Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Twenty-One: Shocks to the System
A civilized culture, even one that was isolated in the mountains and centered on agriculture, produced individuals who could recognize the essentials of human technology. Even confronted with completely unfamiliar architecture, and the apparent wealth invested in large panes of glass, smooth metal fixtures, sophisticated furnishings and plumbing, it was not hard to examine this strange building and conclude that it was a healer's domicile. Fa Shen was in a constant daze from her quick tour of the facility, amazed at how clean and neat everything was, and simply awed at the lamps that produced such bright and constant light. She had fiddled with the taps that produced fresh, sparkling water in contrasting temperatures, marveling at how small and unobtrusive the fixtures were. The only thing she had seen like it resided in Jusendo, and those taps were magical monoliths. Very few were privileged to see them, isolated in their secret mountain, but in this strange land, the same wonder had been reduced to a minor convenience apparently taken for granted by everyone else present. She had noticed the unfamiliar Amazon elder's eyes on her as she skirted the edge of conversation to satisfy her curiosity, and wondered how one of her own people could be so inured to all of the fabulous artifacts she was discovering.
It was quite unnerving, to say the least. She was hardly an expert in crafts, but she could recognize the wealth of resources and craftsmanship in the least of the objects she examined. The medical lore alone, displayed on the finest quality of paper sheets on the walls, was astonishing. Truly, there was much for her people to desire from these foreigners, and much to potentially fear from them as well! Turning to study the young physician, she frowned. She could tell just by looking at him that he was a skilled martial artist, and from the way even the elders differed to him, a master of his trade. That a man should be recognized in such an esteemed and honorable practice warned her that this was certainly a patriarchal society. Such a man could have his pick of the warrior maidens she remembered from home. They would fall over themselves to catch his attention, in hopes of inspiring him to challenge them for marriage.
She frowned again. It looked like that perverted little monkey was recovering from her last retaliation and eyeing her for yet another unwanted assault. He was a lot tougher than she'd first estimated. Perhaps that was why the Matriarch, Cologne, honored him with her tolerance. "Well, let him try again," she hissed to herself. She had a surprise ready for him. She extended her chi, careful to release only negatively charged energy, to suffuse the room. In her circuit of the clinic, she was careful to avoid the old man, to delay his next attack. At the same time, she was trying to keep out of earshot of Shampoo. As soon as she got the idea that the other amazon held her somehow accountable for the disappearance of her Airen, she retreated in haste. She did not, ever, get involved in the romantic delusions of weaker girls. Being out of sorts, she did not feel free to show her displeasure at the insult Shampoo had given with her accusations. She did not remember the man to begin with, so how was she supposed to "bring him back" as Shampoo demanded of her and Cologne?
A shock crawled up her spine, and she realized the perverted old man had vanished from sight. She instantly drew in her ki and changed the polarity of her aura. With a speed that impressed her, he blurred into sight about a foot away, too close for her to block his assault. He slammed into her chest and, as his hands began to grope her, began to draw energy from her. That was her cue! With one hand, she gripped the top of his bald head and shouted, "Raking Claws! Vengeance of Heaven!" and poured positively charged chi into his diminutive form.
Everyone in the room turned to stare as bolts of lightening flashed from every corner of the room to focus their malice on Happosai. The electricity began to arc between her victim and the strange lamps and socket fixtures girding the clinic. All of the lights flickered and several exploded in a shower of sparks. Somehow, these things contributed something to her attack, but Fa Shen was too focused on her technique to think about it much. The old letch twitched and blackened, then peeled away from the girl to drift slowly to the ground. As he came to rest, Fa Shen jumped up and stomped on him a few times for good measure. "That should teach you! Dirty old man!"
The two girls in the room flinched back in shock, hands out in warding gestures, while the doctor and the old woman gazed at her in stunned appreciation. One of the lights that had not exploded flickered madly for a few seconds then went out. "That was an impressive technique, young lady," Cologne drawled, regaining her composure first.
