Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Thirteen: Cutting to the Chase
Everyone assembled at the Tendo Dojo looked up in alarm as Ranma-chan lurched to her feet and stalked out the open shoji into the yard. She stopped at the edge of the koi pond and gradually looked down into the still waters to study her reflection. For a long time there was no other movement. Rather than continue the strange conversation while she was brooding, the others turned to their meal and ate in silence. Kasumi, looking positively torn for the young martial artist, leaned over to Akane and whispered a suggestion. Akane, looking positively thunderstruck, calmed and nodded before slipping out of the room to use the phone. The copies had been studying Genma sternly between troubled glances at Ranma-chan. Finally they stood and cautiously approached the original. Ranma tensed as they flanked her on either side, but when they said nothing, she returned to wrestling with her tumultuous thoughts. Too much had happened in such a short period of time. Life had rubbed her nose in a number of impossible things, and no matter how earth shattering they had been, Ranma had taken them in stride. This latest blow, however, was simply beyond belief.
Ranma's mother wanted a daughter. Had wished "Ranko" was her daughter. Taking an unsteady breath, she tried to deal with what was happening inside her. Ranma could not bear to deny anything to Nodoka. For months now, that had been something of a lifeline, since what Nodoka had apparently wanted more than anything, was to see her son again. To see that he was a true man-among-men. Ranma's determination to ensure that, to make Nodoka proud of her son, had been a touchstone for dealing with the curse, particularly when dealing with her mother as "Ranko".
Ranma-chan lifted her hands and studied them. Her hands. Every day she reminded herself that all of the girl stuff had been imposed on her by outside forces. She had not asked for it, she tried her best not to be seduced by it into asking questions or experimenting with things that, as a boy, she would never be able to reconcile. Shaking her head, she sighed. It was sort of funny. Genma had forced her to ask herself if she would sacrifice everything and become a girl to make Nodoka happy. It had seemed instantly absurd to try and base who and what she was on what someone else wanted her to be. Of course, that's what Ranma had been doing all her… his… life. It seemed painfully clear that, if turning into a girl made her an unsuitable son, turning into a boy would make her an equally imperfect daughter. Which was why Genma's revelation really disturbed her.
There was a better way to give her mother everything she wanted. The perfect son, the desired daughter, were standing on either side of her. It was a much simpler, more practical solution, than trying to warp her brain around the ridiculous notion of becoming a girl. Or, more honestly, trying to give up being a boy. About the only way she could palette giving up being a boy to be a girl, was if she went off and became an amazon. At least there a girl was considered a first class citizen. "Feh! Like that's any better," she muttered. Hanging her head she finally admitted that her desire for a cure had long since ceased to be an effort to never be a girl again. Honestly, if she found a cure it would be like chopping off limbs to take it, but the temptation… the desire to be "normal" was so strong. With the curse, she was just a freak and she hated that.
"Do you know," she began speaking quietly to the copies, "when Herb locked my curse, and I didn't know if it could be unlocked, I wondered if maybe I could be adopted by my mom as Ranko. I mean, I could never have told her I was Ranma if I was stuck as a girl. I could just let it slip that my parents were gone and that's why Ranko was always visiting the Tendos…" She trailed off. "It was just for a moment. I was feeling kinda sorry for myself. The thought of lying to my mom for the rest of my life made me feel so much worse, I swore I'd find a cure. I don't wanna be her daughter if that means I can't tell her I'm her son. If I can't say who I really am, I just can't do it."
Copy-chan slipped an arm around and hugged her.
"But, you can," Ranma-chan added, including both of them.
"What?"
"What're you talkin' about!?"
"Maybe I should treat this as a cure," Ranma-chan clarified.
"You mean, just die!?"
"I dunno. Maybe. Or maybe…" Ranma-chan shrugged.
"What?"
"Maybe if Mom has the son she needs, and the daughter she wants, maybe she won't hate havin' a freak like me." They gave her a startled look. She straightened and asserted, "I ain't sayin' I wanna die. Just that its worth the risk if it means I can finally tell her the truth. If she sees you and decides you're man enough, you and Pops won't havta commit seppuku, so I doubt she'd make me do it either." A determined look settled on her face.
