunty cap as it
examined them. Then in stead of leaping into the nearest tree, it proceeded to
walk across the lawn, stop, and look back at them.
Nabiki insisted "Ok, we follow that squirrel, and see where it leads us."
Ukyou commented "That's not an ordinary squirrel. Think it's another Jhusenkyo
victim?"
Kyakuzumi answered "Nope. I could detect Genma's curse. This is something
else."
The squirrel made it to the small forest behind the school, and still
refrained from jumping into the trees, but it sped up as its followers easily
kept its pace. Suddenly it vanished in mid leap. Nabiki thought she saw
something as it passed between two trees, but couldn't describe what it was.
"Now what?" Ukyou asked?
"We look on the other side of the trees." Nabiki said as she walked around
them.
Ranma walked right between them and promptly vanished. This startled his
fiancees into running after him, but they passed between the trees as if
everything were normal.
Kyakuzumi leaped through the trees, and vanished in mid-air, shortly to
reappear jumping out. "Come on, Nabiki, the squirrel went this way." She
pushed Nabiki through.
"But we couldn't go through!" Akane complained.
"Well I could try carrying you." Kyakuzumi picked Akane up in her arms, and
leaped between the trees.
To Akane's perspective, Kyakuzumi vanished, and Akane fell ignobly on her
bum. But despite repeated shouts from her an Ukyou, no one returned.
* * *
In Kyakuzumi's perspective, Akane vanished from her hands, and as she landed,
Nabiki shouted "The squirrel is going away! Follow it!" So Ranma, Nabiki, and
Kyakuzumi followed their guide, until finally they reached a path, where the
squirrel, obviously tired of it's activities, leaped into a tree, and vanished
into the foliage.
Ranma asked "Now what?"
Nabiki answered, "First things first, where are we?"
Ranma looked at her funny. "In the forest behind the school?"
"Nope, The forest there is all pine trees. These trees are all deciduous."
"What?"
"They have leaves instead of needles. Also there are no paths like this in
there that I know of."
Kyakuzumi piped in "We must have crossed over into the far-lands."
Nabiki announced "OK, time out. We're not going anywhere further until you
tell me about the far-lands!"
"Well, you humans give it all sorts of names like the spirit world, or the
dreamlands, but those are all more poetical than accurate. There are more
spirits than humans living here, and parts of the landscape impinges on
dreaming people, but it's an actual physical world, where most of the laws of
physics hold true. Except for geometry."
"What do you mean?"
"Like with those two trees we passed between. Going around them, and passing
between them, brought you to two different places. We're in an area where a
step forward, a step left, back, and then right might not bring you to the
starting location."
"So how do you keep from getting lost?"
"Make sure you can retrace your steps. Can either of you remember this place,
and how to get back to the crossing over part?"
Ranma nodded "I can. Pop made me train in a forest to scavenge, and to find my
way around."
Kyakuzumi announced "Good. So can I. Nabiki, you might have trouble
navigating, but we can get us out of this place. Do you want to go home?"
Nabiki thought for a bit. "I want to get to the bottom of this. If this isn't
some prank, then it's probably important. But why couldn't Akane and Ukyou
follow us?"
Kyakuzumi shrugs "They're normal people, they didn't have the preparation,
skill, or ability to pass through. All three of us have touched magic. Ranma
actually bathed in it once." Kyakuzumi grins, and then sticks her tongue out
at Ranma.
To Ranma and Nabiki's surprise, Ranma laughs at the taunt.
"OK, let's follow this trail.
* * *
After a while, the path winds in front of a small shack. It was a well kept
one story house, obviously both in great repair, and great age. By the low
wooden porch was a tree, with dozens of glass bottles hung from it. As they
approached, the bottles rattled and clanked together, although there wasn't
any wind.
An elderly lady, as tall as Nabiki, and with her white hair festooned with
colorful things braided into it, walked out the open door, and regarded
them. She seemed to find their group intrinsically funny, and asked "So what's
a stunted halfling, a possessed skin-walker, and an underage nixie doing out
here?"
Kyakuzumi objected "I'm a naiad, not a nixie!"
"Of course. I beg your pardon. But you must admit, you make the most unlikely
party I've seen in years."
Ranma asks "Am I the halfling or the skin-walker?"
This starts the woman into a huge belly-laugh. "You're the skin-walker, however
I seem to have been premature calling you possessed. It looks like the two of
you are time-sharing that body. Two spirits, two forms, one body. Such
irony. Boy, you're marked for either greatness or doom. No middle ground for
you."
Nabiki gets a wary expression "And I'm the stunted halfling? Are you
commenting on the species of my parents?"
"Not at all. You seem to be a fully human halfling. Perhaps some first people
blood generations ago, but nothing worth speaking of. I'm talking about the
face you wore before you wore a mask."
"I don't understand."
"No. I see you don't. All I will tell you is that you did yourself a mischief
a long time ago, and now you either have to set it right, or live the rest of
your life with the consequences. Well, you always have to live with the
consequences, but if you fail now, there's no way to undo this one."
"Are you the one who sent the squirrels?"
"I don't mess with the likes of them, and I never had any inkling of you three
before you showed up here."
"Then how do you know so much about us?"
"I've been called a fortune teller. It's all there to see."
Ranma asks "You mean like palm reading and looking at tea leaves."
"Yep. You don't actually need any of that fancy mumbo-jumbo. That's just to
focus and direct the mind, and to give rubes their money's worth."
"You said I did myself a `mischief' a long time ago? Would you refer to it as
`childish self-mutilation'?"
"I wouldn't, but there's them that would. If you're strong enough to bear the
pain, there's alot of good comes after it. Not everyone is strong enough."
Ranma asks "Why are you talking in riddles?"
The hint of a frown travels from her mouth to her eyes "Riddles? I never talk
in riddles. If you don't understand my answers, young man, it's because you
don't understand your questions. If you can't see yourself when I describe
you, it's because you haven't looked at yourself properly!"
Kyakuzumi adds "It's also because Ranma's not familiar with the vocabulary
you're using. His father tried to stunt his education, and all this is new to
him." Kyakuzumi turns to Ranma and adds "A skin-walker is someone who can
assume another form, but isn't a full-fledged polymorph. Someone who has a
restricted set of forms he can wear. Your curse qualifies you, but just
barely."
"Just barely, for now. True skin-walkers are in control of their form, and
change without some externally imposed spell. Even a curse woven so tightly
into you is still intrinsically external. Some day you might become a true
skin-walker, at which point the curse will cease to work, but I have no idea
how you might achieve this. I do know it's possible, though."
This revelation causes Ranma to pay less attention to the others, and more on
his internal thoughts. "A cure for the curse? The ability to change forms? To
be able to control the change? That'd be heaven in itself."
Meanwhile, Nabiki asked "So, what do you think we should do?"
"I think you need to follow the path further, and think about all of the
changes you've gone through growing up. I think you need to keep asking
questions, but I think you need to answer more of them than you are. My advice
might be good, or bad; you can't tell. You need to answer these questions
yourself. Now if you don't mind, these old bones want a rest. You young'uns
don't know what it's like to tire so rapidly."
Nabiki is pondering this when Kyakuzumi pipes up "Grandma, you'll be dancing
when our grandchildren come by here."
The old woman smiles at her and winks "You might be right." Suddenly she fades
away. Nothing in the area is stirring, except the bottle-wind-chimes have
started up again.
* * *
None of them felt like sticking around, so they continued on the path. Ranma
was the first to notice "When did the leaves turn colors?" For some reason,
the area they were proceeding looked like Autumn.
Kyakuzumi said "We just walked into another area that's in another season. As
far as I can tell, time is flowing at the usual rate. I can't judge the flow
precisely, but I can warn you before we enter an area where the time is
seriously screwed up. So don't worry about loosing centuries in here."
Nabiki looked alarmed "That can happen here?"
"Only much deeper in, and in areas of really high magic," She smiles and adds
"or in a black hole."
Ranma asks "So you know where we are?"
"Not a clue." Kyakuzumi said "I take that back, actually that's just what I
know. A clue. I've heard stories about this place, and I know what to look for
if I wanted to go straight home. But I've never been here before. We're not
far from home, although if we couldn't retrace our steps it'd take me a while
to find the way back, and I might come out some distance from where we
entered."
A few minutes later Nabiki asked "Kyakuzumi, how do you pronounce your
original name anyway?"
Kyakuzumi whistles her name, and Nabiki tries to repeat it. Kyakuzumi laughs
"Your pronunciation is good, but that's a horrible thing to say about your
sister."
Ranma asked Nabiki "Did you mean Akane or Kasumi?"
Nabiki looked shocked at Ranma, "You understood that?"
"Nope."
Nabiki barely resisted the urge to try to pummel Ranma.
* * *
They turn a bend in the path as the season changes back to spring, and see a
large man sitting in the crook of a tree. He is easily taller than Genma, and
wider, but doesn't give the impression of having the strength or skill. His
wildly growing mustache and beard merged with his long unkempt beard to lend
him the appearance of a bear who forgot to spruce himself up.
Beside him he had a jug stopped with a cork. He was singing at the top of his
lungs.
I love the forest, and the forest loves me
La la la la, la la la la la
I love drinking while up in a tree
La la la la, la la la la ...
A sad look appeared on his face "I always forget the next word."
Nabiki calls out "Is it 'La'?"
Joy dawns on the strange man. "That's it!" He jumps out of the tree, and limps
towards the party. "Thanks alot!"
Nabiki notices that he's wearing his left shoe on his right foot, and
vice-versa, and mentions it to him.