"I didn't expect it to work that well in an enclosure," she admitted, stepping off of Happosai's charred form. She looked up and noticed the damage to the lighting. Shrugging, she dusted her hands off and faced the others. "I'm not complaining though. He had that coming!"
"You've got that right, sugar!" Ukyo cheered, recovering from her surprise. Hesitantly, she approached. "Was that a chi technique? I've never seen anything like it from Ranma," she turned to Cologne, expecting the usual lecture to follow.
"Who?" Fa Shen asked, always interested to hear of other chi manipulators. The perturbed look Ukyo flashed her was not the answer she expected. Frowning, she answered the question, "Yes. It's something I came up with to deal with Ergot." Seeing no recognition of the name she glared, "You know, the Prince of the Musk!?"
"I thought his name was Herb," Ukyo frowned.
"Come over here, child," Cologne interrupted hastily, summoning Fa Shen over to the examination table where she had been talking with Dr. Tofu before the light show. In spite of the fact that even the two amazons present were strangers to her, they were the only familiar thing to cling to. As she had identified Shampoo by observing her fighting styles, she had recognized Cologne's authority after their initial exchange of formalities. Which meant she had to oblige her, and apparently submit to examination at this male physician's hands. As directed, she climbed up onto the examination table and steeled herself for his touch.
"Is this really necessary?" she asked, uneasily.
"I just want him to determine that there is no physical trauma associated with, ah, your current mental state," Cologne assured her, cautiously.
"You mean how my memory is all fuzzy?"
"Oh, I already have my suspicions there, child."
"This will only take a moment, Ra…" Dr. Tofu coughed and cleared his throat, catching himself and continuing, "Fa Shen." He checked her eyes, flashing a light into them in turn experimentally, then palpitated her scalp, as well as a number of key pressure points there and elsewhere on her body. As she realized that he was assessing a catalogue of points that could influence mental, emotional, physiological and metaphysical altered states, she was both impressed and a bit alarmed. What did they think might have happened to her that the doctor was verifying the integrity of her ki?
"What are you looking for?" she asked, perturbed.
"You, ah, don't seem to remember it, but I have been treating you for a preexisting condition," Tofu responded abstractly, concluding his examination. Leaning back and giving her a reassuring smile. "Well, I am happy to say that there has been no unusual deterioration. Much better than I feared. Also," he turned to Cologne, "I do not see any recent evidence of physical trauma that can account for her shift in, ah, perspective."
"Perspective?" Fa Shen stared at him. "What's that got to do with my memories being out of whack? Also, if I haven't been hit on the head, why are they messed up?" she perched on the edge of the table and her eyes passed over the people that had gathered around her. Cologne had dragged the shriveled old man up onto the table beside her and was holding him up by the collar trying to revive him. Her mysterious friend, Ukyo, stood next to Shampoo at the foot of the table, looking at her in concern, between glares at the purple-haired girl.
"There is a very simple explanation for your, ah, confusion," Dr. Tofu promised her, while procrastinating over actually delivering. After Shampoo presented her to Cologne, and the elder had questioned her, Cologne had excused her to confer in hushed tones with the physician, and whatever she had told him had startled him, and given him that odd look he kept fixing her with.
"And that is?" Fa Shen demanded after a few breaths.
"I don't know how to tell you. If not for my recent studies into Jusenkyo curses and mythology, and Elder Cologne's counsel, I would have some difficulty even contemplating it."
"Jusenkyo!?" she panicked. "I haven't been cursed, have I?"
Everyone turned to stare at her in profound discomfort.
Cologne carefully met her eye and asked, "Do you remember the last time you visited Jusenkyo?"
Fa Shen felt something trying to scream at her from the back of her mind, something she knew she did not want to hear. Did not want to face. She whipped around, staring at the people around her, watching their eyes evade hers. No answer from any of them, though a few mouthed inaudible stutters of aborted explanation. She found herself turning away from them, searching for a way to escape when her eyes picked up motion by the door. Turning her head she focused on the couple who were approaching unnoticed by the rest. She hardly noticed the girl, and the uneasy feeling her presence stirred at the back of her mind, because it was so hard to glance past the boy. Her eyes locked on his face, an itch of intense recognition filling her. Then a flash, the same face, with brilliant red hair, a match for her own, glaring at her with disdain. A horrible feeling of doom accompanied the flash. Lo Shen. Her half-brother. The traitor who had tried several times to deliver her to Ergot.