"What exactly are you thinking of doing, Ranma?" Akane asked from just behind them. None of them had noticed her approach.
"I guess I am gonna go with Cologne and see if she can help me figure out how to stop bleeding ki, and help them remember bein' me."
"I see," Akane sighed and hung her head. She found herself wondering if it would be the same—if Copy-kun remembered being Ranma—continuing the engagement with him. Would she ever see him as the real Ranma? Did it even matter? "So, that means I am engaged to him then?"
Ranma-chan whipped around and stared at Akane. The question had stabbed her in the heart, and for a moment, she panted to keep her breath. She was not sure, but it sounded like Akane was disappointed. Ranma-chan remembered when Akane had gotten mad and transferred the engagement to Nabiki a few months ago. It had not been a pleasant experience for any of them. She looked at Copy-kun hard for a moment. "I don't think my old man can just change it to him like that. As long as I honored the engagement, it was my choice who it was with. If Copy-kun remembered bein' me, we'd have to figure out who was gonna be responsible for it. Since he doesn't, then I guess it stays with me for now."
"Okay," Akane nodded once, faintly blushing.
Shampoo and Mousse, sitting quietly to either side of Cologne, studied the group by the pond with narrow eyes. Neither of them were entirely sure how to deal with Ranma as a multiple choice question. Shampoo was wondering if the laws of her people should be interpreted such that she was effectively married to all three. In her mind, only the original mattered, especially when the copies had no memory of being Ranma. She knew some of the elders would have insisted that the kiss if marriage applied only to the male half. They would have also insisted that this situation obligated her to fulfill the kiss of death given to the female half. Great-grandmother had assured them that the three were all the same person. Since killing one could slay all three, Shampoo felt confident no one would criticize her for not fulfilling the kiss of death. Catching a glimpse of Mousse out the corner of her eye, she changed that to "almost no one". The master of hidden weapons considered everything Ranma-shaped to be an obstacle to his desires, and he was an amazon. He was not above killing to remove a threat to his plans, nor using the law to turn another into his weapon.
Fortunately, neither of them were likely to defeat one Ranma, let alone three. Their weakness was a good excuse for her not to try. Their common identity was enough for her to extend her protection to all of them if Mousse dared to use lethal force to challenge the unconsummated union.
Shampoo suddenly sat straight. If the kiss of death did apply to the girl Ranma, so would the consequences if she managed to survive the one year ordeal. In about two months, the girl would be fully initiated into the tribe, protected by the laws of her people from the likes of Mousse. "Great-grandmother, Shampoo wonder how long take Airen try to master stop bleeding spirit? Shampoo no hear of anyone try to do such thing," she inquired.
"Do not worry, Shampoo," Cologne patted her heir on the knee. "Son-in-law is full of surprises. As long as the three stick together and do nothing foolish, it would take months for the bleeding to kill them. We should probably consult that fine young doctor friend of Kasumi's and see if he will join us in helping Ranma find a way to survive his 'cure'."
"Kasumi already thought of that," Akane interjected, coming back in and catching the end of the elder's remark. "I just got off the phone making an appointment for Ranma and the copies to see him this morning."
When Ranma and the copies rejoined the others at the table, there was a long discussion about how to proceed. Ranma stressed that she did not intend to die, but if the copies could manage to regain the memory of being Ranma she would consider allowing them to succeed her as Ranma and Ranko. Genma had been correct in assuming Ranma would be willing to die for a cure, and the prospect of reuniting Nodoka with her son and giving her a daughter was enough to justify the risk in Ranma's mind. Not wanting to die, if there was any way to avoid it, she would do her best to work with the copies to find a way to stop the bleeding permanently if possible. The first order of business was to visit Dr. Tofu that morning, and then accompany Cologne to Mirror Mansion so she could confirm the identity of the mirror and figure out how the ghost had interfered with it, and with the copies it produced. Akane would go with them to the doctor's office and deliver a note from Tofu to the school, excusing him from class. Because of Ranma, the school administration had been forced to accept the magic of the curse, and would have to accept the doctor's assertion that a life threatening complication had emerged because of it.