The large man sits down in the path, and removes the left shoe from his right
foot, and reveals he had a left foot at the end of his right leg, and a right
foot on the end of his left leg. Still he manages to switch shoes, making him
look normal, but making Nabiki wince at the thought of walking in shoes the
wrong way around. However when he got up, his limp was gone. "You're a smart
one! Why'd you come here?"
"We're looking for someone, but we don't know whom."
"I know what that's like, I often forget who I'm looking for also."
Ranma asked "What are you doing here?"
The huge man looked confused. "I don't know." He looked at Ranma "What should
I have been doing?"
Ranma answered, "I don't know."
At this, the big man grinned hugely "Neither do I! I guess it's all right
then!"
Nabiki began to get a bit testy "Do you know what we are looking for?"
"No! How many guesses do I get?"
"This isn't a game! We're looking for information!"
"I was gonna guess 'Informating', I was! No fair! Ask me another one."
Kyakuzumi asked before Nabiki's temper could explode, "Bo you have any advice
for us?"
"Yes!" He nodded vigorously. "Don't look back!"
"Why not?"
"You'll trip yourself!"
* * *
After more changes of scenery the trio left the forest, their way impeded by
a large lake. The path forked in a 'T' with nothing specifying which direction
they should take. Resting under a tree, with a fishing rod cast into the
lake. The man's age was indeterminate. He was extremely emaciated, and would
have stood around eight foot tall, had he bothered to get up.
Kyakuzumi walked up and stood a respectful distance, "Do you know where we're
going?"
"Anywhere you've a mind to. 'S alright by me."
"I mean do you know which path we should take?"
"Doesn't matter to me; shouldn't matter to you. Doesn't make much difference."
Nabiki demands "Do you know who we are?"
"The three fools trying to regain what the halfling threw away. She'll
probably just throw it away after she recovers it. So why bother?"
"Do you know what we're searching for?"
"You're searching for yourself, and because of your past mistakes you're
looking out here, rather than staying home like any sensible person. You're
not likely to succeed if you don't even know what to expect. And the
skin-walker won't help or hurt your quest, no matter how well he fights."
"You know so much, why don't you just tell us what we want to know?"
"Will it make you leave me alone?"
"Yes." Nabiki said exasperatedly.
"Take that track over there. You'll face 3 obstacles and 3 choices, and no way
to succeed without making 3 sacrifices. Only the halfling could hope to win
free, and you two others can't be much help beyond advice. Now I gave you the
advice you wanted. So leave me alone."
Nabiki and Ranma were about to object to their dismissal, when Kyakuzumi
pulled them back. "Nabiki, you agreed to go away. If you don't leave now, you
leave yourself wide open to retribution. Especially here you have to always
follow your promises, and no wiggling around it."
Nabiki and Ranma grumbled, but followed Kyakuzumi as she dragged the two
teenagers down the trail. The trail was flanked by a row on either side of
identical trees, and on one side the lake could be seen through the trees, and
on the other side was a dusty plain. But on passing an otherwise unremarkable
tree, the lake disappeared, and was replaced by a drop-off into a wooded
valley.
But on passing the last pair of trees, they found themselves exiting what
appeared behind them to be a forest, and before them was a rickety bridge
spanning a gorge, with a river flowing far underneath.
Sitting on one of the bridge's anchor posts was a crow, with a white pattern
on its breast. The Kanji could refer to the meanings 'number', 'strength',
'fate', 'law', or 'figures'.
Kyakuzumi said "I think that bridge will support me, and even if it doesn't, I
can discorporate, and follow you invisibly until we reach a source of
water. But I don't think it'll support either of you two."
Ranma adds "I think I can leap it, with a running jump, but it'll be a close
thing even for me. I couldn't make it carrying any weight."
Nabiki said "So this is the first obstacle, and you two can't help me except
by advice. If it were impossible, there wouldn't be much point, so there must
be some way to do it."
Ranma interrupts "That crow is more than just an animal. Ran'neko thinks it's
as bright as I am."
With some effort, Nabiki and Kyakuzumi managed to restrain themselves from
insulting Ranma's intelligence. Nabiki walked up to the bird, and asked "Can
you help me get across?"
The crow's head bobbed in what looked like it might have been a nod.
"Can you carry me across?"
The crow cocked its head and stared at her like she was an idiot, before
shaking its head.
"Ok, so it wasn't likely. For all I know you can grow to the size of a
plane. You can help me get across, but there's a reason you haven't done it
yet. Does it involve my companions?"
The crow shook its head in negation. Nabiki continued, "Are you holding out
for payment or reciprocity of some kind?"
The crow shook its head in negation. "You would help me if I asked?"
The crow nodded. "Is there a reason I wouldn't ask you to?"
The crow nodded. Nabiki turned back to her companions. "Any suggestions?"
Kyakuzumi said "If you agree to it, you don't have much choice if it means you
harm. But I don't think it does. My guess is that it is something unpleasant,
but not too dangerous, but I've no idea what it can do."
Nabiki turned back to the crow. "Is what you plan to do permanent or
irreversible?"
The crow shook its head to signal 'no'.
"Is it unpleasant?"
The crow cocked its head as if thinking, and then bobbed its head 'yes'.
Nabiki turned back "What options do we have besides giving up for now, or
accepting? Can we get across using another path?"
Kyakuzumi shook her head "Unlikely, If we knew where we were going we might be
able to find it by another path, but there might not even be another path. I
told you about how geography changes around here. Some creatures can create
their own paths, but that's beyond me."
Nabiki turned back to the crow "Can you make a new path or change the
geography around here?"
The crow shook negation.
After a quiet few moments, Nabiki decides "Ok, Go ahead."
The crow pulls its head back as if to signify come closer, and summons her to
the point where the crow could lean against Nabiki. Then with a wink to
Nabiki, it sticks its head, phantom-like, into her chest, and pulls out by the
hair, a little miniature Nabiki, who stands on the post with the crow, which
then takes off and flew away, leaving a slightly dizzy Nabiki to look at her
miniature.
Ranma walks up and squints at the mini-Nabiki and said "Now this is weird."
Nabiki comments "Ranma, get your nose away from my face. If I were six inches
tall, I wouldn't want to be stared at like that."
Ranma stands up, and looks at Nabiki "So what happened?"
Nabiki turned to mini-Nabiki "Do you know what happened?"
Mini-Nabiki shook her head 'no'.
"Can you talk?"
Mini-Nabiki shook her head 'no'.
"Do you know how we can get across this gorge?"
Mini-Nabiki nodded. She put out her palm face up, and with her fingers
indicated that they should walk across.
"Just walk across? One at a time?"
"But you can't be that much lighter, that other you is so tiny!"
Kyakuzumi grinned "Try lifting her."
"Now wait a YIP!" Ranma hefted the surprised Nabiki and said "She is lighter."
Nabiki bopped him on the head "Ask before you do that, you great ape."
They quickly decided on an order of crossing. Kyakuzumi would go first, since
she couldn't be hurt, merely inconvenienced. Mini-Nabiki would follow, since
Kyakuzumi's passage would guarantee her success. Nabiki next, with Ranma to
leap across last. While Nabiki's trip was precarious, they all made it across
safely.
From there they proceeded along with Mini-Nabiki standing on Nabiki's
shoulder, and holding onto her ear for balance, until Nabiki stopped,
suddenly, pale as a sheet.
"What's wrong, Nabiki"
"I was just thinking about how many more obstacles we'd have to face, and I
couldn't figure it out. I was about to count it out on my fingers. I can
balance large columns of numbers in my head, but all of a sudden, I can't!"
Nabiki was just about to panic further when she felt a tugging at her
hair. Turning quickly, her nose hit Mini-Nabiki, and knocked her from her
perch. Luckily Nabiki caught her, and stared at her until she realized.
"You're why I can't subtract?" Mini-Nabiki nodded.
Kyakuzumi commented "The crow said is wasn't permanent."
Nabiki tried to ram Mini-Nabiki into her chest until Mini-Nabiki gave her a
rather unpleasant pinch. This seemed to finally get through to Nabiki, who
realized that she was hurting Mini-Nabiki as well as herself, and getting
nowhere.
She also realized Ranma was beet-red, and facing away from her. Ranma couldn't
have seen more than a hint of her brassiere through the open neck of her shirt
where she was manhandling herself. But this made her realize she had lost her
composure in front of Ranma, and allowed him to see something unintended, no
matter how inconsequential it was to her. She tried to reign in her anxiety as
she readjusted her shirt.
"This isn't permanent, but I can't undo it."
Kyakuzumi nodded "Someone can undo it, but not here. If we can't get it fixed
on the way to our destination, we'll go on a search for someone who can."
* * *
After a while, they came to a swift river, with a willow tree on the near
bank. One of the branches of the tree reached way across the water, but it
bowed and dipped in the breeze. Seated on the branch near the trunk was
another crow. this one had the kanji meaning 'face', 'mask', or 'features' on
it's breast.
Once again, the river was leapable by Ranma, but only barely. Kyakuzumi could
simply discorporate, and reform on the far bank, but Nabiki would have to use
the branch.
Nabiki walked with Mini-Nabiki up to the crow, and asked "Can you put her back
into me?"
The crow shook negation. "Are you here to remove more from me?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative. "If I follow this path to the end, will we be able to recombine?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative. "Is there any for me to cross this river without you removing a part of me?
The crow shook negation. "What do you plan to remove?"
The crow puffed out it's breast, and began to preen the feathers there. "My
mask? You mean ... I don't think I can." Mini-Nabiki began to stroke Nabiki's
hair.
After a few seconds of staring off into space, Nabiki said "Do it."