The man who had dug her grave.
That last was more than she could bear to remember, but the rage that surged up within her conveniently blinded her to what she could not bear to confront. All she remembered was, if she ever laid eyes on him again, she had promised to kill him. That sounded perfectly fine. Her body coiled like a tiger, and she sprung from the table directly into his face.
"YOU!" she roared.
In spite of her explosive movement, and his utter surprise, he dodged her lunge at the last moment, leaving only his after-image to bear her assault. She passed through the open door behind him, and rolled to her feet in surprise. How did she miss him? He reappeared in the doorway, staring at her in shock and confusion.
"Ranma-chan?" he inquired hesitantly.
"DIE!!!" she shouted, racing forward indifferent to his inexplicable utterance. In the back of her mind, she recalled hearing the name a few times, and still had no clue, beyond some ability with chi, who or what this person they referred to was. To her utter amazement, the lightening series of kicks and strikes she executed were either evaded with casual twists and shifts, or absently blocked and deflected with amagurikan speed. It was inconceivable! It was horrifying! When had he mastered such techniques? How could he have ever learned them? Like any of the Musk, he was a formidable opponent at any time, but like all of them he had depended on the Shokei Fist emphasizing his animal heritage. The complex and subtle art she was witnessing as she tried to penetrate his defenses was unprecedented! Could she have mistaken some stranger for her hated brother? Gritting her teeth, she resisted the growing doubt. There was one way to prove he was Lo Shen! She summoned her chi and released a spinning ball of death right into his face. At this range, all he could do was cross his arms over his face and… Flinch, as it was harmlessly absorbed into his own aura.
"Wha-!? What are you doing? Are you insane!?" he shouted at her. If he had not absorbed the chi attack, it would have blown the clinic apart and possibly killed everyone in it! But she was staring at him in vindication, redoubling her physical attacks.
"Son-In-Law! Be careful! That's Fa Shen!" Cologne called out.
"FA SHEN!!?" Ranma gaped in abject surprise.
The disbelief in his voice, combined with the Matriarch's words forced her to pause. His immunity to her chi attack proved he had to be her brother. Well, from what she thought she had just seen, it was easy to reach that conclusion. An odd polarity had existed between the son and daughter of Pa Shen, which caused their chi projections to cancel each other out. Once Ergot learned to respect her chi abilities, he tried to exploit that by sending Lo Shen to subdue her. If not for the basic martial abilities her mother had forced her to learn, and a healthy pile of luck, she would have been defeated by her own brother—married to him but given in truth to his lover, Ergot, to bear the children Lo Shen could not. Would not, anyway, since he was too proud, too MUSK, to dip himself into the spring of drowned woman while it still existed. Pushing that aside, she continued to glare at him. He was the reason she had invested so much in mastering the Art. How dare he somehow surpass her! Then she did a double take. "Son-In-Law!?" she gaped in shock. "You are Shampoo's Airen!?" she laughed at the irony. The idiot blundered into a kiss of marriage with the wrong amazon!?
"Stop laughing! And I ain't her Airen!" he glared at her. "Are you really Fa Shen?" he demanded, looking almost ill and concerned.
"Don't think you can fool me, Lo Shen! Dying your hair, like that's any kind of disguise!" she spat. The look of alarm, as she named him brought a feral grin to her lips. He had denied his union to Shampoo, and no one else had confirmed it. It was time to end this.