Even after the long discussion, there was still plenty of time for Akane and Nabiki to make it to school. Nabiki went directly to school to deal with Kuno. It would take some effort to explain that the objects of his obsessions were in mortal danger and would not be present for the near future. Somehow, she would convince the Kuno siblings to back off until the three were less vulnerable. Shampoo and Mousse were sent away to deal with opening and running the Cat Café while Cologne was occupied for the day. As the matriarch led the way to Dr. Tofu's, in a probing conversation with the copies, Akane followed with Ranma-kun a few paces behind.
"I still can't believe it's come to this," she confessed after a few minutes.
"I dunno," Ranma shrugged. "It's sorta the story of my life. I should've expected somethin' like this was gonna happen eventually."
"Well," Akane frowned, "strange things do happen a lot with you, but that's not what meant. I can't believe you would sacrifice yourself to save your copies. I can't believe you would let anyone take your place."
"Yeah. They're not just anyone, though. If the mummy is right… ite!" Ranma rubbed his head where Cologne's staff had crowned him, "If she's right, they're both me. I've been hit on the head enough times to know what it's like to have no memory of myself. Just 'cuz I didn't remember who I was didn't mean I wasn't me. I guess I'm lucky that hasn't happened to me when I was a girl, or I might've been like Copy-chan. Man, that would be horrible!"
"Er," Akane bit her lip, deciding it was best not to mention when Ranma had thought he was a girl after bashing her head on the rock border of the pond. "Don't take this the wrong way, but what's so bad about being a girl, Ranma?"
Ranma almost replied without thinking. Snapping his mouth shut at the last second he remembered what Copy-kun had said the night before. "Nothin' if you happen to be a girl. It's not good if you're a guy though. I mean, what would you call a guy who tries to dress or act like a girl or chase other guys?"
That was a no-brainer for Akane, "A pervert!"
"Yeah. Would you wanna be called a pervert by people 'cuz you look like a girl, but they know you're supposed to be a boy?"
Akane opened her mouth and stared at Ranma. She did not dare to answer. She was doing it to him all the time. After a moment, she tried another angle. "Well, if you had amnesia, and didn't know you were ever a boy, why would it be horrible to be like Copy-chan?"
Ranma did not answer for a moment. He was staring at the mentioned girl, looking worried. Sighing, he explained, "Because one day I might remember, and everything I had done as a girl would be right there in my face. All the things I swore I would never do, and suddenly they would all have been done and I could never take them back. I don't know if I could live with myself after somethin' like that. I… I don't know if I could be a guy after that. I wouldn't know how to be me, I guess."
Akane followed his gaze to Copy-chan. "Have you warned her?"
"Yeah. We were up all night talking about it. Before that, she was acting like you, wantin' to know why I didn't like being a girl. Then Cologne came and we found out she was not just a copy, that she might be able to remember bein' me. She wanted to know how I'd react to being stuck permanently as a girl, so I told her about Herb and the Chisuiiton."
"Maybe it would be better for her to just go back into the mirror then."
"That's what I told her. She said she'd rather be alive and hate it, than not even exist. She said that as long as she was alive she could find some way to start over, be happy," Ranma shrugged and looked at his feet.
Akane stopped her fiancé as they reached the clinic. After the other three had entered, she asked, "What if you succeed. What if you find a way for all three of you to survive. Are you really going to let him take your place? And her? Where will that leave you?" She looked away and then down for a moment before meeting his eyes again, "Where will that leave us?"
Ranma took a deep breath. "We're always fighting because of this stupid engagement. We both hate it, 'cuz we never had a choice. Whatever happens, it's the same for you, you still have to marry Ranma. Still, if I am not Ranma anymore, maybe we can finally be friends like we were at the very beginning," he sighed and looked away.
Akane was lost in a vortex of anger, grief and confusion. The answer evaded expressing any feeling beyond a desire for friendship. That was both touching and stabbed her through the heart. Was that all she was to him? A friend? And the engagement, that was just an unwanted burden? True, she felt that too, but… if he did not love her, why would the other one? Why, when more than ever she could not escape from him, did she feel like she was losing him? "Do you really want to be friends?" she asked in a small voice.