Once again the crow winked at her, and plunged its head insubstantially
through Nabiki's shirt and chest, and pulled out another mini-Nabiki,
Identical to the first, before flying away, leaving the second Mini-Nabiki
standing on the branch.
The same crossing order was maintained, although the 2 Mini-Nabikis insisted
on crossing together.
As they proceeded from the far bank, with one Mini-Nabiki on each of Nabiki's
shoulders, Her face was in constant motion.
Ranma laughed "Why are you making faces?"
Nabiki looked sad and worried, but fortunately for Ranma did not start to
cry. "I can't help it. I'll be like this until I can get these two imps back
inside of me."
"Why? What did the second crow remove?"
"It took out the mask I wear." Nabiki paused "I didn't want to answer that
aloud. My-god, I'm saying everything!"
Kyakuzumi rushed to her and hugged her. "Relax! Relax. You don't have to say
everything that you think."
"But how can I stop!"
"Like I said, Relax. You were perfectly fine walking without talking a while
ago. You can do it again. Just stop thinking of having a conversation with
us. Pretend you were walking alone with your thoughts. No need to speak
aloud."
Nabiki calms down a little, but her face still conveys her anxiety, well
beyond any anxiety Ranma had ever seen on her face. Ranma was worried more
about Nabiki's sanity, and emotions than on any physical dangers on this
trip. One thing was sure, those Mini-Nabikis were important, and had to be
treated as important as people. If Nabiki lost one, there'd be hell to pay.
* * *
While Kyakuzumi was comforting Nabiki, they turned another bend, and found
their way blocked by a stream, with a dock, a rowboat, and another crow
standing on one of the pier's pylons. The sight of the crow clearly filled
Nabiki with terror, and it was only through the care and attention of
Kyakuzumi and the two Mini-Nabikis that Nabiki didn't run mindlessly away.
Ranma, who had been feeling more and more useless in helping the emoting
Nabiki took a stand between Nabiki and the crow "You aren't going to touch
Nabiki unless you can get passed me!"
To Nabiki's surprise this actually did comfort her somewhat, but the absurdity
of Ranma fighting a non-aggressive bird had everyone else looking to the
heavens in exasperation.
Upon realizing that everyone but Ranma reacted identically, they all
smiled. Except of course for Ranma, who didn't know what happened that was so
funny, and except for Nabiki, who lost her balance while laughing, and
holding her sides.
Ranma, who was used to Nabiki's semi-superior smirk, rushed over to her to
find out what was wrong, and was instrumental in keeping the Mini-Nabikis from
being accidentally injured by Nabiki.
When Nabiki recovered, she walked up the pier, and paled when she saw that
this crow's Kanji read 'say.'
Before doing anything else, they looked over the rowboat. Apparently
Kyakuzumi, Ranma, and the two Mini-Nabikis could get into the boat together
easily, but when Nabiki tried to enter it alone, it nearly sunk.
Nabiki felt like she was about to weep openly, but the tears wouldn't
come. Ranma had seen alot of girls going from happy to crying to happy, and
knew that this was often artifice on the girl's parts, but he never saw anyone
looking so miserable and still be unable to cry.
The fact that she wasn't weeping allowed Ranma some control over his
responses, but in some way Nabiki's expression scared him. If he felt like
Nabiki looked, he wasn't sure if there was anything he could do, but change
into a girl, and cry in private.
None the less, Nabiki walked up to the third crow, and asked "There is a way
to undo this?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative.
"Then do it."
After the arrival of the third Mini-Nabiki, and the departure of the third
crow, it was determined that Nabiki could cross as long as the Mini-Nabikis
weren't in the boat, so Kyakuzumi ferried them across in two trips. First
Nabiki, then the trio of minis, and Ranma. This meant that the three
Minis were always watched over.
At this point, Nabiki was more worried about their safety than her own.
The removal of the third Mini-Nabiki left Nabiki completely dumb, furthermore
a little experimentation revealed that while she understood speech, she could
neither read nor write.
While this removed the danger of her babbling something she wanted to keep a
secret, this reduced her repertoire to hand gestures, and her emotive face
which was completely beyond her control.
Kyakuzumi was the first to mention "We've faced three obstacles, and Nabiki
has made three sacrifices. If the three choices were whether to have the crows
go ahead, we should be near the end."
But at that point, the three of them came to an unnatural cliff. The cliff was
made of chalk and crumbling slate, which made looking over the end dangerous,
and climbing it extremely risky even if they had the proper equipment. But
starting well back from the edge, there was a 'U' shaped trench with a quartz
bottom that provided a kind of slide to the bottom.
For the first time on this trip, they would not be able to retrace their path
beyond this point. Kyakuzumi took charge of the discussion, often glancing at
Nabiki for confirmation. "We can go on. We can retrace our steps and see if
the old lady can put Nabiki back together again, we can retreat completely and
see if Cologne can do anything, or we can strike out at random looking for
help.
"If we go on, can you get us back home?"
"Not by this route, and I don't know what we might run into, but yes, I can
get us back again. It might be tough, but unless this is some kind of bizarre
trap, I can do it. And a trap that bizarre makes no sense. Even if it were a
trap, we could try and win free."
"I'd go forward to find out who's behind all of this, but this doesn't seem to
be my fight. It's Nabiki they've been playing with."
"You're right." Kyakuzumi turns to Nabiki. "It's your decision."
Nabiki wanted everything back the way it was. She wanted to retreat, and be
alone. But she forced herself to weigh the odds of becoming normal taking any
of the four choices. She didn't know if the old woman or Cologne could cure
her, and they could always strike out on their own later on, so for now she'd
keep to the path, and hope for a cure at the end, and failing that look for a
cure from that point on.
Kyakuzumi was the first to go down, having the least worry of death by
impact. Her screams of delight ended with a call back that it was safe and
fun. The next one down was Ranma, carrying the three Mini-Nabikis, since if
something went wrong, he would be the most likely to pull of a physical
protective maneuver. Nabiki followed after a brief hesitation.
At the bottom of the slide there was a dried river bed, which headed into a
box canyon. As Nabiki derived emotional comfort knowing where the three minis
were at all times, the trio took turns, sitting on her shoulders with a third
in her arms.
Just after the canyon turned back into an autumn forest with a small road
running before them, three blurs flashed out of the trees. Nabiki was too
close to the action, but Ranma saw three crows with something on their chests
swoop down, grab a mini-Nabiki each, and zip into the forest.
Ranma immediately followed, but after a dozen steps, was within 3 feet of
snow, with more falling from the sky. After looking for some sign of the birds
or the minis, he walked back to the road and found Kyakuzumi comforting a
shell-shocked Nabiki.
"No sign of where they went. It's snowing over there."
"We've got to search for them!"
"They flew faster than I could run, even if there weren't any trees. Without
luck, or help, we aren't going to catch them until they want to be caught."
Nabiki's thoughts whorled "I've lost them. I'm stuck like this. Why did this
happen? Who did this to me." After a while, she began to recover. "This was
planned. Someone engineered this. They must be doing this for a reason. The
minis aren't lost for good, they're just being held hostage, or
something. Someone's bargaining for something. The answer is further on along
this path."
Having regained her composure, she made it clear with gestures, that they
wouldn't search the area, but would press on further. Kyakuzumi argued against
it, and Nabiki didn't want to leave, but she decided to push on anyway. She
had forgotten how much of her emotions were now readable even by a socially
inept person like Ranma, but it was also equally obvious that Nabiki meant to
see this thing through.
The next time the rode opened up into a clearing, the trees rose like redwoods
towering into the sky. Across the clearing there was the shape of a small girl
lying at the base of a tree, being tended to by the three
mini-Nabikis. Without any consideration of consequences, Nabiki ran to them,
as they ran to her.
But when she tried to sweep them up into her arms, they vanished into her. The
shock made her cry out an stumble. it was a combination shriek, and a victory
cheer. The first vocal sound she'd made since the rowboat. Her speech,
self-control, and voice were back, and she felt faint with relief.
It took the three of them some time to convince themselves that Nabiki was
alright before they looked at the small girl.
It wasn't a young girl at all, but another miniature Nabiki. But this one was
two feet tall. And unlike the other minis, which wore clothes identical to
Nabiki's this Mini was wearing what looked like a young girl's night clothes.
In addition, this Mini-Nabiki showed signs of tears, emotional exhaustion,
malnourishment, and most alarmingly, badly healed scars on her arms and legs.
"Where'd she come from?" Ranma asked.
"This is the twin we were looking for. My twin."
"What do we do, now that we've found her?"
Kyakuzumi quotes "If Nabiki's twin/Is not cherished, and valued/She'll be lost
for good."
Nabiki wondered what to do next. Was she like the other mini-Nabikis, somehow
split off from her. She had no recollection of having lost any part of
herself. She had no feeling of emptiness or loss like she had felt with the
other parts of her. If the outfit she was wearing was any indication, it had
happened a long time ago. While not quite as bad as a toddler's jumpsuit, it
was obviously something only a young girl might wear. She didn't remember ever
having an outfit like that, but she might have. In spite of the garment, the
body was the same as hers, although reduced substantially in size. The scars
were also something she could never remember having.
If this was like the minis, then incorporating it would change her, and in
ways she couldn't predict. She was fine as she was, and wasn't fool enough to
accept something without even knowing what it was. She wasn't in any position
to answer questions. So deep asleep that the ministrations didn't wake her,
and with such signs of misery that she might have cried herself to sleep. She
was obviously in need of a week's food and rest at least.
