Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections

A. V. Morgan

Part Twelve: The Mirror of Broken Souls

Under the deep, dark blue of a Tokyo night, the ward of Nerima sprawled like a patchwork quilt stitched together by tiny knots of light. The shrunken form of the Amazon Matriarch attested to the price she had paid to conserve the vitality of her limbs and the keenness of her senses through the onslaught of centuries. Thus, she felt no apprehension bounding across the skyline through the treacherous darkness, in her race to the Tendo Dojo. After promising her great-granddaughter that she would investigate immediately, she had paused only to return to her room and put away the sacred texts and dangerous artifacts by which she tended her tangled web. Through the long months she had chaperoned her heir in her pursuit of Ranma Saotome, she had kept her true interest in the cursed boy a secret. It would not do to leave clues, however obscure, where either of her young charges might stumble across them. It would be enough for them to learn of her thoughts only after she had verified her suspicions or established them as false. If what Shampoo had reported was true, she might know the answer sooner than she had anticipated.

It all came down to finding a situation that forced young Saotome to yield to his female condition and unlock the part of his psyche that his father had beaten into submission. After the Cat's Tongue incident, Cologne had realized that Saotome could not be forced to embrace femininity, and the Chisuiiton incident had only underscored this. No, as long as there was a hope for his male mind to cling to, the boy would resist the very thought of being a girl. For fear of what might happen if there was no hope in such a situation, Cologne had not attempted to do what she now feared had been done.

            Oh, she would gladly shatter his masculine psyche. The trick was finding a way to do it that would not spur him to suicide. Or cause his foolish mother to demand his sacrifice to preserve the honor of his honorless family. What curse lay upon that family that their devotion to honor only manifested in self-destructive forms? Why did they not respect that honor enough to avoid such stupid, wasteful situations.

            "Ah, but if their honor was sound and sane, I could not have manipulated this situation to my own ends. And who am I so speak of honor when I use my own, dear Shampoo as my cat's paw?" Cologne chided herself as the dojo came into view. From the light spilling from the windows, it was clear that the inhabitants were awake yet. Making her way around to the guest room window, she perched in the eves and began to spy on Genma and his son. Cologne sighed. With all they had invested in the boy, there was no question that they would go to any expense to preserve his masculine image. Instant Nannichaun would have the same effects on a victim of a locked curse that it would have on a normal person, enduring until the subject was exposed to hot water. An unlocked curse would reverse the instant version at the application of hot or cold water. Combined with Waterproof Soap, and Ranma would remain man enough to fulfill their demands of him.

            From the looks on their faces, she had arrived in the wake of some bitter argument, or unpleasant lecture. The boy looked suspicious and defiant, while Genma was stern with patriarchal anger.

            "Whatever the circumstances, you are my son, Boy. The closest I have to a true son now, and I am obligated to remind you that you owe everything you possess, ultimately, to me," Genma broke the silence.

            "You're just tryin' to get out of that stupid agreement!" the boy accused. "This is an unforgivable thing to do to your own son, just to save your own worthless hide, and I won't go along with it!"

            "Don't talk back to me, Boy! Are you forgetting that your 'life' would end at the end of the week if I did not offer you this chance!?"

            "Damn you! I can't forget! But if the choice is between ceasin' to exist and sacrificin' my own honor to survive, it really isn't a choice. Forcin' me on Akane, and goin' through with this stupid marriage is even worse! Did you even think about how she'd feel about this plan?"

            "How she feels does not matter. It is her duty, as it is yours."

            Cologne narrowed her eyes. She had suspected the boy cared for the Tendo girl, but she would have put it past him to show this much concern for her feelings. Things were definitely coming to a head! She stiffened suddenly as she felt two well-concealed presences approaching over the roof. She pressed her tiny form deeper into the shadow of the eves, bracing herself between two of the exposed beams as the couple paused on the edge above her. There was a whispered argument between them, that voiceless hissing that obscured all identifying traits.

            "You already know what they're talkin' about. Why even bother spyin'?"

            "Who says I'm not here to just kill that mangy bastard!?"

            "Can I help?"

            "Get in line," the speaker leaned over the gutter, anchoring her feet and allowed herself to dangle outside the window. She was joined almost immediately by her partner. As the light spilling from the window caught their faces, Cologne almost dropped out of the shadows in shock. There was no mistaking the distinctive features of onna-Ranma, but even with Cologne's incredible depth of experience, there were few possible explanations for there to be two of her in the same place at the same time. None of which could explain how she—they—could be spying on a third of their ilk through the window. The matriarch's eyes narrowed. It had been many generations since she had been as thoroughly shocked as this.