"I'd like to have the chance," Ranma fidgeted. "It's not like I have so many friends I don't need another. I don't even know what it's like to have just a friend with no other complications." There was no question that his thoughts had turned to Ukyo. He really hated Genma for taking the best thing from his childhood and turning it into something he just could not deal with.
Cologne came out from inside the clinic. "Dr. Tofu is ready to see you now, Son-in-law," she announced, holding a note out to Akane. "Here is the note to excuse Ranma from his classes, Akane. You had better hurry if you plan on making it to school on time." The girl took the piece of paper and looked down. She did not care for the dismissal, but at least the old woman was trying to be polite about sending her on her way and taking charge of Ranma.
Ranma reached out and put a hand on her arm. She looked up at his face. "I'll see you when you come home from school," he promised with a little smile. She nodded and resumed walking towards Furinkan High.
Cologne sighed. It was these little moments of crisis that had made her job so difficult. Worse, this was not a good time to goad Shampoo into pressing her pursuit of the boy. He needed to trust them a great deal if he was going to benefit from their help. He was finally in a position where she could try and establish whether or not the boy was Fa Shen reborn. It would be a tragedy if the same crisis provoked the true establishment of a relationship that must not form, if indeed he was. She would have to see if there was any way to encourage Genma's plan to shift the engagement to the male reflection without alienating the boy. She blinked. By the same logic, she might want to shift her focus to the female reflection. She seemed a more suitable vessel for awakening the lost amazon heroine. Turning her mind to this, she followed Ranma inside the clinic.
As they passed through the waiting room, Cologne told Ranma that she had given Dr. Tofu a quick run down on the situation. Tofu had taken one look at the copies, standing side by side and noted aloud that however Ranma had split himself, the process left him bleeding vital energy. Cologne had directed his attention outside to see the original taking with Akane, and told him about the Mirror of Broken Souls. While Tofu ushered the pair into the examining room, Cologne had fetched Ranma. Once they had joined the rest in the examining room, and Ranma had joined his copies perched on the edge of an examination table, they filled the doctor in on all the details.
"I have to say, Ranma-kun, this is truly an extraordinary mess you've gotten yourself into. I am glad to hear that this occurred by accident and not through some heedless pursuit of a cure," Tofu declared, once the story was complete. By this point the three were stripped down to their underwear, draped in thin cotton medical gowns, and congregating to hear the results of the complete physicals the doctor had required.
"To be honest, if someone had told me it could be used as a cure, I probably would have jumped at it," Ranma confessed sheepishly.
"Then it is fortunate that I have not had a chance to tell you the results of my latest sabbatical," Tofu laughed impishly. With the influx of cursed individuals to Nerima, he had been forced to do some extensive traveling to find doctors more experienced in treating cursed patients to expand his own skills. "If you were so hasty with a cure like water from the spring of drowned twins, you might have succeeded only in duplicating yourself with the curse intact!"
"Ah, so you succeeded in tracking down the treatment to use the Chaunshontsuniichaun to split a cursed individual into separate aspects?" Cologne asked with great interest. "Perhaps you know if the legends about that cure are true."
"Oh, you mean, will hot water restore the separated halves, thus undoing the cure?" Tofu laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, there are special conditions, since the treatment is simply dissolving salt in the twins water, the two can only be merged in hot saltwater, or separated again by cold saltwater, while normal hot and cold water control the original curse while they are merged. Not really a true cure, but it does make the cure more manageable." Tofu sighed and returned to contemplating the three Ranmas.
"Actually," Cologne cleared her throat, "I was wondering about the mental aspect of the curse. When the twins were rejoined, the memories of their separate incarnations would pool together, according to legend."
"Oh, yes," Tofu tapped his lips thoughtfully. "That would be correct."
"Does any of this have anything to do with us?" Ranma asked.
"I believe that the general rules for the Chaunshontsuniichaun apply to victims of the Mirror of Broken Souls," Cologne confided. "Should your copies be returned to the mirror, their memories ought to be absorbed by you. In theory, at least. By the same notion, your memories should pass on to them if you are slain by the division. I'm in no hurry to test these theories, however."