If she didn't incorporate her, what would she do then? Bring a midget version
of herself home? What kind of life would I have if I were two feet tall. The
words 'She'll be lost for good' went through her head. Maybe food and rest
wouldn't be enough. There aren't any miniature clones running about, she might
need more than food and rest to survive. Is she a stranger? Family? Part of
myself? She's at least family, I can't let her die. I've made sacrifices for
Akane, and Kasumi, I can make them for her.
With that thought, Nabiki tried to pull the smaller Nabiki into herself, but
she was left holding a very physically substantial version of
herself. Disappointed, and somewhat relieved, she laid her double down.
"Now what?" Ranma asked.
"We found what we came for, now we have to figure out what it is we're dealing
with."
Kyakuzumi stated "Treasure Discarded, Abandoned Chances. Something you didn't
know the value of. You may not even know its value now, but if the haiku are
to be believed, then she's valuable to you even if you don't realize it."
"Well I tried to pull her into me like the other minis, and it didn't work."
Ranma asked "Is she important to you?"
Nabiki's anger rose "She's family! I'd never abandon family!"
"Akane and Kasumi are family too, but you wouldn't want to merge with
them. I'm not talking about abandoning her here, I wanna know if she's
important to you?"
"I don't know."
"You can still lose her forever, whether you want to or not. How would you
feel if she just faded away?" Kyakuzumi asked.
At the thought of losing her, Nabiki was surprised to feel both anxiety and
relief. She wasn't expecting relief. Why relief. It suddenly hit her, she was
scared. She was willing to go through with the merging for her family, but
left to her own devices, she'd gladly abandon this.
But this might have once been part of her. Losing her would be like losing an
arm. Perhaps she wouldn't miss it after it was gone, but she'd be lessened by
its loss. For the first time she made a logical connection between the
miniature body she was holding, and the idea of it being a treasure. She
didn't know how to value it, but if she didn't treat it as something of value,
she might lose it again forever. That might be why she lost it in the first
place.
She represented future chances. In much the same way as money did. Money by
itself was valueless, it was the possibilities that it brought that gave it
value. So now she could give it a value, and it was quite high indeed. A
unique artifact. But that wasn't cherishing at all.
"I don't know you at all, but I'd like to learn to love you." To Nabiki's
surprise, the words seemed to act like a trigger, and the girl just melted
into Nabiki like the other mini's had done. Nabiki's expression turned to
shock and pain. Then she screamed out "Mommie!" before collapsing into
Kyakuzumi's arms, and weeping for the first time in years.
Author's note:
Originally I had intended the twin to have a role to play. My notes on the
subject read "Childish. In pain. Emotive" The three crows were going to remove
something from the following list {gem, feather, flower, bird, snake} and the
impetuous for the journey would have appeared at the beginning of the chapter,
instead of being left to next chapter or being removed from the story in it's
entirety.
The full nature of what happened will be explained more in the next chapter
which will deal with the return to home.
The three choices that Nabiki had to make were
1) Take the slide, and lose their way out.
2) Follow the road instead of hunting for the 3 kidnapped minis
3) To accept or reject the fourth miniature.
I've been rightly criticized that I have a tendency to avoid showing how
people feel instead of telling it. I tried to make this a story about emotions,
and not a running conversation. I hope it succeeded.
By the way, I have no set plans for their route back home. I've a pile of
ideas, but nothing has jelled yet. They will meet more natives that can
actually speak. It might be centered more around Ranma and Kyakuzumi, as
Nabiki isn't in top shape.
The section above the title of the story is an unrelated joke.
Author's Note, Take 2:
I finished writing this 3 days ago. I'd have posted it if I could think of a
title.
I've tried:
What lies over the horizon is more appealing than what we have
It just didn't get up and walk away.
Crushed diamonds
Carry on, my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary
head to rest, don't you cry no more
A house divided against itself cannot stand
All of the suspects were gathered in the drawing-room. No one would meet the
eyes of the cigar-smoking hardboiled detective Kasumi.
Who killed the rich eccentric, Soun Tendo? Was it destitute playboy Nabiki, or
his beautiful, brainless plaything, Genma, who's bare midriff was even now
distracting Professor Akane? Perhaps it was the aging butler, Ryouga? Or maybe
the upstairs maid, Ranma. Detective Kasumi locked the drawing-room door, and
announced he now knew who the murderer was...
"A Short Discussion about `The Universe'"
by Neil Reynolds
Chapter 7: We Throw Away That Which We Most Desperately Need
While doing her homework, that night, a squirrel holding an acorn leaped upon
her open window sill. It stared Nabiki directly in the eye, twitched it's nose
twice, and at some hidden signal, leaped away, dropping the acorn to roll onto
Nabiki's desk.
The acorn cap popped off of the acorn, and instead of a continuation of the
wooden shell, Nabiki noticed a rolled up peace of paper. Apparently the shell
had been hollowed out and the kernel removed, making the shell and cap into a
little box, which held the tiny strip of paper.
Written on the paper were two haiku and a note:
Treasure Discarded If Nabiki's twin
Childish Self-mutilation Is not cherished, and valued
Abandoned Chances She'll be lost for good
Instead of a signature, there was a note which read "Sorry about the
doggerel, but it's expected."
At this point, there's a knock on her door. She opens it and finds Ranma
standing there with his right hand resting on the back of his head. "Sorry to
bother you, Nabiki, but Ran'neko thought there might be someone to play with
in your room."
"Another invisible spirit?"
"I don't know. Ran'neko's disappointed. Apparently it's already left. Sorry,
to interrupt your homework." Ranma turns to leave.
"Wait." Nabiki responds, louder than she'd intended. Calming, she asks "Could
it have looked like a squirrel?"
"No idea. Ran'neko didn't see it, just felt it enter your room by the window."
"What do you mean, felt it?"
"I don't know that either. Ran'neko may be always babbling, but he's not
really using words, if you know what I mean."
"A squirrel just delivered a message to me. Who would find a squirrel more
convenient than the mail or the phone?"
"Kuno likes to use methods like ninja and arrows to deliver messages..."
"True but as far as I know, trained squirrels are beyond them, and if Ran'neko
detected a spirit involved, then the squirrel wasn't just a trained animal."
"What'd the message say?"
"Now now, Ranma, you don't ask about a young lady's personal mail. But that
does remind me. Where's my father? If he has something to do with this, he's
in deep trouble!"
* * *
"I swear, Nabiki. I don't know anything about you having a twin."
"If I find out that you are hiding anything, even if it's for our own good,
you'll be in so much trouble, you'll be begging Happosai to take you on
another ten year training trip. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, and I
have methods you can't comprehend. I will succeed. You'd be better off
confessing everything, than let me find out the hard way. Falsified medical
records, lies, and vows of silence wont keep me from finding out the truth."
Soun is too scared to break into a crying fit. "I know nothing about anything
like that. I swear I've never heard of anything like that. Before you were
born, we had an ultrasound done to check for medical complications, and the
doctors told us that we'd have one daughter. I saw the pictures, there was
only one of you there. I may have passed out during the birth, but I remember
the ultrasound clearly!"
Nabiki nodded to herself. When her father started babbling like that, his
memory connected directly to his mouth, making it impossible to successfully
conceal anything. In the unlikely event that she had been born a twin, several
doctors would have had to be working in collusion, and kept everything from
her father. If the acorn-message wasn't a complete fabrication, then twin must
be a metaphor, or have some other meaning than the mundane idea than having
been born with another baby. Daddy's mention of an ultrasound even ruled out
the spirit of a stillborn twin.
Unfortunately, if 'twin' was a metaphor, then the number of possibilities
become huge. If the metaphor was stretched far enough, it could refer to any
of the 4 billion people on the planet. If you can call any man, your brother,
then a twin could be any person, regardless of gender. Adding in humanistic
spirits, and the number grows still farther.
Still, assuming that 'twin' was a strong metaphor, it might be possible to
guess who's meant, assuming I even know this twin. What do I know from the
haiku about my twin? She isn't cherished and valued, and she's either lost or
in danger of being lost. Perhaps she's the treasure mentioned in the first
haiku, but what do they mean by self-mutilation and abandoned chances?
Is Kyakuzumi being taken for granted? I'd better find her fast!
* * *
At that point Akane and Kyakuzumi were walking back to the Tendo home,
laughing uproariously. Akane finally says "I should have known it was
you. How'd you do it?"
"I told you I had an affinity for changing the color of things. I just made
parts of the blackboard chalk-white, and some of the pre-existing chalk-marks
blackboard-gray."
"So that's why Ikabiru-sensei couldn't erase it!"
At that point Nabiki rushed up. "Nabiki! You've got to hear what Kyakuzumi
pulled on Ikabiru-sensei in class! When he finished writing something on the
board, he turned around, and the whole class read what looked like he had
written on the board, but it read 'I'm called Ikabiru because I love kissing
squid!' He didn't know what happened until he turned around, and then he
couldn't erase it!"
Nabiki smiled and said "He always was a stick-in-the-mud. Just don't let on
that you know how it was done, Akane, or he'll try to punish you on general
principle."
Kyakuzumi added "He better not, or I'll make the back of his shirt a giant red
heart with a squid in the middle!"
"Cologne was right, It's best not to get the attention of bored spirits."
Nabiki commented, "And if you are the butt of their jokes, to try and take it
in good grace. What were you doing at school anyway?"
"Classrooms are great! No one's supposed to laugh, and everyone's bored out
of their minds. Including the teachers! The only drawback is trying to keep
from going wild, and just pulling one or two jokes at a time. That reminds
me. Today while you were changing for gym, and Sakura was picking up her
bloomers from the bottom of her locker, I thought of putting a big red heart
on the back of her panties, but I didn't because I didn't know how she'd take
it."