"I'm not him!" Ranma shouted, seeing her about to resume the offensive. Ranma-chan and Ranko had warned him that Fa Shen might mistake him for her brother, might try to kill him on sight. It had been their main argument against trying to be her, when he insisted it was the obvious solution to Ranma-chan's dilemma. He had not tapped into her buried psyche as deep as they had and had been foolish enough to doubt them. Now he had to stop her before she killed all of them! He backed off and held his hands up in submission, trying to get her to talk, but she just sneered and spat. "Wait! Gyaaah!" He was forced to stumble back from another lightening chain of lethal, knife hand attacks.
Falling into an acrobatic series of dodges, he crossed through the interior of the clinic and burst out through the back door into a vacant alley. Turning and launching himself over the roof tops, he vied for distance. She followed, taking to the air right after him, oblivious to the others—apart from the charred Happosai—spilling out and pursuing them. It only took her a few moments to realize she was far more skilled than she remembered. Apparently, there was a lot she had forgotten, so perhaps his sudden increase in ability was not so implausible. She let her reflexes guide her into aerial combat, flanking him, cutting across his lines of retreat to force him to engage her. Her irritation only grew, however, as he restrained himself to pure defense. His advantage in strength and his greater reach was more than enough to compensate for her speed, but he was not taking advantage of it. Why?
He continued to retreat until they dropped into the trees in the park. Part of her mind was disturbed at the size of the settlement, the city, she found herself in. The night was filled with brilliant lights, and she could make out buildings that towered six or seven stories, some even more. The sight had only added to her confusion and disorientation, and that only added to her fury. What the hell was going on? Where was she? The only thing she had to compare it to was the Capital of the Chinese Empire, which she had visited with her mother on tribal business during her training. She ignored his pleas and demands for her to cease, desperate to finish this business so she could begin to find answers to her severe displacement. Answers that had been on the verge of coming until he interrupted. Was there a connection?
She glared at him, pondering without relaxing her attack. He had been surprised to hear who she was, but he had met her eyes with a look of familiarity in the clinic. He knew her, but he expected her to be ignorant of who she, and he was. "What did you do to me, you bastard!?" she suddenly demanded, cutting across his litany of appeals and entreaties. "Did you mess with my head? Is that it!? Is that why I can't remember anything about all of this!?" she gestured to the world around her in growing rage.
"If you would just stop fighting, I can explain what is going on!" he cried, dodging another lunge from her. "Ra… Fa Shen! You have to stop or you'll get us both killed!"
"What were you about to call me!?" she paused, chest heaving for air, eyes narrow. The doctor had made the same mistake, almost calling her by another name. She scowled in concentration, trying to puzzle it out. Ra… Ra… She remembered his response to her initial attack, a timid question. "Ranma-chan?" Ranma-chan. Ranma. The mysterious person who had chi attacks that Ukyo had mentioned. Her. "You! Xi Fa Xiang Gao! You took away my memory! You tried to turn me into someone else!" she accused suddenly.
Ranma stared at her and gaped.
"I am NOT Ranma! I am Fa Shen!" she shouted, leaping at him, leg stretched in a flying kick. He leapt straight up to avoid her, but she rebounded off the tree behind him and flew into the air after him. Engaging him in close combat as their trajectories matched up. Finally, he began to lash out, trying to generate an escape vector while driving her into the ground. She grappled in the air, trading blows and hooking his limbs to keep them from separating. Below her, the crowd that had followed from the clinic looked upward and commented.
"It looks like she remembers Ranma's skills," Akane noted.
"Much of that comes with the package, child."
"How did this happen?" Akane demanded, meeting Cologne's eyes.
"Shampoo and Ukyo apparently triggered it, fighting over Ranma."
"Is it permanent?"
"I am afraid I don't know."
The combatants had come to ground and bounded up into the air for another locked pass. As they were coming to the ground again, Ranma managed to drive the girl into the earth by tumbling in her grasp, then flipping around to bring his heels down in the small of her back. He rebounded at once, as she rolled to regain her feet. As he sailed up, she powered up a ball of chi, then snapped her arms wide open to either side, creating a blazing ring of energy that Ranma could only dodge by diving for the center. As he did, though, she snapped her arms together in a resounding clap, sending a charged wall of hardened air to hammer him backwards into the air.