The three nodded in vigorous agreement. A moment later, Tofu sighed.
"I am sorry, Ranma. At this range I can not tell if you are actually arresting the bleeding or if it just stops at such close range," the doctor leaned back. He had listened to Ranma's plan to use the techniques he had developed to frustrate Miss Hinnako to stop the bleeding, and asked for a demonstration. "Why don't the two of you," he suggested, indicating the copies, "get dressed and take a walk around the block. A little distance might reveal the weakness a bit better." They rushed to comply and soon sprinted out of the room.
"Relax, Son-in-law," Cologne directed, "let it bleed so the doctor can find the threads between you."
Ranma nodded and shook himself to loosen his concentration. He took the opportunity to get dressed while Dr. Tofu quickly found and began to track the link. As the twins were about halfway around the block, he asked Ranma to try stopping the bleeding again. Ranma quickly focused his mind, and willed his chi to anchor itself in him. When the twins returned to the examination room, the doctor looked faintly optimistic.
"I can see the energy responding to your effort to conserve your chi. It is not stopping the bleeding, but it is pulling the flow into orbit around the primary channels. With some discipline you might be able to weave a stronger link. The connection between you all tends to fray as you move apart and energy is sucked away from you to bridge the gap." Tofu led them into his office where he began to pick esoteric medical texts off the shelves lining the room. "The three of you have a lot of reading and experimenting to do. You need to develop your sensitivity by an order of magnitude, and you need to learn some techniques to channel chi for healing to develop the correct discipline."
They took the books with gratitude.
"I would recommend that the three of you spend a few hours a day with myself or Cologne working on this, and that you remain close together except to test your progress. If you are as quick to pick this up as you do martial techniques, by the end of the week you should all be able to move freely about Nerima without harm to each other," Tofu diagnosed.
"Thanks, Tofu-sensei," they all bowed.
"No thanks necessary," Tofu smiled. "Just take care of yourselves."
A couple of hours later, Ranma, Cologne and both copies were emerging from the woods at the entrance to Mirror Mansion. It had been a bright, clear day, and the sun had tinged the emerald countryside in gold. The long walk from the station had been relaxing and invigorating. They were completely refreshed from the hour long train ride, and the grueling wait at the Nerima station, by the time they reached their destination. During the journey, Cologne had pressed Ranma for the exact details of both of his encounters with the mirror. With a bit of coaching, she got a very accurate picture of what had happened. In both cases, there had been others present who, though exposed to the mirror, were not duplicated. Neither Akane, Genma nor the man from the mansion itself had looked directly into or physically contacted the mirror. Ranma had done both at the same time in each case. With some basic precautions, she would be able to study the mirror without releasing a copy of herself.
One of those precautions now accompanied them at a distance. By sheer coincidence, they had encountered a Shinto shrine and Cologne had persuaded the resident priest to visit the mirror with them, to verify that it was possessed by the ghost. With a grin, he informed them that at least once a year a priest from his temple had been asked to perform this task. He considered it an honor to support this local tradition. He revealed that he was currently employed in the task of recreating the seal that protected innocents from the tragic mirror.
"Ah, it looks like Tengawa-san already has visitors," the priest said, looking in through the open gates.
The others turned and saw the stocky, balding man hunched over in conversation with another familiar figure holding a hand drawn map out for the older man to see. There was no mistaking the travel stained bandana, yellow tunic and black leggings, the massive backpack, the furled red, bamboo umbrella, or the utterly lost expression gracing his face.
"Ryouga!" the girl cried out, rushing forward to pounce on the lost boy.
"Oh great. This is just what we needed," Ranma drawled.
"What's going on, Son-in-law?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but from the story I got out of her, Kuno doped her with some kind of love potion that knocked her out. When she woke up, Ryouga was kissing her—I just can't believe that part—and the potion finally kicked in," Ranma shook his head, his eyes on the girl now straddling Ryouga's hips after knocking him to the ground. The force of her impact had sent the backpack and umbrella flying. Strangely, once she had him pinned, she proceeded to just talk to him, rather than go in for the kill.
