Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Three: Double Crossed Signals
It was not uncommon for Ranma's mind to rapidly rehash events, whenever an opponent managed to out maneuver him. Akane had dragged him into the panty fight with Copy-chan. Akane had pounded him one time too many in the kitchen, sending him up to the roof where he got into another battle with the clones. Akane had jumped into the middle of his fight and caused him to act in haste, falling into Copy-kun's trap. Having been sucked into the mirror trap several times before, he was already prepared for the ambient light of the crystal faceted chamber. It was no more disorienting than stepping inside the house after an evening workout. Save for several things. What he had just left was more than just a work out. His final challenge to separate the mirror clones had ended disastrously. Thanks to that, he was barreling headlong into…
*Splash!*
"Hotcha! I knew you wouldn't leave your dear old master alone for too long!" the shriveled old man crowed as he dumped the contents of a water bottle on the arriving martial artist.
"Oh man! I really don't need this!" Ranma-chan wailed, kicking herself into overdrive to dodge the pervert's relentless glomp attack. Armed with a wealth of lingerie and his favorite "student", the old man could not contain his glee.
"Oh, Ranma-chan! Let me help you try on these silky darlings!"
In spite of her terror, Ranma-chan turned part of her mind to wondering how much worse things outside must have turned. With her out of the way, there was no one left in the house who could stop his twins from… It did not bear thinking on.
On the other side of the mirror, Copy-kun came to a graceful landing, snapping the compact closed. Straightening up, head slightly bowed to hide a smirk of victory, he held up and clenched his fist. "Got him!" The rest of the household looked on as a pillar of chi spiraled around him in a halo of illumination. Naturally, this display put no one at ease. In the heat of combat, it had been impossible to keep track of which Ranma was which. As Genma attempted to douse the boy, Copy-kun jumped up, catching the bucket with his knee and spilling its contents over the panda-man. "What do you think you're doin'?"
"Take a wild guess!" Akane shouted, picking up the garden hose and aiming at "Ranma-kun" as Nabiki helpfully turned on the faucet. The boy danced away from the sudden stream, allowing Copy-chan to take the first blast in the face.
"Hey! What didja do THAT for!?"
"Quit tryin' to turn me into a girl!"
"Quit hopping around and take it like a man!" Nabiki groused.
Ranma-kun ignored that comment, managing to evade the stream until he was able to land on the hose, cutting off the flow with his foot. "I'm serious! I ain't goin' to bed all soakin' wet!"
"Won't be the first time," Akane pointed out, shaking the hose to squirt the last of the water on him. He twisted artfully to evade the splash. "I'm not going to bed until I know which of you is in there!" she pointed at the compact.
"And give HER the opportunity let him out in the confusion?" he challenged, pointing to Copy-chan. It was an obvious point. Once "Ranma" was changed, there would be little way to tell "her" from an equally soaked Copy-chan. The clones had been given ample opportunity to converse, so he had already heard how masterfully she had exploited her resemblance to sow confusion. He did not want to resort to his final option if Akane called his bluff. Fortunately, he was not playing cards. Sagging a little, he confessed, "I really don't wanna go through all of that again. Can't we just call it a night?"
"Besides," Nabiki put in thoughtfully, "if he IS the wrong Ranma, we'd have to let Happosai out to get the real one back."
"Good point," Akane muttered. She dropped the end of the hose and nodded to her sister to turn off the faucet. There was more than one way to see if "Ranma-kun" was a counterfeit. "Go put this love bird to bed, and we'll clean up the mess," she clapped a hand on Copy-chan's shoulder.
Nabiki quirked an eyebrow. It was not hard to guess what her little sister was thinking. The real Ranma would march the copy up to bed and go to his own room. The fake, if it was he, would have to decide between revealing himself or acting like the real Ranma. I am going to have to keep an eye on her, if she can come up with something this devious, Nabiki thought.
Copy-chan gazed at Ranma-kun suspiciously, as he approached to escort her away. During the battle, the extent of her coordination with her confederate was him announcing he had a plan and her agreeing to back it up. She thought she had kept track of which boy was which. Now she was not so sure. Either way, her best option was to go along with this Ranma until she had a chance to determine who he was, and thus, what her next move should be.