            "It looks like he's thinking of killing him for us," the first onna-Ranma commented after a second.

            The other girl laughed softly. "Did you ever imagine you'd get the chance to watch yourself kill your old man?"

            "Don't laugh. I've never been this angry at him. After everything he's done, this is the one thing I can't forgive," the girl growled dangerously. Inside the two forms had sprung into action. "Dammit! If he kills Pops before I teach him a lesson, I'm gonna wring his neck!"

            Cologne watched the other girl grab the first and restrain her.

            "He won't. He only angry, not homicidal, like you! If you go in there, Kasumi will be up all night mopping blood out of the guest room," she tried to sound reasonable. The other girl shook with rage but subsided.

            "I should have known, the minute he stepped out of the mirror, that my old man would come up with this!" she snarled after a moment.

            Cologne's eyes grew even wider. She squinched them shut for fear they would drop right out of her skull and splat into the upside-down girls' faces. There was only one mirror she knew of with the power to clone human beings. As far as she knew, it had been lost at sea over a thousand years ago. By whatever perverse luck the Mirror of Broken Souls might have been recovered from the depths of the ocean, its powers should at least still have been sealed! Trust Ranma to find it and break the seal! This was by far a more serious situation than what her great-granddaughter had reported to her!

            "Son-in-law!" she announced her presence. "Are you saying you have been duplicated by the Mirror of Broken Souls!?"

            "Gaaaaaaaaaah!!!"
            "Kyaaaaaaaaaa!!!"

            The two girls dropped from the gutter to the ground below, too surprised by Cologne's voice to flip and brace for the impact. Two meaty thwacks echoed up, followed by moans and complaints. "What didja do that for!? Crazy old hag!"

            Cologne, having dropped after them, arrived with two resounding cracks to their skulls. "Such poor manners, in stereo no less!" She glared at them and bounced back to balance on her staff. "Now, answer my question."

            "Mirror of Broken Souls? Is that a big oval mirror, about two stories tall with an ornate frame?" Ranma-chan asked, rubbing her head.

            "The man at Mirror Mansion never mentioned that it had a name," Copy-chan murmured, doing the same. "All he talked about was how the ghost of that dead noble woman possessed the mirror and uses it to steal people's reflections so she can search for true love."

            Cologne stared at them. "First, that is, unfortunately, a fair description of the Mirror of Broken Souls. Secondly, don't be ridiculous. If people's ghosts had the power to enchant items with such dangerous abilities there would not be an object on this planet that was safe for people to use!"

            The two girls stared at her for a moment before Ranma-chan challenged, "So, you're tellin' us that the man from Mirror Mansion lied to us?"

            "Oh, I am sure he told you as much as he knew. The mirror has a long history, and great lengths were taken to ensure that as few people as possible knew of any of it," the elder assured them.

            "So naturally, you know all about it," Ranma-chan sneered.

            "Say, who is this old mummy, anyway?" Copy-chan asked her.

            Cologne bashed her in the head and huffed in indignation. "If you were a proper copy of the original, you'd already know who I am, and you'd still be as obnoxious and disrespectful!" She composed herself and thought. While she knew the legends of the mirror, she did not know enough to explain what she was seeing. In the legends, only one cursed individual had been exposed to the mirror, and his fate had not been accurately reported. All she did know was that only a cursed person could produce more than one reflected aspect. Now, the same had clearly happened with Ranma.

            "Having seen the boy upstairs, I presume you," she pointed at Ranma-chan, "are the original. She," she indicated Copy-chan, "mentioned that a ghost possessed the mirror and somehow interferes with it. At least that would explain why she does not remember me. I believe I would have to investigate personally to determine what has really happened, but I can tell you this. Because you have been split into your component aspects, you are in great danger, Ranma."

            "What!?"

            "You didn't ask why the mirror was called the Mirror of Broken Souls," Cologne pointed out. "I can also see from your reaction that you only suspected that she was truly part of yourself."

            "But she's a girl!" Ranma-chan protested. "I mean, right from the start she was chasing guys and wearing dresses and lingerie. I'm not like that!"