"Oh, that'd be perfect. Up until last year she was still wearing ones with
teddy-bears and other things printed on it. Now she's trying to wear more adult
clothes."
* * *
After showing Kyakuzumi the note, and relaying it's origins and her
"discussion" with her father, Nabiki asked Kyakuzumi her opinion. "Well,
you've already gotten mixed up in something that seems to target you
directly. If we knew who the twin was, we'd have a good grasp of whether it's
due to something in your past, or if it's due to the studies you're going
through right now."
Nabiki commented "'Twin' has to be a metaphor. For there to be a real twin of
me, would require a cover up by several physicians and nurses. Anything done on
that scale more than once would have lead to a scandal large enough that I
could easily uncover. So how do we figure out who they mean by a twin? If they
mean someone born on the same day as I, that limits our search to a mere
million people."
"If it's one of those million people, there's nearly as many people who are
qualified to solve it. The only reason you would be chosen in that case is if
you were the best qualified of those million, which is improbable, and
simultaneously the fact that you were born on the same day was vital, which is
improbable. We're talking vaguely possible, but extremely unlikely. Much less
than a million to one shot."
"So we need another meaning to the twin metaphor, or something to seriously
corroborate the first hypothesis before we waste time tracking down a million
people's birth records. Thank god, but what? What should we be looking for?"
"No clue. But we shouldn't be concentrating on just the 'twin'
reference. We're given alot of clues, 'twin' is just the one that looks
easiest to unravel. For the sake of argument, the haiku deal with two people,
okay? You, and your twin. Therefor everything in the haiku probably refers to
events that happened to one or both of you. If something in them referred to a
third person it should have been mentioned."
"Unless we include the author. 'Nabiki's twin' was referred to in the third
person, so we can assume the author wasn't the twin."
"Fair enough. Some of that could refer to the author, but the author isn't
explicitly mentioned, so it seems likely that he's either uninvolved in the
haiku, or slightly involved, so lets assume everything for now either refers to
you or your twin, and perhaps we can discern your relation to your twin."
"Ok, for starters, we know my twin is in imminent danger of being lost, and is
either unloved, or likely to become unloved. She obviously threw away
something of value, and in some way damaged herself, as I've never done
that. Abandoned chances could apply to either of us. This vaguely reminds me
of Kodachi, but it's like doing a puzzle where you think you know where a
piece belongs, but it doesn't quite fit."
"'Abandoned Chances' is too vague to be useful except as conformation.
Everyone abandons chances every time they make choices."
"There's no obvious time constraints. We don't need to act just because
something should be done. It'd be just as stupid to go out on a limb and act
blindly than to ignore it. I guess we keep our eyes open, and see if Cologne
has any suggestions?"
* * *
Cologne comments "You've ignored the most interesting part of the message. The
note on the bottom. Whoever wrote this can obviously write clearly, and is
asking for help, but then neglects to do so. Theoretically the author could
have written 'Sally Jones is lonely and considering suicide. Her number is
555-1212, call after 7 pm.' What reasons would you have to obfuscate a message
like this if you were the author?"
Nabiki answers "Well, the obvious answer is if I was afraid of interception, I
would write a message only the recipient would understand. This is unlikely
since, one, a kami-affected squirrel delivered it to me, and was unlikely to
be intercepted, and two, I don't understand a bloody word of it, which makes
the code idea ludicrous."
Kyakuzumi adds "I might do it to intentionally tease or confuse someone, but
if that were the case it would be safe to ignore it, and subsequent messages
would occur. By itself, it's just a surreal message. For it to be of any
importance, it either has to mean something, or distract us from something
else that's important. And since it prompts us to be more aware of our
circumstances, there are many better ways of distracting us."
Cologne adds "I was thinking that the message is some sort of teaching
method. An aid to interpreting what will shortly occur, but who's
interpretation will lead to a better understanding of reality than a simple
instruction would. The author wants the problem solved with Nabiki in some
mindset, either as a teaching method for Nabiki, or to better aid Nabiki's
twin, who seems likely to be in some distress in the future."
Nabiki realizes "Like a Zen koan, but dealing with an emotional interpersonal
situation, rather than the perception of existence, and the search for
enlightenment."
"Exactly. The poem is a coded message, but intended for the person you will
become while you work on the problem."
"So why send it to me? All the bizarre messages are usually addressed to
Ranma."
"Why not you? You've been making waves through our lessons. Whoever is meant
as your twin is obviously related to you in some manner. Ranma's no longer the
only Nerimite to have stuck their finger into the pot of mysteries and given
it a good stir. Barring myself and Happosai, who have long since achieved a
sort of status quo with the great beyond, you are the most obvious human
maverick who doesn't have a Jhusenkyo curse. Ranma still tops you in
weirdness, but you outstrip the rest of your school in non-insane
bizarreness. Consider for a moment, only you and Ranma have kami linked with
you and acting as guides. Ranma has Ran'neko, which serves him as a companion,
and a sort of shield-brother, and you have Kyakuzumi, who is more of a guide,
and a culture repository for dealing with life's mysteries. Like it or not,
you will live in interesting times."
* * *
The next day in class, Nabiki noticed a squirrel sitting on the outside of the
window on the window-ledge. When only Nabiki was looking at it, it held it's
paws to it's cheeks, pulled it's mouth open and made a face at her. The rest
of the class noticed Nabiki's agitation, and while she was being questioned by
the teacher, the squirrel scampered away.
Later that afternoon, Nabiki gathered Akane, Ukyou, Ranma and Kyakuzumi during
lunch, and told them what she saw. Ranma started laughing and ceased to be any
help. Akane asked "So what do you plan to do?"
"Examine any suspicious squirrels."
Ranma interjected "Like the one 2 meters behind you, wearing an acorn cap on
it's head?" They turned to regard the squirrel with the jaunty cap as it
examined them. Then in stead of leaping into the nearest tree, it proceeded to
walk across the lawn, stop, and look back at them.
Nabiki insisted "Ok, we follow that squirrel, and see where it leads us."
Ukyou commented "That's not an ordinary squirrel. Think it's another Jhusenkyo
victim?"
Kyakuzumi answered "Nope. I could detect Genma's curse. This is something
else."
The squirrel made it to the small forest behind the school, and still
refrained from jumping into the trees, but it sped up as its followers easily
kept its pace. Suddenly it vanished in mid leap. Nabiki thought she saw
something as it passed between two trees, but couldn't describe what it was.
"Now what?" Ukyou asked?
"We look on the other side of the trees." Nabiki said as she walked around
them.
Ranma walked right between them and promptly vanished. This startled his
fiancees into running after him, but they passed between the trees as if
everything were normal.
Kyakuzumi leaped through the trees, and vanished in mid-air, shortly to
reappear jumping out. "Come on, Nabiki, the squirrel went this way." She
pushed Nabiki through.
"But we couldn't go through!" Akane complained.
"Well I could try carrying you." Kyakuzumi picked Akane up in her arms, and
leaped between the trees.
To Akane's perspective, Kyakuzumi vanished, and Akane fell ignobly on her
bum. But despite repeated shouts from her an Ukyou, no one returned.
* * *
In Kyakuzumi's perspective, Akane vanished from her hands, and as she landed,
Nabiki shouted "The squirrel is going away! Follow it!" So Ranma, Nabiki, and
Kyakuzumi followed their guide, until finally they reached a path, where the
squirrel, obviously tired of it's activities, leaped into a tree, and vanished
into the foliage.
Ranma asked "Now what?"
Nabiki answered, "First things first, where are we?"
Ranma looked at her funny. "In the forest behind the school?"
"Nope, The forest there is all pine trees. These trees are all deciduous."
"What?"
"They have leaves instead of needles. Also there are no paths like this in
there that I know of."
Kyakuzumi piped in "We must have crossed over into the far-lands."
Nabiki announced "OK, time out. We're not going anywhere further until you
tell me about the far-lands!"
"Well, you humans give it all sorts of names like the spirit world, or the
dreamlands, but those are all more poetical than accurate. There are more
spirits than humans living here, and parts of the landscape impinges on
dreaming people, but it's an actual physical world, where most of the laws of
physics hold true. Except for geometry."
"What do you mean?"
"Like with those two trees we passed between. Going around them, and passing
between them, brought you to two different places. We're in an area where a
step forward, a step left, back, and then right might not bring you to the
starting location."
"So how do you keep from getting lost?"
"Make sure you can retrace your steps. Can either of you remember this place,
and how to get back to the crossing over part?"
Ranma nodded "I can. Pop made me train in a forest to scavenge, and to find my
way around."
Kyakuzumi announced "Good. So can I. Nabiki, you might have trouble
navigating, but we can get us out of this place. Do you want to go home?"
Nabiki thought for a bit. "I want to get to the bottom of this. If this isn't
some prank, then it's probably important. But why couldn't Akane and Ukyou
follow us?"
Kyakuzumi shrugs "They're normal people, they didn't have the preparation,
skill, or ability to pass through. All three of us have touched magic. Ranma
actually bathed in it once." Kyakuzumi grins, and then sticks her tongue out
at Ranma.
To Ranma and Nabiki's surprise, Ranma laughs at the taunt.
"OK, let's follow this trail.
* * *
After a while, the path winds in front of a small shack. It was a well kept
one story house, obviously both in great repair, and great age. By the low
wooden porch was a tree, with dozens of glass bottles hung from it. As they
approached, the bottles rattled and clanked together, although there wasn't
any wind.