"I'm takin' you to Akane's room. Are you gonna to give me any trouble?"
"Are you gonna let him out of that thing?"
"Please, Son! Don't let the Master out!" Soun wailed, kneeling before Ranma-kun and pulling on his shirt.
"I dunno. Can't let them starve in there. Guess I haveta let 'em out in the morning, if they haven't killed each other by then," the boy rubbed the back of his head. He shrugged. "If you behave tonight, I'll let them out in the morning," he promised offhandedly.
For a moment, the thought of ANYONE trapped in a confined space with Happosai hung grimly over everyone's heads. Akane itched to douse the boy, just to make sure the worst had not happened. While she debated, Copy-chan had nodded in agreement with the boy's conditions and followed him meekly upstairs. After helping put things in order, a quick task since there had been no real property damage for once, Akane made a detour through the kitchen on her way to bed. As she came upstairs, with a glass of water in her hand, Copy-chan was dragging Ranma's futon into Akane's room, looking dejected. Akane peeked into the guest room and saw Ranma laying out a blanket on the hard floor. She went in to "talk" to him. As she entered the room, Nabiki stepped out from beside the door and snatched the glass from her hands.
"Nabiki!"
The middle sister casually gulped the contents of the glass and handed it back to her. "Thanks, Akane!" she stepped out into the hall and jerked her head for Akane to follow her to her room. Closing the door after her little sister, Nabiki caught her with a stern look, "I know what you're thinking. I think it's a set up too, but as long as they think we believe them, they have to play their parts. It's a shame if we're right, but Ranma can take care of himself for one night. It's a small price if it allows us to sleep peacefully tonight."
"If there was room to run in there, I might not be worried…"
"He was a boy when he went in," Nabiki assured her sister. "Happosai might drive poor Ranma crazy, but he certainly can't molest him. He will be huddled up in his collection, staying as far away from the boy as possible. Probably."
"I suppose you're right," Akane sagged and returned to her room. She noticed the red-head was already sprawled on the futon, fast asleep. Slipping into bed, she quickly resolved to fake sleep and keep an eye on the girl. It did not matter if the other Ranma was real or not. SHE was still trouble.
In a short time, a peaceful quiet descended on the Tendo Dojo. Genma and Soun quickly faded to sleep, followed shortly by Kasumi and Nabiki. Akane held out for a couple of endless hours. Ranma slipped away from her door on silent bare feet as the sound of Akane tossing and turning became evident. Slipping out the guest room window, and over the roof, he was soon at Akane's window. He was surprised to find it locked, but shrugged and pressed his hand to the window. Summoning up his confidence, he allowed his aura to flare up, watching as some of it materialized inside the glass. He sharpened his concentration, until the energy inside the room shaped itself into a tiny ball. The almost harmless, mini-mokotakabisha sped away from the window and slammed into the girl on the futon. Rather than blasting her out of bed, it passed harmlessly into her, causing her own aura to flare up with a shock.
Jumpstarted into consciousness, the girl sat up like a bolt and stared out the window. A second ball of light shot at her from the window, and her hand rose unconsciously to catch it. It dissipated on contact as if were a ball she had summoned and tossed from one hand to the other. Again, her aura flared around her, infused with the energy of her "other half."
Copy-chan smirked in wonder, then stood and crossed silently to the window. With great caution, she eased the glass open and swung herself out into the arms of her beloved. Her quick impulsive kiss brushed across his lips, and the two padded over the roof. Dropping down into the yard, they found a shadow behind the training hall and slipped into each other's arms. She licked her lips, savoring the first kiss they had managed since they had been broken apart on the train. Looking up into Copy-kun's eyes, in heated anticipation of another, she noticed that strange resistance had suddenly sprung up between them again. The same look of frustration crossed their faces, as they leaned in with determination. The mixed emotions fed into their auras, causing them to clash with a palpable resistance.
"What is going on?" the boy frowned and pulled back.
"I don't understand. Why are you pushing me away?"