"It doesn't look like he's trying that hard to get away," Copy-kun grumbled, puffing up and stalking forward. Ranma reached out a hand to restrain his twin.
"Hey. Don't. You're provisionally engaged to Akane," Ranma reminded him. "Since you can't have any kind of relationship with her, you better let it go. Think of her as your sister and just be glad she has someone else to think about."
"That sounds unusually mature coming from you, Son-in-law."
"Hey, I don't like it, but Ryouga did get me with that koi rod. If he's really attracted to me as a girl, well, better the girl who wants a guy than me. Besides, it might distract him from Akane and Akari."
"I thought Akari was Ryouga's girlfriend?" the matriarch puzzled.
"Sort of. She threw herself at him 'cuz he beat her pig. She really loves pigs, and once she discovered Ryouga's curse she decided he's the only man for her. Problem is, Ryouga hates his curse and doesn't really want her. He just likes the attention, same as with Akane."
"I can see how the relationship might be flawed then. Still, I can hardly believe you would let your girl half pursue him," Cologne pressed.
"I don't like it, but it's better than her pining for him," Ranma jerked a thumb at Copy-kun. "Especially if he ends up with Akane."
"True, but if she gets her memory back, would she not react like you to a relationship with a man?"
"Um, unless she goes to Jusenkyo and jumps in the Nanniichaun, she's stuck as a girl. But, if she is in love with Ryouga, it won't really matter. It didn't when I was in love with him," he confessed quietly. The others, especially the priest, stared at him in shock.
"But if it's because of the potion…"
"I checked some things," Ranma interrupted. "Happosai has some books in his room, and one of them has a description of the Sake of Love. It's not a coercive spell, like the koi rod. It's somethin' that removes inhibitions. Since she has very few inhibitions, it wouldn't take much for her to fall in love."
"But, how can she fall in love if she hasn't made love with him yet?"
Everyone was now goggling at Copy-kun.
"That's not a prerequisite, child," Cologne drawled, rapping him on the skull with her staff. Her eyes returned to the redhead straddling the boy. From the way she was apparently wrapping the lost boy around her finger, Cologne observed that she would do quite well as an amazon. At the very least, Shampoo could benefit from learning how she was doing it. "Someone go pull those two off each other. We have business to conduct here."
The two boys wandered over to pry Copy-chan away from Ryouga.
"Yo, Ryouga," Ranma greeted his friend-rival. "You're right on time."
"Ranma? Oh, thank the kami!" Ryouga sighed as he verified the presence of the two boys dragging him to his feet. He glanced back at the girl and shuddered. She smiled at him, beaming pure, concentrated kawaii. The sweet nothings she had been whispering in greeting danced around in his head, and only the dread that it might be Ranma messing with him had kept him from being blown away by the whole experience. In retrospect, the things he would not care to repeat still echoed in his skull and, yes, a girl had just said such wonderful, terrifying things to him… about… with… "Erk!"
The trio just sighed, for rather different reasons, as Ryouga's eyes rolled back in his head, while blood fountained from his nostrils, and he crashed back to the ground.
"Geez! What were you sayin' to him?"
"I'm sure I don't wanna know! Copy-kun, can you get his gear? We should probably keep ahold of him in case he wants help getting back to Nerima or something," Ranma went over and flipped the lost boy onto his shoulder and turned to look for Cologne.
The matriarch had gone over to introduce herself to the master of Mirror Mansion and explain the purpose of their visit. It took her a while to convince the old man that the prize of his collection of mirrors was a dangerous artifact, and correct his assumptions about how and why the mirror could do what it did. When she clarified her interest in determining how the ghost had managed to unlock the powers of the mirror, and seeing if it could be undone, the man finally allowed them to enter the building and examine the unsealed mirror. Because of the danger of confronting the mirror, Cologne and the priest entered alone. The three Ranmas set about waking Ryouga and filling him in on their situation. It was also fun to watch him reacting to the curious affection of Copy-chan. Seeing the pig-boy squirm went a long way toward lifting Ranma out of the cloud of gloom he had been sinking into.