An elderly lady, as tall as Nabiki, and with her white hair festooned with
colorful things braided into it, walked out the open door, and regarded
them. She seemed to find their group intrinsically funny, and asked "So what's
a stunted halfling, a possessed skin-walker, and an underage nixie doing out
here?"
Kyakuzumi objected "I'm a naiad, not a nixie!"
"Of course. I beg your pardon. But you must admit, you make the most unlikely
party I've seen in years."
Ranma asks "Am I the halfling or the skin-walker?"
This starts the woman into a huge belly-laugh. "You're the skin-walker, however
I seem to have been premature calling you possessed. It looks like the two of
you are time-sharing that body. Two spirits, two forms, one body. Such
irony. Boy, you're marked for either greatness or doom. No middle ground for
you."
Nabiki gets a wary expression "And I'm the stunted halfling? Are you
commenting on the species of my parents?"
"Not at all. You seem to be a fully human halfling. Perhaps some first people
blood generations ago, but nothing worth speaking of. I'm talking about the
face you wore before you wore a mask."
"I don't understand."
"No. I see you don't. All I will tell you is that you did yourself a mischief
a long time ago, and now you either have to set it right, or live the rest of
your life with the consequences. Well, you always have to live with the
consequences, but if you fail now, there's no way to undo this one."
"Are you the one who sent the squirrels?"
"I don't mess with the likes of them, and I never had any inkling of you three
before you showed up here."
"Then how do you know so much about us?"
"I've been called a fortune teller. It's all there to see."
Ranma asks "You mean like palm reading and looking at tea leaves."
"Yep. You don't actually need any of that fancy mumbo-jumbo. That's just to
focus and direct the mind, and to give rubes their money's worth."
"You said I did myself a `mischief' a long time ago? Would you refer to it as
`childish self-mutilation'?"
"I wouldn't, but there's them that would. If you're strong enough to bear the
pain, there's alot of good comes after it. Not everyone is strong enough."
Ranma asks "Why are you talking in riddles?"
The hint of a frown travels from her mouth to her eyes "Riddles? I never talk
in riddles. If you don't understand my answers, young man, it's because you
don't understand your questions. If you can't see yourself when I describe
you, it's because you haven't looked at yourself properly!"
Kyakuzumi adds "It's also because Ranma's not familiar with the vocabulary
you're using. His father tried to stunt his education, and all this is new to
him." Kyakuzumi turns to Ranma and adds "A skin-walker is someone who can
assume another form, but isn't a full-fledged polymorph. Someone who has a
restricted set of forms he can wear. Your curse qualifies you, but just
barely."
"Just barely, for now. True skin-walkers are in control of their form, and
change without some externally imposed spell. Even a curse woven so tightly
into you is still intrinsically external. Some day you might become a true
skin-walker, at which point the curse will cease to work, but I have no idea
how you might achieve this. I do know it's possible, though."
This revelation causes Ranma to pay less attention to the others, and more on
his internal thoughts. "A cure for the curse? The ability to change forms? To
be able to control the change? That'd be heaven in itself."
Meanwhile, Nabiki asked "So, what do you think we should do?"
"I think you need to follow the path further, and think about all of the
changes you've gone through growing up. I think you need to keep asking
questions, but I think you need to answer more of them than you are. My advice
might be good, or bad; you can't tell. You need to answer these questions
yourself. Now if you don't mind, these old bones want a rest. You young'uns
don't know what it's like to tire so rapidly."
Nabiki is pondering this when Kyakuzumi pipes up "Grandma, you'll be dancing
when our grandchildren come by here."
The old woman smiles at her and winks "You might be right." Suddenly she fades
away. Nothing in the area is stirring, except the bottle-wind-chimes have
started up again.
* * *
None of them felt like sticking around, so they continued on the path. Ranma
was the first to notice "When did the leaves turn colors?" For some reason,
the area they were proceeding looked like Autumn.
Kyakuzumi said "We just walked into another area that's in another season. As
far as I can tell, time is flowing at the usual rate. I can't judge the flow
precisely, but I can warn you before we enter an area where the time is
seriously screwed up. So don't worry about loosing centuries in here."
Nabiki looked alarmed "That can happen here?"
"Only much deeper in, and in areas of really high magic," She smiles and adds
"or in a black hole."
Ranma asks "So you know where we are?"
"Not a clue." Kyakuzumi said "I take that back, actually that's just what I
know. A clue. I've heard stories about this place, and I know what to look for
if I wanted to go straight home. But I've never been here before. We're not
far from home, although if we couldn't retrace our steps it'd take me a while
to find the way back, and I might come out some distance from where we
entered."
A few minutes later Nabiki asked "Kyakuzumi, how do you pronounce your
original name anyway?"
Kyakuzumi whistles her name, and Nabiki tries to repeat it. Kyakuzumi laughs
"Your pronunciation is good, but that's a horrible thing to say about your
sister."
Ranma asked Nabiki "Did you mean Akane or Kasumi?"
Nabiki looked shocked at Ranma, "You understood that?"
"Nope."
Nabiki barely resisted the urge to try to pummel Ranma.
* * *
They turn a bend in the path as the season changes back to spring, and see a
large man sitting in the crook of a tree. He is easily taller than Genma, and
wider, but doesn't give the impression of having the strength or skill. His
wildly growing mustache and beard merged with his long unkempt beard to lend
him the appearance of a bear who forgot to spruce himself up.
Beside him he had a jug stopped with a cork. He was singing at the top of his
lungs.
I love the forest, and the forest loves me
La la la la, la la la la la
I love drinking while up in a tree
La la la la, la la la la ...
A sad look appeared on his face "I always forget the next word."
Nabiki calls out "Is it 'La'?"
Joy dawns on the strange man. "That's it!" He jumps out of the tree, and limps
towards the party. "Thanks alot!"
Nabiki notices that he's wearing his left shoe on his right foot, and
vice-versa, and mentions it to him.
The large man sits down in the path, and removes the left shoe from his right
foot, and reveals he had a left foot at the end of his right leg, and a right
foot on the end of his left leg. Still he manages to switch shoes, making him
look normal, but making Nabiki wince at the thought of walking in shoes the
wrong way around. However when he got up, his limp was gone. "You're a smart
one! Why'd you come here?"
"We're looking for someone, but we don't know whom."
"I know what that's like, I often forget who I'm looking for also."
Ranma asked "What are you doing here?"
The huge man looked confused. "I don't know." He looked at Ranma "What should
I have been doing?"
Ranma answered, "I don't know."
At this, the big man grinned hugely "Neither do I! I guess it's all right
then!"
Nabiki began to get a bit testy "Do you know what we are looking for?"
"No! How many guesses do I get?"
"This isn't a game! We're looking for information!"
"I was gonna guess 'Informating', I was! No fair! Ask me another one."
Kyakuzumi asked before Nabiki's temper could explode, "Bo you have any advice
for us?"
"Yes!" He nodded vigorously. "Don't look back!"
"Why not?"
"You'll trip yourself!"
* * *
After more changes of scenery the trio left the forest, their way impeded by
a large lake. The path forked in a 'T' with nothing specifying which direction
they should take. Resting under a tree, with a fishing rod cast into the
lake. The man's age was indeterminate. He was extremely emaciated, and would
have stood around eight foot tall, had he bothered to get up.
Kyakuzumi walked up and stood a respectful distance, "Do you know where we're
going?"
"Anywhere you've a mind to. 'S alright by me."
"I mean do you know which path we should take?"
"Doesn't matter to me; shouldn't matter to you. Doesn't make much difference."
Nabiki demands "Do you know who we are?"
"The three fools trying to regain what the halfling threw away. She'll
probably just throw it away after she recovers it. So why bother?"
"Do you know what we're searching for?"
"You're searching for yourself, and because of your past mistakes you're
looking out here, rather than staying home like any sensible person. You're
not likely to succeed if you don't even know what to expect. And the
skin-walker won't help or hurt your quest, no matter how well he fights."
"You know so much, why don't you just tell us what we want to know?"
"Will it make you leave me alone?"
"Yes." Nabiki said exasperatedly.
"Take that track over there. You'll face 3 obstacles and 3 choices, and no way
to succeed without making 3 sacrifices. Only the halfling could hope to win
free, and you two others can't be much help beyond advice. Now I gave you the
advice you wanted. So leave me alone."
Nabiki and Ranma were about to object to their dismissal, when Kyakuzumi
pulled them back. "Nabiki, you agreed to go away. If you don't leave now, you
leave yourself wide open to retribution. Especially here you have to always
follow your promises, and no wiggling around it."
Nabiki and Ranma grumbled, but followed Kyakuzumi as she dragged the two
teenagers down the trail. The trail was flanked by a row on either side of
identical trees, and on one side the lake could be seen through the trees, and
on the other side was a dusty plain. But on passing an otherwise unremarkable
tree, the lake disappeared, and was replaced by a drop-off into a wooded
valley.
But on passing the last pair of trees, they found themselves exiting what
appeared behind them to be a forest, and before them was a rickety bridge
spanning a gorge, with a river flowing far underneath.
Sitting on one of the bridge's anchor posts was a crow, with a white pattern
on its breast. The Kanji could refer to the meanings 'number', 'strength',
'fate', 'law', or 'figures'.
Kyakuzumi said "I think that bridge will support me, and even if it doesn't, I
can discorporate, and follow you invisibly until we reach a source of
water. But I don't think it'll support either of you two."
Ranma adds "I think I can leap it, with a running jump, but it'll be a close
thing even for me. I couldn't make it carrying any weight."
Nabiki said "So this is the first obstacle, and you two can't help me except
by advice. If it were impossible, there wouldn't be much point, so there must
be some way to do it."