"I'm not!"
The moon was high and almost full in the skies of Nerima. The eternally lost boy was grateful for the light, since he was forced to walk through the night to make up for that detour in Osaka. He was fairly certain he had wandered into Kyoto, as he paused to reorient himself once more for Tokyo. Glancing up at the sky, fixing on an arbitrary grouping of stars, he pumped his fist into his palm with assurance. Without a doubt, that way led to Nerima! As he raced the other way down the street, following a disturbingly familiar wall, he stumbled through a powerful, and familiar aura.
"Ano! That was Ranma! I am sure of it!" he screeched to a halt. "I wonder what he's doing in Kyoto?" He puzzled that imponderable for a moment before grinning, "This is my chance to pay him back without anyone around to interfere!" Thinking back to that horrifying scene a few days ago, a sickly green and purple aura pulsed around him. There he had been, sitting on a bench awaiting his date with Akari, when that perverted transsexual had jumped on him and kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Even when his nemesis had been under the influence of the koi fishing rod, he had not managed to disgrace Ryouga so! "This time, I really AM going to kill him for the hell he has put me through!"
Unfortunately, his quarry was not exactly in sight. Ryouga tried to compose himself as he slipped carefully up the wall. He did not dare attack until he had Ranma in his sights. As he cleared the top of the wall, he remembered the lame excuse Ranma had come up with to explain his actions. The very notion of a cursed mirror that spat out perverted copies of who ever looked into it was ludicrous. If that was true, he criticized, peering down from the top of the wall, why had Ryouga not seen Ranma and this alleged duplicate together, like he was seeing now? Even if such nonsense were true, knowing Ranma, he would have been hiding behind the bushes molesting his female half like the two Ranma's before him. No chance that pervert would let such a cute girl have a chance at Ryouga!
As his eyes narrowed in on the boy in that embrace, targeting the lethal bandannas whirling in his right hand, he suddenly felt a twinge of recognition. "You sick, perverted bastard! Cheating on Akane with YOURSELF!!? PREPARE TO DIE!!!" Ryouga hurtled forward, in the wake of the iron cloth shuriken, readying his umbrella in his other hand.
Too shocked to prepare for the attack, the couple was only saved by the force of their strange repulsion throwing them away from each other the instant they were distracted from trying to overcome it. The rigid bandannas embedded themselves in the outer wall of the training hall, as the couple rolled to their feet on either side.
"What didja do THAT for?" they shouted in unison.
"Shut up! It's time for you to die!"
"Uh… who?" the boy asked, shocked by this intrusion.
"What do you mean, 'Who?'"
"Who do you mean, 'Die'?" the boy pointed between himself and Copy-chan.
"Don't I know you from somewhere?" the girl asked timidly.
"Who is he?" the boy asked, frowning.
This actually stopped Ryouga for a second. Gaping in sheer disbelief he roared, "What is this!? Have you been playing with Shampoo's shampoo? I've been through hell because of you! Both of you!"
Copy-chan stiffened at this, "You're that guy I kissed! Geez, I'm not THAT bad!"
"YOU KISSED HER!? And you're COMPLAININ' about it?" the boy slid into an aggressive stance. "Oh, that does it. You've gotta die!"
"Bring it on, little girl!" Ryouga matched him.
"You asked for it," Copy-chan fumed, catching him off guard with a roundhouse kick to the jaw. Ryouga staggered back a hair and glared at her.
"I was talkin' to him!"
"Who are you calling a girl!" Copy-kun lashed out with a series of lightening kicks and punches. The first barrage slipped through the lost boy's guard, forcing him back a step. "Man, you're tough!" Copy-kun noted in surprise. Even Ranma would have tried to evade those blows, but the stranger just blocked them cold.
"You really have forgotten me, haven't you, Ranma?" Ryouga looked vaguely surprised. "Not that it matters, I am still going to kill you!"