            Cologne studied the two for a moment. What a perfect opportunity to point out something that had thus far eluded the cursed boy. "Of course she's a girl. She doesn't have any reason to deny what she is. Unlike you, with all that garbage you got from your parents!"

            Ranma-chan puffed up in anger, "Just because my curse turns me into a girl doesn't mean I am one! I am sick of you people tellin' me that!"

As Ranma-chan lost her temper, and her aura flared into the visible spectrum, Cologne's eyes narrowed in scrutiny. What she saw forced her to set aside the question of Ranma's femininity for the moment. Absorbed in reading the cursed boy's aura, she unconsciously voiced concerned disapproval under her breath. After several moments, with Cologne humming and hawing in contemplation, the two girls became curious. At one point, Cologne's gaze wandered from Ranma-chan to Copy-chan, then back to Ranma. Finally, she looked up, and launched herself back up to the guest room window. With a sigh, she dropped back to the ground and cleared her throat.

            "As I feared, energy is bleeding away from you and your duplicates," she announced.

            "What!?"

            "Let us go inside and sit down to discuss this," Cologne suggested, hopping on her staff around to the screened entrance to the Tea Room. Both girls followed in dreadful anticipation. Once they were all seated at the low table, Cologne began to tell them the legend of the mirror. "As you may know, there is a spring in Jusenkyo called the Chaunshontsuniichaun, Spring of Drowned Twins. This happens to be one of the trickier cursed springs because it is the closest to having a permanent, natural result. Cold water splits an individual into two perfect copies of the original, but hot water can only reverse the curse if both individuals are in skin-to-skin contact when it is applied. The tragedy of this particular curse is that the twined person ends up in a conflict with herself over her original identity.

            "In spite of this, there have been many seduced by the prospect of being in two places at once who have been tempted to seek this curse, or its effects," she continued. "Eleven or twelve hundred years ago, a powerful Chinese emperor fell prey to this temptation, but felt that the water triggers were too unpredictable. He commanded his court sorcerers to find a way to harness the magic of the spring in a way that eliminated this flaw. Their solution was to create a mirror using sand dredged from the Chaunshontsuniichaun. As required, the mirror had the power to duplicate anyone who gazed into the it. Unfortunately, the techniques used to harness the magic were unknowingly flawed. Unlike the spring, which produced two whole individuals, the mirror caused the essence of those who looked into it to be divided between the original and the reflection. Worse, as the distance between the reflection and the original increased, straining the constant flow of ki between them, the vital energy would bleed out of them.

            "This is what caused the mirror to become known as the Mirror of Broken Souls. Given enough time, the division would cause its victims to spiritually bleed to death," the matriarch explained in a mix of anger and sadness. "Over the course of generations, the mirror claimed the lives of countless rulers and heroes. In some cases, the twins fought over their identity, and when one died, the other swiftly followed. In other cases, the two went separate ways and suddenly sickened and died after a couple of weeks. It took a long time for the curse of the mirror to become understood, since those who used it tended to do so in secrecy. A special frame was created and bound to the mirror to seal its power, when it was discovered that the mirror was indestructible. In spite of this, it remained a potential danger, so it was placed on a ship that was sailed to the high seas and sunk."

            The two girls stared on in shock. "Are you sure it's the same mirror?"

            "I would have to see it for myself to be sure," Cologne admitted.

            "But if it is, then my copies will eventually kill me?"

            "It is possible, Son-in-law. Your curse, however, might alter things."

            "What do you mean?"

            "There is a legend that tells of an individual, cursed much like yourself, who used the mirror. Like you, he was able to produce more than one reflection, and while the legend goes on to say that he simply disappeared without a trace, there are other tales that suggest that the reflections survived," Cologne confided. "His particular curse was to turn into a young boy, and there are accounts of encounters with the two posing as father and son during the next twenty years. From those stories, it is possible to presume that being split into separate aspects cured him. Under the proper circumstances, the same thing can happen using water from the Chaunshontsuniichaun or a special magical incense burner. All three are potential cures few cursed individuals have been brave enough to risk."

            Ranma-chan was thunderstruck. Then she was angry, "You mean to say that you've known all along at least three ways to cure me and you never mentioned it!"

            "Now, don't be hasty, Son-in-law. I point out that I have never confirmed any of these potential cures, and from what I can see they all have a dangerous and painful price."

            "What do you mean?"