Ranma interrupts "That crow is more than just an animal. Ran'neko thinks it's
as bright as I am."
With some effort, Nabiki and Kyakuzumi managed to restrain themselves from
insulting Ranma's intelligence. Nabiki walked up to the bird, and asked "Can
you help me get across?"
The crow's head bobbed in what looked like it might have been a nod.
"Can you carry me across?"
The crow cocked its head and stared at her like she was an idiot, before
shaking its head.
"Ok, so it wasn't likely. For all I know you can grow to the size of a
plane. You can help me get across, but there's a reason you haven't done it
yet. Does it involve my companions?"
The crow shook its head in negation. Nabiki continued, "Are you holding out
for payment or reciprocity of some kind?"
The crow shook its head in negation. "You would help me if I asked?"
The crow nodded. "Is there a reason I wouldn't ask you to?"
The crow nodded. Nabiki turned back to her companions. "Any suggestions?"
Kyakuzumi said "If you agree to it, you don't have much choice if it means you
harm. But I don't think it does. My guess is that it is something unpleasant,
but not too dangerous, but I've no idea what it can do."
Nabiki turned back to the crow. "Is what you plan to do permanent or
irreversible?"
The crow shook its head to signal 'no'.
"Is it unpleasant?"
The crow cocked its head as if thinking, and then bobbed its head 'yes'.
Nabiki turned back "What options do we have besides giving up for now, or
accepting? Can we get across using another path?"
Kyakuzumi shook her head "Unlikely, If we knew where we were going we might be
able to find it by another path, but there might not even be another path. I
told you about how geography changes around here. Some creatures can create
their own paths, but that's beyond me."
Nabiki turned back to the crow "Can you make a new path or change the
geography around here?"
The crow shook negation.
After a quiet few moments, Nabiki decides "Ok, Go ahead."
The crow pulls its head back as if to signify come closer, and summons her to
the point where the crow could lean against Nabiki. Then with a wink to
Nabiki, it sticks its head, phantom-like, into her chest, and pulls out by the
hair, a little miniature Nabiki, who stands on the post with the crow, which
then takes off and flew away, leaving a slightly dizzy Nabiki to look at her
miniature.
Ranma walks up and squints at the mini-Nabiki and said "Now this is weird."
Nabiki comments "Ranma, get your nose away from my face. If I were six inches
tall, I wouldn't want to be stared at like that."
Ranma stands up, and looks at Nabiki "So what happened?"
Nabiki turned to mini-Nabiki "Do you know what happened?"
Mini-Nabiki shook her head 'no'.
"Can you talk?"
Mini-Nabiki shook her head 'no'.
"Do you know how we can get across this gorge?"
Mini-Nabiki nodded. She put out her palm face up, and with her fingers
indicated that they should walk across.
"Just walk across? One at a time?"
"But you can't be that much lighter, that other you is so tiny!"
Kyakuzumi grinned "Try lifting her."
"Now wait a YIP!" Ranma hefted the surprised Nabiki and said "She is lighter."
Nabiki bopped him on the head "Ask before you do that, you great ape."
They quickly decided on an order of crossing. Kyakuzumi would go first, since
she couldn't be hurt, merely inconvenienced. Mini-Nabiki would follow, since
Kyakuzumi's passage would guarantee her success. Nabiki next, with Ranma to
leap across last. While Nabiki's trip was precarious, they all made it across
safely.
From there they proceeded along with Mini-Nabiki standing on Nabiki's
shoulder, and holding onto her ear for balance, until Nabiki stopped,
suddenly, pale as a sheet.
"What's wrong, Nabiki"
"I was just thinking about how many more obstacles we'd have to face, and I
couldn't figure it out. I was about to count it out on my fingers. I can
balance large columns of numbers in my head, but all of a sudden, I can't!"
Nabiki was just about to panic further when she felt a tugging at her
hair. Turning quickly, her nose hit Mini-Nabiki, and knocked her from her
perch. Luckily Nabiki caught her, and stared at her until she realized.
"You're why I can't subtract?" Mini-Nabiki nodded.
Kyakuzumi commented "The crow said is wasn't permanent."
Nabiki tried to ram Mini-Nabiki into her chest until Mini-Nabiki gave her a
rather unpleasant pinch. This seemed to finally get through to Nabiki, who
realized that she was hurting Mini-Nabiki as well as herself, and getting
nowhere.
She also realized Ranma was beet-red, and facing away from her. Ranma couldn't
have seen more than a hint of her brassiere through the open neck of her shirt
where she was manhandling herself. But this made her realize she had lost her
composure in front of Ranma, and allowed him to see something unintended, no
matter how inconsequential it was to her. She tried to reign in her anxiety as
she readjusted her shirt.
"This isn't permanent, but I can't undo it."
Kyakuzumi nodded "Someone can undo it, but not here. If we can't get it fixed
on the way to our destination, we'll go on a search for someone who can."
* * *
After a while, they came to a swift river, with a willow tree on the near
bank. One of the branches of the tree reached way across the water, but it
bowed and dipped in the breeze. Seated on the branch near the trunk was
another crow. this one had the kanji meaning 'face', 'mask', or 'features' on
it's breast.
Once again, the river was leapable by Ranma, but only barely. Kyakuzumi could
simply discorporate, and reform on the far bank, but Nabiki would have to use
the branch.
Nabiki walked with Mini-Nabiki up to the crow, and asked "Can you put her back
into me?"
The crow shook negation. "Are you here to remove more from me?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative. "If I follow this path to the end, will we be able to recombine?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative. "Is there any for me to cross this river without you removing a part of me?
The crow shook negation. "What do you plan to remove?"
The crow puffed out it's breast, and began to preen the feathers there. "My
mask? You mean ... I don't think I can." Mini-Nabiki began to stroke Nabiki's
hair.
After a few seconds of staring off into space, Nabiki said "Do it."
Once again the crow winked at her, and plunged its head insubstantially
through Nabiki's shirt and chest, and pulled out another mini-Nabiki,
Identical to the first, before flying away, leaving the second Mini-Nabiki
standing on the branch.
The same crossing order was maintained, although the 2 Mini-Nabikis insisted
on crossing together.
As they proceeded from the far bank, with one Mini-Nabiki on each of Nabiki's
shoulders, Her face was in constant motion.
Ranma laughed "Why are you making faces?"
Nabiki looked sad and worried, but fortunately for Ranma did not start to
cry. "I can't help it. I'll be like this until I can get these two imps back
inside of me."
"Why? What did the second crow remove?"
"It took out the mask I wear." Nabiki paused "I didn't want to answer that
aloud. My-god, I'm saying everything!"
Kyakuzumi rushed to her and hugged her. "Relax! Relax. You don't have to say
everything that you think."
"But how can I stop!"
"Like I said, Relax. You were perfectly fine walking without talking a while
ago. You can do it again. Just stop thinking of having a conversation with
us. Pretend you were walking alone with your thoughts. No need to speak
aloud."
Nabiki calms down a little, but her face still conveys her anxiety, well
beyond any anxiety Ranma had ever seen on her face. Ranma was worried more
about Nabiki's sanity, and emotions than on any physical dangers on this
trip. One thing was sure, those Mini-Nabikis were important, and had to be
treated as important as people. If Nabiki lost one, there'd be hell to pay.
* * *
While Kyakuzumi was comforting Nabiki, they turned another bend, and found
their way blocked by a stream, with a dock, a rowboat, and another crow
standing on one of the pier's pylons. The sight of the crow clearly filled
Nabiki with terror, and it was only through the care and attention of
Kyakuzumi and the two Mini-Nabikis that Nabiki didn't run mindlessly away.
Ranma, who had been feeling more and more useless in helping the emoting
Nabiki took a stand between Nabiki and the crow "You aren't going to touch
Nabiki unless you can get passed me!"
To Nabiki's surprise this actually did comfort her somewhat, but the absurdity
of Ranma fighting a non-aggressive bird had everyone else looking to the
heavens in exasperation.
Upon realizing that everyone but Ranma reacted identically, they all
smiled. Except of course for Ranma, who didn't know what happened that was so
funny, and except for Nabiki, who lost her balance while laughing, and
holding her sides.
Ranma, who was used to Nabiki's semi-superior smirk, rushed over to her to
find out what was wrong, and was instrumental in keeping the Mini-Nabikis from
being accidentally injured by Nabiki.
When Nabiki recovered, she walked up the pier, and paled when she saw that
this crow's Kanji read 'say.'
Before doing anything else, they looked over the rowboat. Apparently
Kyakuzumi, Ranma, and the two Mini-Nabikis could get into the boat together
easily, but when Nabiki tried to enter it alone, it nearly sunk.
Nabiki felt like she was about to weep openly, but the tears wouldn't
come. Ranma had seen alot of girls going from happy to crying to happy, and
knew that this was often artifice on the girl's parts, but he never saw anyone
looking so miserable and still be unable to cry.
The fact that she wasn't weeping allowed Ranma some control over his
responses, but in some way Nabiki's expression scared him. If he felt like
Nabiki looked, he wasn't sure if there was anything he could do, but change
into a girl, and cry in private.
None the less, Nabiki walked up to the third crow, and asked "There is a way
to undo this?"
The crow bobbed its head affirmative.
"Then do it."
After the arrival of the third Mini-Nabiki, and the departure of the third
crow, it was determined that Nabiki could cross as long as the Mini-Nabikis
weren't in the boat, so Kyakuzumi ferried them across in two trips. First
Nabiki, then the trio of minis, and Ranma. This meant that the three
Minis were always watched over.