"I don't know what your problem is, bandanna boy, but you picked the wrong couple to mess with!" Copy-kun warned. Copy-chan nodded in agreement. Without a word, the couple slipped into a devastating, coordinated attack. In an instant, Ryouga found himself at the center of a whirlwind of unstoppable blows. Even with his incredible toughness, he was feeling the blows raining down upon him. He had not counted on a copy of Ranma being as good as Ranma. He closed his guard and waited for an opening, a cloud of gloom settling around him as he realized the folly of his assault. Finally, an opening presented itself.
"SHISHIHOKODAN!" he roared, releasing a massive chi-blast into Copy-chan's midsection. She flew back and became imbedded in the wall surrounding the compound with a resounding boom.
The noise roused everyone from their beds. Akane sat bolt upright and noticed at once that Copy-chan's futon was unoccupied. She raced to the window and threw it open. The distant sound of fighting revealed that the commotion was taking place around at the front of the house, by the training hall. Racing out her door, she almost collided with her sisters in the hallway. Dodging past them, she flew down the stairs and out the front door, followed at a distance by her family and Genma.
In the yard, she saw Ranma and Ryouga whirling around each other as Copy-chan limped towards them with murder in her eyes. Before Akane could do anything, Ryouga continued in his derisive rant.
"I can't believe you'd do THAT with a copy of yourself!" Ryouga sneered. "It's bad enough that you always cheat on Akane, but doin' it with yourself!? You make me sick!"
"Who are you to judge m…" Copy-kun collapsed under the concussion of Akane's mallet.
"RAAANMAAAAA! I can't BELIEVE you!" Akane was pissed. At last, Ranma had shown his true stripes, getting rid of the male copy and molesting the female copy himself! It did not even occur to her that Ryouga could not know there was now a male copy of Ranma. Copy-kun barely managed to twitch out of the way as she reared back and brought the hammer down again.
Before Ryouga could take advantage of this interruption, Copy-chan stopped an arm's length behind him and thrust forward with an expanding ball of energy. The devastating chi attack was released as her palms hit him in the middle of his back, "MOKOTAKABISHA!"
Ryouga flew to the opposite end of the compound, his body making an impression similar to the one Copy-chan had climbed out of on the other side of the front yard. Copy-chan raced after him, charging up for another blast, as Copy-kun lurched off in the same direction to escape from Akane's wrath.
"You can't run away, Ranma!" she raced after the couple, determined to help Ryouga fulfill his oft-repeated pledge. Ryouga, peeling himself out of the wall, took one look at the oncoming traffic and bolted down the side yard. As he barreled forward, he spotted the moon reflected in the koi-pond and skidded to a halt. Akane was right behind him. There was no way he could safely pass that water in a combat situation. Turning around, he raced into the teeth of the clones' combined attacks. The couple was so surprised at his sudden charge that they barely managed to dodge his lunging thrust. The umbrella's tip caught at Copy-kun's shirt and ripped the front open. A small, flat, oval object flew out of the torn garment to land at Akane's feet.
"Hey! That was my favorite shirt! That was my ONLY shirt!"
"What is it with you and your shirts!? Pay attention to the fight, sissy!"
Akane threw herself into a flip, to avoid stepping on the mirror, recognizing it instantly for what it was. Carefully, she turned and crouched to pick it up. Behind her, as she had turned her back to retrieve the fragile mirror, the fighting slowly advanced upon the pond. In spite of his best efforts, the couple was hemming Ryouga in, forcing him back to the waters of doom. With each step, his panic grew. Akane was hardly paying attention as she turned the trap over in her hands suspiciously. She flipped it open, and bit her lip.
From behind her there was a loud splash.
Akane turned and looked, seeing both boy-type Ranma and girl-type Ranma regaining their feet in the pond, and turning to peer for their opponent in the dark depths of the pond.
"I knew it!" Akane cried, quickly patting on the back of the mirror.
"Gyaaaah! Keepawaykeepawaykeepaway!" Ranma-chan was screaming as she plopped onto the grass, followed by Happosai. The girl had rebounded and taken flight before the old man could land on her bare back. Her tattered clothing streamed around her like so much tangled thread clutched tight to her private regions with white knuckled fists.
"You can't dodge forever, Ranma-chan! Just try on one set! Please!"