            "What these 'cures' all have in common is that they split the victim into permanently cured and permanently cursed incarnations. Each one with the same mind as the original. At the very least, the cursed half becomes suicidal, but as often as not they try to take revenge on the cured half. It's hardly an ideal solution!"

            Copy-chan, listening to all of this, spoke up, "But, I'm perfectly fine with being a girl. I mean, technically, I already am the permanently cursed half, but I'm perfectly happy with the way I am. Apart from being alone, that is."

            "Ah, but something went wrong with you, and I presume your counterpart," Cologne pointed out. "You two have no conscious memory of being Ranma. I can tell just by observing you that you possess his skill and character, probably his weaknesses too. The rest is buried and locked away."

            "Uh," Ranma-chan was frowning, "It also sounds like, with this 'cure' I have to die while they get to take over my life!"

            "That is very observant, Son-in-law. Truly, you are in dire peril."

            Copy-chan looked on in growing alarm. She remembered Ranma-chan telling her that when she became intimate with her other half, it caused Ranma to feel like she was being torn in half. In a timid voice, she quickly explained her compulsion and Ranma's ultimate objection to their efforts to fulfill it. "Is it possible that makin' out or having sex would literally tear Ranma-chan in half?"

            Cologne, after swallowing her eyeballs back into her head, tried to puzzle that one over. She knew, better than most, how much spiritual energy was invested in intercourse, and it made sense that as the copies became aroused they drew yin and yang in opposite directions away from Ranma. Cologne stood up and spoke with all her formidable authority, "I would strongly recommend that the two of you avoid any kind of intimate activity if you value the life of Ranma Saotome!"

            "Like they can stop themselves," Ranma-chan grumbled, feeling doomed. She leaned forward, resting her forehead on the table and sighed. Strangely enough, she had recognized at once the danger of either copy dying. It had been clear in Cologne's story that when a victim killed his duplicate, he inflicted a mortal wound upon himself. Her debt to Akane and Ryouga suddenly tripled. "Hell, we're lucky we haven't all killed each other already!"

            Copy-chan looked down at her hands in her lap. "Would… would the threat to Ranma be erased if we both went back into the mirror?"

            Cologne was deeply absorbed in her thoughts, wrestling with her conscience, when she heard the question. She allowed her gaze to travel between the two girls while she tried to decide how to answer. Allowing Ranma to be divided was an ideal solution to her problem, but she could not look at Ranma-chan and condemn her so easily to death. The child had accomplished so much, impressed her so frequently, that she had become genuinely attached to Ranma. With a sigh, she finally answered, "Theoretically, the damage caused by the mirror would be undone if the reflections returned to it. It is a tough call to make, considering how desperately Son-in-law desires a cure. I imagine that there is a reason why you were not both returned immediately, so perhaps there is time to test some things before we resort to that option. After all, that would be trading two deaths for one. How morbidly ironic."

            "What sort of tests?"

            "Well, for one, we should see if we can get the copies to remember being you," she responded to Ranma-chan's question. What she kept to herself was her intention to see if she could get one of them to remember being someone else altogether.

In the morning, the entire household was shocked to find Cologne, flanked by the exhausted forms of Shampoo and Mousse, waiting for them at the breakfast table. Her appearance was enough to even cause Genma to suspend his plans to announce his intentions to shift the engagement with Akane to Ranma's copy, or rather, officially replace Ranma with his "true son". Because Cologne had roused Shampoo and Mousse and prepared a large breakfast for the Tendo family to ease their intrusion into the dojo at such an early hour, even Kasumi was able to take a place at the table to hear what the matriarch had to say. The last two to come to the table were Ranma-chan and Copy-chan in rumpled pajamas. The dark circles under their eyes, and their haunted expressions, combined with their utter lack of surprise at the presence of the guests, boded ill for the meeting. The fact that they slumped at the table and did not even try to join Copy-kun in a mad grab for food, was enough to turn the other's confusion into genuine alarm.

            Kasumi's cheerful greeting to the amazons remained the only utterance of the morning until Genma turned to the matriarch and cleared his throat.

            "Well, old woman, what nonsense brings you here this morning?"

            "Polite as ever, Genma," she frowned. "Since you prefer to be blunt, so shall I. Following Shampoo's visit last night, I felt compelled to come here and investigate the latest folly to befall Son-in-law. To my regret, I discovered that your son is in peril of his life. Not too surprising, Genma, the fault for his new condition is ultimately yours."

            Genma scowled at her but did not deign to respond.