"I don't think I've ever seen that chi attack…" Ukyo blurted, as the sky lit up around them. Whatever the attack was supposed to do, the impact alone was not enough to phase Ranma, and the energy just soaked into him. Only Cologne's wide eyes suggested it should have been more impressive. Growling the girl flared with power then blinked out of sight, a column of spectral flame shooting straight up into the sky. Ranma landed and whipped his head around to spot where she had gone to, when she suddenly dropped out of the sky on top of him. Her body lit up once more in dazzling aura, bringing her to an instant stop at ground level, where Ranma stood until his last second evacuation. It did not save him, however, since in that instant of "impact" her body pulsed like blinding sun, and the air around her exploded outward in an earth shaking roar. It was as though she was some human bomb. After the wind blasted the bystanders and calm settled in it's wake, Ukyo croaked, "Or that one…"
Astonishingly, Ranma righted himself, from where he had been thrown off his feet in the concussion, and boggled at Fa Shen with a pale, twitching face. Fa Shen literally hovered over a crater even Ryouga would be impressed by and looked just as flabbergasted. She knew the nature of her brother's power, knew it's limits, and had devised those attacks specifically to bypass his immunity. Her raw chi alone could not do it, so she had harnessed natural energy, lightening (electrical) and thunder (kinetic energy), and woven it into her attacks. Because her chi controlled the attack, she was automatically protected. It was more like he was absorbing her chi, and gaining control of what she harnessed with it, than simply canceling it out. Even as her sibling, his chi should be too different to permit that!
"Why are you absorbing my attacks!?" she cried in confusion.
"You gonna stop tryin' to kill me so I can answer?" he demanded, taking deep breaths, and letting his mind chew on what he had observed of her techniques. Realizing that she had paused to stare at her hands, at herself, struggling to determine how her attacks had failed, he relaxed a hair more. He had figured out special attacks from direct observation before, and hoped she gave him enough time to catch on to hers before she corrected the problem and resumed her assault. Unfortunately, there was an aspect to what she had done that simply baffled him. He suspected principles as simple as those found in the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, but several levels more sophisticated in theory and practice. Keeping his eyes on her, while his mind whirled, he noticed her increasing distraction. No, not distraction. Her attention was shifting elsewhere, her eyes not seeing, while she examined herself with other senses entirely. As her attention drifted from herself to him, she frowned, meeting his eyes, but staring through him, past him, into him, or something.
"What is this!?" she gasped. Her reserves were notably depleted by the expenditure of chi in what ought to have been a devastating final attack. That was normal. What was not, was feeling ki pouring out of him to replenish them swiftly. Even stranger, an equal flow streamed in from elsewhere, though her and back into him. This was not just a gift of energy, but a vital, natural flow. Her mind wanted to simply reject the impossibility. Unfortunately, she could feel a hidden part of her mind focused on protecting and preserving this matrix. This boy, she realized, was not what he appeared to be. Her vision suddenly focused and allowed their gazes to meet. "Why is our ki bound together?"
"You can see that?" Ranma squawked.
"It's pretty obvious!" she snapped, glaring. Taking a deep breath and becoming angry, a palpable, categoric difference from her original fury, she marched forward and braced her hands on her hips. "You're not my brother! What is this?"
"Fa Shen." The calm, quiet address carried a great weight of reprobation. Fa Shen turned automatically to the elder and suddenly realized what she had done. So many strict amazon laws governing interaction with outsiders had been created just to prevent events like this one. Too many wars had begun with uninformed, emotional conflicts between strangers. By attacking this boy, with his uncanny resemblance to her nemesis, she had exposed herself to the possibility of defeat and marriage. If she had slain him, or injured him before realizing her mistake, she would have drawn the wrath of his people down on the tribe. Worse, she had engaged him under the roof of a healer, an almost universal sanctuary. She had utterly screwed up. In blushing shame, she marched over to the Matriarch, dropped to her knees and bowed low. In a voice of utter contrition, she begged for forgiveness.
"Elder Cologne. Please forgive my outburst."