At this point, Nabiki was more worried about their safety than her own.
The removal of the third Mini-Nabiki left Nabiki completely dumb, furthermore
a little experimentation revealed that while she understood speech, she could
neither read nor write.
While this removed the danger of her babbling something she wanted to keep a
secret, this reduced her repertoire to hand gestures, and her emotive face
which was completely beyond her control.
Kyakuzumi was the first to mention "We've faced three obstacles, and Nabiki
has made three sacrifices. If the three choices were whether to have the crows
go ahead, we should be near the end."
But at that point, the three of them came to an unnatural cliff. The cliff was
made of chalk and crumbling slate, which made looking over the end dangerous,
and climbing it extremely risky even if they had the proper equipment. But
starting well back from the edge, there was a 'U' shaped trench with a quartz
bottom that provided a kind of slide to the bottom.
For the first time on this trip, they would not be able to retrace their path
beyond this point. Kyakuzumi took charge of the discussion, often glancing at
Nabiki for confirmation. "We can go on. We can retrace our steps and see if
the old lady can put Nabiki back together again, we can retreat completely and
see if Cologne can do anything, or we can strike out at random looking for
help.
"If we go on, can you get us back home?"
"Not by this route, and I don't know what we might run into, but yes, I can
get us back again. It might be tough, but unless this is some kind of bizarre
trap, I can do it. And a trap that bizarre makes no sense. Even if it were a
trap, we could try and win free."
"I'd go forward to find out who's behind all of this, but this doesn't seem to
be my fight. It's Nabiki they've been playing with."
"You're right." Kyakuzumi turns to Nabiki. "It's your decision."
Nabiki wanted everything back the way it was. She wanted to retreat, and be
alone. But she forced herself to weigh the odds of becoming normal taking any
of the four choices. She didn't know if the old woman or Cologne could cure
her, and they could always strike out on their own later on, so for now she'd
keep to the path, and hope for a cure at the end, and failing that look for a
cure from that point on.
Kyakuzumi was the first to go down, having the least worry of death by
impact. Her screams of delight ended with a call back that it was safe and
fun. The next one down was Ranma, carrying the three Mini-Nabikis, since if
something went wrong, he would be the most likely to pull of a physical
protective maneuver. Nabiki followed after a brief hesitation.
At the bottom of the slide there was a dried river bed, which headed into a
box canyon. As Nabiki derived emotional comfort knowing where the three minis
were at all times, the trio took turns, sitting on her shoulders with a third
in her arms.
Just after the canyon turned back into an autumn forest with a small road
running before them, three blurs flashed out of the trees. Nabiki was too
close to the action, but Ranma saw three crows with something on their chests
swoop down, grab a mini-Nabiki each, and zip into the forest.
Ranma immediately followed, but after a dozen steps, was within 3 feet of
snow, with more falling from the sky. After looking for some sign of the birds
or the minis, he walked back to the road and found Kyakuzumi comforting a
shell-shocked Nabiki.
"No sign of where they went. It's snowing over there."
"We've got to search for them!"
"They flew faster than I could run, even if there weren't any trees. Without
luck, or help, we aren't going to catch them until they want to be caught."
Nabiki's thoughts whorled "I've lost them. I'm stuck like this. Why did this
happen? Who did this to me." After a while, she began to recover. "This was
planned. Someone engineered this. They must be doing this for a reason. The
minis aren't lost for good, they're just being held hostage, or
something. Someone's bargaining for something. The answer is further on along
this path."
Having regained her composure, she made it clear with gestures, that they
wouldn't search the area, but would press on further. Kyakuzumi argued against
it, and Nabiki didn't want to leave, but she decided to push on anyway. She
had forgotten how much of her emotions were now readable even by a socially
inept person like Ranma, but it was also equally obvious that Nabiki meant to
see this thing through.
The next time the rode opened up into a clearing, the trees rose like redwoods
towering into the sky. Across the clearing there was the shape of a small girl
lying at the base of a tree, being tended to by the three
mini-Nabikis. Without any consideration of consequences, Nabiki ran to them,
as they ran to her.
But when she tried to sweep them up into her arms, they vanished into her. The
shock made her cry out an stumble. it was a combination shriek, and a victory
cheer. The first vocal sound she'd made since the rowboat. Her speech,
self-control, and voice were back, and she felt faint with relief.
It took the three of them some time to convince themselves that Nabiki was
alright before they looked at the small girl.
It wasn't a young girl at all, but another miniature Nabiki. But this one was
two feet tall. And unlike the other minis, which wore clothes identical to
Nabiki's this Mini was wearing what looked like a young girl's night clothes.
In addition, this Mini-Nabiki showed signs of tears, emotional exhaustion,
malnourishment, and most alarmingly, badly healed scars on her arms and legs.
"Where'd she come from?" Ranma asked.
"This is the twin we were looking for. My twin."
"What do we do, now that we've found her?"
Kyakuzumi quotes "If Nabiki's twin/Is not cherished, and valued/She'll be lost
for good."
Nabiki wondered what to do next. Was she like the other mini-Nabikis, somehow
split off from her. She had no recollection of having lost any part of
herself. She had no feeling of emptiness or loss like she had felt with the
other parts of her. If the outfit she was wearing was any indication, it had
happened a long time ago. While not quite as bad as a toddler's jumpsuit, it
was obviously something only a young girl might wear. She didn't remember ever
having an outfit like that, but she might have. In spite of the garment, the
body was the same as hers, although reduced substantially in size. The scars
were also something she could never remember having.
If this was like the minis, then incorporating it would change her, and in
ways she couldn't predict. She was fine as she was, and wasn't fool enough to
accept something without even knowing what it was. She wasn't in any position
to answer questions. So deep asleep that the ministrations didn't wake her,
and with such signs of misery that she might have cried herself to sleep. She
was obviously in need of a week's food and rest at least.
If she didn't incorporate her, what would she do then? Bring a midget version
of herself home? What kind of life would I have if I were two feet tall. The
words 'She'll be lost for good' went through her head. Maybe food and rest
wouldn't be enough. There aren't any miniature clones running about, she might
need more than food and rest to survive. Is she a stranger? Family? Part of
myself? She's at least family, I can't let her die. I've made sacrifices for
Akane, and Kasumi, I can make them for her.
With that thought, Nabiki tried to pull the smaller Nabiki into herself, but
she was left holding a very physically substantial version of
herself. Disappointed, and somewhat relieved, she laid her double down.
"Now what?" Ranma asked.
"We found what we came for, now we have to figure out what it is we're dealing
with."
Kyakuzumi stated "Treasure Discarded, Abandoned Chances. Something you didn't
know the value of. You may not even know its value now, but if the haiku are
to be believed, then she's valuable to you even if you don't realize it."
"Well I tried to pull her into me like the other minis, and it didn't work."
Ranma asked "Is she important to you?"
Nabiki's anger rose "She's family! I'd never abandon family!"
"Akane and Kasumi are family too, but you wouldn't want to merge with
them. I'm not talking about abandoning her here, I wanna know if she's
important to you?"
"I don't know."
"You can still lose her forever, whether you want to or not. How would you
feel if she just faded away?" Kyakuzumi asked.
At the thought of losing her, Nabiki was surprised to feel both anxiety and
relief. She wasn't expecting relief. Why relief. It suddenly hit her, she was
scared. She was willing to go through with the merging for her family, but
left to her own devices, she'd gladly abandon this.
But this might have once been part of her. Losing her would be like losing an
arm. Perhaps she wouldn't miss it after it was gone, but she'd be lessened by
its loss. For the first time she made a logical connection between the
miniature body she was holding, and the idea of it being a treasure. She
didn't know how to value it, but if she didn't treat it as something of value,
she might lose it again forever. That might be why she lost it in the first
place.
She represented future chances. In much the same way as money did. Money by
itself was valueless, it was the possibilities that it brought that gave it
value. So now she could give it a value, and it was quite high indeed. A
unique artifact. But that wasn't cherishing at all.
"I don't know you at all, but I'd like to learn to love you." To Nabiki's
surprise, the words seemed to act like a trigger, and the girl just melted
into Nabiki like the other mini's had done. Nabiki's expression turned to
shock and pain. Then she screamed out "Mommie!" before collapsing into
Kyakuzumi's arms, and weeping for the first time in years.
Author's note:
Originally I had intended the twin to have a role to play. My notes on the
subject read "Childish. In pain. Emotive" The three crows were going to remove
something from the following list {gem, feather, flower, bird, snake} and the
impetuous for the journey would have appeared at the beginning of the chapter,
instead of being left to next chapter or being removed from the story in it's
entirety.
The full nature of what happened will be explained more in the next chapter
which will deal with the return to home.
The three choices that Nabiki had to make were
1) Take the slide, and lose their way out.
2) Follow the road instead of hunting for the 3 kidnapped minis
3) To accept or reject the fourth miniature.
I've been rightly criticized that I have a tendency to avoid showing how
people feel instead of telling it. I tried to make this a story about emotions,
and not a running conversation. I hope it succeeded.
By the way, I have no set plans for their route back home. I've a pile of
ideas, but nothing has jelled yet. They will meet more natives that can
actually speak. It might be centered more around Ranma and Kyakuzumi, as
Nabiki isn't in top shape.
The section above the title of the story is an unrelated joke.
Author's Note, Take 2:
I finished writing this 3 days ago. I'd have posted it if I could think of a
title.
I've tried:
What lies over the horizon is more appealing than what we have
It just didn't get up and walk away.
Crushed diamonds
Carry on, my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary
head to rest, don't you cry no more
A house divided against itself cannot stand