            Rather than continue to goad the worthless father, she proceeded to tell the legend of the Mirror of Broken Souls, repeating what she had told the twin onna-Ranmas the night before. As the tale started, with mention of the Spring of Drowned Twins, there were a few comments of recognition. As she proceeded to tell of the mirror's creation, most of their faces showed anticipation of how this mirror came to produce Copy-chan and Copy-kun. As she spoke of the mirror's fatal flaw, Copy-kun suddenly lost his appetite while the others stared at the copies with mixed emotions. No one wanted to look at Ranma-chan. When Cologne mentioned the hypothetical use of the mirror as a cure for a Jusenkyo curse, along with the shortcomings cures of that nature had, Genma and Soun shook off their confusion and began to celebrate. Everyone else had to jump on top of Ranma-chan to keep her from killing the pair of them.

            "Is that all the matters to you!" the girl screamed from the bottom of the pile. "You'd have me die so that imposter can take my place and fulfill your stupid schemes!"

            "You ungrateful child! You would put your own survival over the honor of our two families!" Genma retorted, as Soun restrained him.

            "Why not! You do it all the time, Pop!"

            "Both of you, just stop it!" Akane yelled. In a calmer voice she turned to Cologne, looking out from her position in the dog pile. "So what you're saying is, the only solution to this is for Ranma, or his copies, to die!?"

            "In effect, that is correct. The original can only survive in the copies cease to exist. If they continue to exist, the original will be destroyed."

            "Shampoo so so sad. Is terrible tragedy!" the purple haired amazon wiggled out of the pile to get away from Mousse, who seemed to be rather conveniently sprawled over her.

            "I too feel that such a 'cure' is too horrible to contemplate!" Mousse declared, as he struggled out of the pile and straightened his robes.

            "Are you absolutely sure!?" Akane demanded.

            "Yes, child, I am afraid so. From what I understand, you intended to force the copies to return to the mirror, where they can no longer exist as independent beings. All I have revealed is that Son-in-law also faces oblivion should this circumstance be exploited as a cure. For the individuals in question, there is no question that this is a matter of life and death. Moreover, the decision as to who shall meet their end can only be decided by them."

            "If the copies are really such a danger, why hasn't Ranma been harmed already?" Nabiki asked calmly.

            "Simply put, Ranma has remained in close proximity to his copies, minimizing the amount of spiritual bleeding. To say he has been unharmed, however, would be remiss. I understand that the copies are compelled to somewhat amorous extremes and have been indulging each other to sate themselves. Yesterday, before lunch, according to Copy-chan, Ranma was struck down by the sight of them 'making out' as she put it. The energy that sustains them all flows between them, and if any individual makes too great a demand on that energy it leaves the others drained or depleted."

            "Uh, wait! Hinnako is constantly draining Ranma's aura. Is that any different than what happens between these three?"

            "That's actually an astute observation, Akane. What is happening to this trio is precisely the same as having a chi vampire constantly sucking energy off of them. In the case of that delinquent teacher, there are limits to the amount of energy she can leech by force making it unlikely that she would be able to kill one of her victims with any given attack. However, if the energy is freely available, she could soak up the chi of an entire city." Cologne frowned. "Honestly, with these three bleeding like this, she could accidentally kill them with her lowest level attack."

            "Ranma, you're not going to school!" Akane, Nabiki, Copy-chan and Copy-kun shouted. The news itself had distracted Ranma-chan from her impulse to murder Genma. She stared at Cologne.

            "You're kiddin', right!?"

            "No. I would heed the advice of your… uh…" there was no word to categorize the group that was sitting on top of Ranma-chan. "Do try to avoid Miss Hinnako. I would recommend that you have people around who can deal with her if she seeks you out."

            "What about Happosai?" Ranma-chan asked. "He tried to leech chi off all three of us the first night. Why didn't that hurt us?"

            Cologne laughed, "Though I often feel that man is a demon, he is no vampire. He can pull off latent ki, such as lingers on people's clothing, but he certainly has not risked the modifications that would allow him to feed on chi as his protégé does. The essence he gathers is akin to dead hair and skin, naturally shed from the 'body' of his victims' ki."

            "Oh," Ranma-chan frowned. Sitting up, casually shedding the pile of bodies on top of her, she became thoughtful. "It seems to me that, as I've developed my chi, I've gotten a lot better at dealing with Hinnako's leeching. I would think that if I worked at it, I should be able to do something about this bleeding. I mean, if I can actually limit what she can take from me, and control it for my attacks, it seems logical enough that I could fix this."