"That is okay child," Cologne hopped down to her level, cupped her chin and turned her face up to smile at her, wryly. "He does resemble your nemesis."
In a place such as Nerima, where every day some freak event or frightening confrontation between notorious individuals rocked the pillars of the community, often quite literally, two hard and fast rules had evolved. Try not to get involved, or at the very least, try not to notice or think about it, whatever it might be at the moment, and do not take anyone or anything for granted. Sadly, it seemed that in Nerima it was only possible to obey one of these rules at a time. Those individuals who could not grasp the first rule automatically fell into the category the second rule applied to most urgently. Unfortunately, a boy like Hikaru Gosunkugi tended to slip under the radar for most people. While it was true that he was not an imposing specimen of masculinity, and certainly not an outrageously powerful martial artist, he had a knack for creating really bad situations, or complicating them to the point of, well, mayhem. Apart from his obsession with Akane Tendo, which might as well have been the definition of "male" at Furinkan High School, he had a deep, abiding interest in the occult. These two interests drew him to the Tendo dojo like a moth to a bonfire. Ranma Saotome had vindicated the boy's belief in the supernatural. Often he haunted the shadows of the Tendo compound in the hope of picking up secrets about Akane, Ranma and most of all, Magic.
Occasionally, this unhealthy curiosity picked up something he simply had to act upon, which he was woefully unqualified to do. In those cases, he had cause to approach the very heart of darkness in Nerima. Also known as the home of the Kuno family. Tonight, because of an alarming shift in the status quo, he forced himself to brave this lion's den and confront his sometime ally, unspoken rival, and all around insanely dangerous upperclassman, Tatewaki Kuno.
Said bokan wielding maniac was currently rising to his feet in shock, gaping in disbelief and alarm, shouting, "What!?"
"It's true Sempai! I overheard it myself!" Gosunkugi cringed.
"Akane and the Pig-tailed-girl are having dates with Saotome and that cur, Hibiki!?" Kuno demanded, grabbing the boy by the front of his shirt and holding him in the air an inch from his nose.
"Yes. And they both were dressed and made up very nice. I got pictures of both of them!" Gosunkugi babbled, rapidly.
"Show me!" the kendoist demanded, setting him back on his feet. It was a reflex action, to compose himself in preparation for the blissful thrill of seeing new images of the objects of his desires.
"Uh, well. I just dropped the film off to be developed. I'll have them for you tomorrow at school!" the younger boy promised, bowing effusively and cursing his haste. He knew better than to promise anything to Kuno he could not deliver at once. The fiasco that had resulted from his attempt to expose Ranma's weakness to Kuno had taught him at least that much.
"Very well. I expect to hear from you on this again tomorrow, Gosunkugi." Kuno got a grip on himself, shaking off the disappointment of not receiving the pictures, and focused on the problem still at hand. He proceeded to question the other boy about the details of the date and quickly frowned. Gosunkugi had not really picked up on the dates serving any useful purpose, aside from what came from any couple dating. The two couples were going separate ways, which he recalled was one of the things that had been explicitly forbidden by Nabiki in her warning. Considering that his beloved goddess was in the hands of that idiot, Hibiki, there could be no understating the danger to her. With his accursed sense of direction, he could easily lead her to her death, wandering aimlessly over the Earth. Worse, even knowing the danger, Saotome had chosen this time to try and seduce the beauteous Akane Tendo. "I must summon my sister to hear this. You will inform her, as you have informed me, of this unfortunate situation. Then, you must accompany her to ensure that Saotome's date is stopped, and the boy brought here forthwith!"
Gosunkugi swallowed in terror, but nodded. While he feared his sempai, his belief in and practice of voodoo inspired a much greater fear of his sister, with her mastery of potions and poisons. She was far more advanced than he in the Dark Arts. He was, he had to admit, only a tad more lively than a zombie. More than once she had encountered him and assumed he was already hers to command. He obeyed her without hesitation, lest she feel compelled to make him a more obedient, and wholly undead, zombie.