"Don't TOUCH me! Try one more time and I'll kill you!"
Akane stood there in horror, helpless as she envisioned the last few hours of Ranma trapped alone with Happosai. "Wh… where did he get cold water in there?" she asked in shocked disbelief.
The clones stepped up beside her, holding a struggling, familiar black pig in a combined grip. "We threw in some food and bottled water when we trapped the old man in there," the boy commented idly.
"Hey! What are you doing with P-chan!?"
"Huh? Dunno, the little bugger was swimming in the pond."
"Where's Ryouga?" The little pig froze in horror at Akane's question.
"Who?"
"The boy you two were fighting."
"Oh, him. Apparently he fled in terror from our superior skill, while we were trying to get out of the pond." The little pig fumed, and began scratching and biting at the couple.
"Oh, here. Give him to me. He hates Ranma, so of course he doesn't like to be held by either of you," Akane reached over and took the piglet into her arms. Though shaking in rage, P-chan gradually relaxed into her grip, a funny look in his eyes.
Ranma came around the opposite corner of the house, having run a complete lap through the yard. "Excuse me," Copy-chan said, picking the mirror from Akane's grasp and hefting a bundle under her other arm. As Ranma-chan whizzed by, Copy-chan held out the bag of lingerie, food and water, in one hand, pulling the front of her shirt open with the other. "Hey! Old man! Look at what I have for you!"
"Sweetie-pie honey-pot!" Happosai swerved, coming in for a landing on Copy-chan's chest. At the last minute, she let the cloth fall away from her right hand, revealing the open mirror and Happosai's startled expression. "Drat! Not again…" Still, as his body was sucked once more into the mirror, his outstretched hand closed on the bag of loot and dragged it in with him.
"It's almost not fair," Copy-kun sighed.
Ranma-chan, rising up from where she had cowered behind him, thumped him on the head. "I have seen hell because of you!"
"Oh please! Don't start. I've already heard it!"
"But you haven't heard the end of it!"
Akane cleared her throat. While the clones turned to look at her, Ranma snagged the mirror from Copy-chan's grasp. The two girls glared at each other for a moment, and then Copy-kun draped the remains of his shirt over Ranma's shoulders.
"Sorry, it's kind of torn up. Still, it's in better shape than what you were… er… wearing." Ranma-chan looked at him in surprise as he stepped carefully away from her. As her look turned suspicious, he broke down and confessed, "I… er… um… I forgot that he had water in there."
In a sense, it was an apology, and remained unexpected. Akane gave them all a funny look, shook her head, and went back into the house. The trio stood baffled, wondering what she had been about to say. Shrugging, the couple turned to Ranma-chan as she cleared her own throat. Holding up the compact, she prepared herself for the next battle with resignation.
"Now. Once again, while I appreciate you getting Happosai off my back, there remains the problem of both of you."
"You wouldn't put us in there with HIM, would you?"
"If YOU had a curse, I'd be tempted," she glared at the boy.
"I said I was sorry!"
"No you didn't. But that's not the point. Are you gonna follow the rules, or are you gonna force me to make more threats?"
The two sulked, and Ranma-chan sighed, opening up the mirror. They stopped her just as she was about to pat it on the back.
"What do you think you are doing!?"
"I can't put one of you in there with him, so I gotta let him out first."
"You're serious about putting one of us in there?"
"I can't let you two cause any more problems for me."
"Then you might as well put both of us in there," they sighed.
Ranma-chan looked at them in disbelief. She opened her mouth to explain that was hardly a solution when she suddenly deflated. Turning to reenter the house, she surrendered. "If that's all that matters to you then fine. Sleep in the dojo. Have a blast." She stopped at the door and bowed her head. "I never liked people tellin' me what I have to do. I guess I think you are both a part of me, and that I have an obligation to control you, 'cuz a martial artist has to have self control." Her hand went to the doorjamb. "I don't really know what you are, but you're both made from me, by the same spirit. If you ask me, it don't seem like you've really found someone ELSE to love. It's just… wrong." With that, she slipped inside in a cloud of dejection.
The couple stared after her, disturbed by her parting comments.