            Cologne studied him. She had given up on underestimating his ability when it came to the mechanics of his Art. It was one of the reasons she had been hopeful that he was Fa Shen reborn. She had been a genius at the Art, particularly when it came to using chi to harm or heal. She was still, short of the royal line of the Musk, the youngest individual to ever master chi techniques. "You would have to work with your copies to attempt such a thing, and I cannot say how liable you are to succeed. If it were anyone else, I might say such an endeavor was impossible. You will have to learn a few things more suited to the practice of medicine and healing than martial arts, but you have a sufficient base to start. We will include that, along with trying to tap the memory of your copies, to the things we must pursue while waiting for the mirror's seal to be repaired."

            Genma looked at the three Ranmas as they huddled together. He cleared his throat, "Ranma. I understand you feel that I have dishonored you by presenting Copy-kun as my true son." Ranma-chan slowly turned hate filled eyes on her father. When her old man had the dignity to blanch and swallow hard, she allowed him to continue speaking. "I simply remind you that there are reasons, above and beyond my own well being, which necessitate my decision. For one, I have deeply regretted that the nature of your curse had made it necessary to hide from your mother. She does not deserve it, and while I do fear for our lives should she find your condition unmanly, I also fear that upon completing her role in our execution, she would feel compelled to take her own life." Genma took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes for a moment.

            Ranma sucked in a sharp breath as Genma disguised his tears. Her father would weep crocodile tears to guilt trip her, but was quick to disguise genuine emotion. She said nothing as his damp fingers came away from his red, swollen eyes.

            "It also occurred to me that returning your copies to the mirror would be no different from killing them. I am a harsh man at times, but I am not a killer. Is it so unreasonable then, to look at this perfect boy, see in him a son that any mother and father could be proud of, and know that he could be the solution to all our problems?" Genma sighed. "Finally, you have voiced nothing but complaint against your engagement to Akane. While I truly hoped you would come to love the daughter of my good friend and ally, I cannot ignore that here is a boy longing for love, with no other hope for life. I put him in your place not just for me, but for you, for him, and most of all for my beloved Nodoka."

            "But at the same time, you've pushed me aside like some worn out rag!" Ranma-chan cried, just managing to voice more outrage than grief. Even now, she could not bear to show how deeply wounded she was by her father's betrayal.

            "I would have thought you'd be glad to rid yourself of me, of this engagement. I've watched you try and throw everything away on the hope of finding some cure. From the moment you fell into that pool, you have lost your respect for me, so who cast aside who first?" Genma challenged.

            Ranma-chan subsided into shocked silence.

            "It does not matter now. There can only be one Ranma Saotome, and this boy is better suited. It does not mean you are not my child, or that I would prefer to see you dead. Still, you're a fool if you don't understand that I am always willing to risk your life for the sake of the Art and for family honor, and that is not going to change now, just because you are as much a daughter as a son. Do not challenge my decision unless you truly mean to uphold the responsibilities that come with your name!" Genma declared with uncommon authority.

            Ranma-chan's mind was still stuck on the "as much a daughter as a son" comment. Did even her own father see her as a girl? Did her misogynistic old man feel some impulse to be unforgivably soft on her because in some part of his warped mind he had gained a daughter? Was this whole notion of his some warped way of going easy on her, giving her a way out of all her responsibilities as a man? In a strangled voice she demanded, "Am I a son or a daughter to you?"

            "I am waiting to learn that from you. At least now you can afford to consider the question."

            "What the hell brought this on!?"

            "Son," Genma sagged, "When your mother is here, all I can do is watch and listen. I can't tell you how many times she's sat down beside me, Mr. Panda, watching you fighting with Akane, or working out in the yard, and wished aloud that you were her daughter."

            "What!?"
            "Your mother always wanted a daughter. When we married, she told me she might not be able to have children, but if she could, she hoped for a daughter, like the one she had in her dreams. Of course, we both wanted, needed a son. For her, it was a requirement of her father's, for me, I needed a son to fulfill my pact with Tendo-kun," he sighed. "But Nodoka still only wished for a daughter. If you were that daughter, she would accept you with no strings attached. But that is only possible if you are not Ranma, do you understand?"

            Cologne looked on, almost unable to contain herself.