Kuno returned, leading his sister, and paused at the door. "I must make haste lest my fair maiden beat me to the train station, and become lost to me forever because of that cur, Hibiki!" he declared. "My dear, deranged sister, I trust you to deal with Saotome and implore you not to punish the sweet, innocent Akane Tendo for his misguided efforts to seduce her! When I have rescued the Pig-Tailed-Girl, I shall return here to meet with you. Once we have assured their safety, we shall find suitable housing to keep them here in our protective custody! I bid you the best of luck, you two, in your endeavor, and urge you to make haste!" With that, Kuno disappeared.
Kodachi turned to Gosunkugi. She noticed the faint trembling her presence always inspired in the boy, and gave an evil smile. "So," she lazily rasped, "What have you to say before I go to rescue my beloved Ranma-sama from the clutches of that wicked temptress?"
At the Nerima train station, Nodoka stood watchfully behind Ranko's shoulder and smiled as the girl strained not to rush forward and shout at the stammering Ryouga. Even though her mother had evidently prepared a number of note cards citing the proper destinations, procedures and formalities to keep in mind on their date, he had still almost bought them tickets to Yokohama, and argued with the man in the booth for fifteen minutes when he tried to explain that there was no direct train service from Nerima. Then he baffled the man by demanding to know how he was supposed to take his girlfriend all the way to Tokyo if they could not even catch a train "half that distance" to Yokohama. The man had in turn blown Ryouga's mind by carefully explaining that the regular commuter train could take them directly to down town Tokyo with no exotic stops along the way. While the baffled boy finally purchased the necessary tickets, Nodoka turned Ranko around to ask.
"Are you feeling better, Ranko-chan?"
Ranko allowed herself to enter a slight trance to assess her ki. She then met her mother's eyes and nodded, "I think so." The flow of ki seemed to have returned to normal, well, what passed for normal at the moment. She frowned and looked off over the horizon. I am still worried though. One of them had to have been in a fight to use that much energy. If I hadn't spent the whole day learning to control it, I would have probably cut off the flow when that much energy was sucked out of me. She tried to cut off her thoughts, before they began to spill out of her mouth. The only reason she had not rushed off at once to find out what the problem was, was because she had almost fainted when her ki was suddenly drained. She had recovered fairly quickly, since finding herself falling into Ryouga's arms like that had… She shook it off, and reminded herself of what she learned in bed with Copy-kun. Her body had it's own ideas about being in the arms of a protective male. The feelings that came with it were the reason she was in this silly dress and make-up, and if she did not come to terms with it now, she was in for a miserable life.
Her mother caught the storm of emotions that flitted across her daughter's face and sighed behind a smile. "It is not unusual for a girl to suddenly become faint when confronted with new situations and strong emotions. There is no reason to be ashamed, and I assure you, Ryouga-chan will not think any less of you for showing a moment of weakness. Quite the opposite, I would think," Nodoka encouraged.
"He's seen me when I'm weak," she winced. "He thought I was pathetic…" Of course, she had been Ranma, and her rival had lamented the loss of a great challenge. "He protected me, though," she added, in sudden guilt as her mother's eyes hardened on Ryouga. Nodoka turned back to study Ranko with a smile. A smile that reminded her painfully of how her father and Mr. Tendo reacted to the least hint of romance between her and… Between Ranma and Akane. Damn. She had to stop speaking without thinking, or she would end up painting herself into a marriage bed trying to cover up her slips. For the first time she asked herself if being adopted by her mother, becoming her daughter, might not be such a good idea after all. Did she really want to give her parents the power to dictate her life for her again?
Ryouga turned and approached them, "I have our tickets. Are you both ready?" Ranko turned to look up at him and nod. Nodoka made a slight gesture from behind Ranko's back. Catching the hint a moment later, Ryouga offered his arm to the girl. Ranko glanced at it for a moment, and remembered some of the advice she had gotten from her mother. With a carefully subdued sigh, she put her hand on the crook of his arm, and let him lead her, with careful prodding from Nodoka behind them, to the platform.