Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Twenty-Six: The Art of Dating, Step Two: Anticipation
The slim form of a girl paused in the pool of light spilling from a street lamp. With a casual hand, she brushed a few stray hairs out of her face. She frowned, crossing her arms and tapping an arched knuckle against her lower lip. Ryouga had proved to be even more dense than Ranma, but that hardly came as a surprise to Nabiki. Her efforts to hint to the boy the possible consequences of having his curse triggered in front of Nodoka had been wasted, and even the more blatant offer of "insurance", comprised of passing on a direct warning and constructive advice, had fallen on deaf ears. It was annoying that she had failed to make a sufficient impression on Ryouga. How was she supposed to be helpful, without completely blowing her image, if the idiot failed to realize that even with a price her advice was valuable and important? Shaking her head, she realized she should have made more of an effort to pry Ranko away from her mother so she could have talked to the girl instead. With a dismissive sigh, she shrugged. Bribing teenage punks to try and douse Ryouga had been enough to alert the couple to the danger, and it had not hurt her image any to do it. It might even prompt one of them to come demanding the advice she had after all.
Besides, if she had not decided to stalk the couple for that purpose, she would have missed the encounter between Kuno and Nodoka. She grinned. Oh, that was just priceless! What better spokesman for the warped truth could there be? Nabiki made a note to work out a way to untangle the eventual mess Nodoka's "enlightenment" would cause if she happened to be confronted by the truth. It would be a bit harder than explaining how Ranma kept turning up in girls' clothes because of Happosai, but, with all the facts on Kuno it would be possible to convince Nodoka that no one had outright lied to her.
"I just hope it isn't necessary," Nabiki breathed. "Now, the main question is, what did I miss while I was dragging Kuno home?" This had been bothering her since she stopped by Dr. Tofu's clinic to pass on the details of Kuno and Nodoka's meeting to Ranma-chan, and make sure she had been warned about her mother staying for the night. Finding the clinic unlocked, but occupied solely by a charred and babbling Happosai, greatly disturbed her. She sensed there had been some kind of battle, and from the signs there had been time to straighten, clean, and effect minor repairs to the clinic. A quick call from the clinic to the restaurant where Ranma was supposed to be taking her sister established that they had arrived and not caused any disturbances. Unable to get two coherent words out of Happosai, she had left, locking the clinic up and placing the spare key where Dr. Tofu normally hid it.
"There was no answer at the Nekohanten," she added to her mental tally. "I suppose I should just swing by home first. Ranma-chan might have needed to get some things while Nodoka was gone, if she learned she had to sleep somewhere else tonight. Since Dr. Tofu was supposed to be watching her, he probably went with her." Well, it was a plausible scenario, and the Cat Café was further away from where she was at the moment.
Nabiki resumed walking and soon arrived at her family's home. Announcing her arrival, while slipping out of her shoes and coat, she was immediately alerted to trouble by the absence of a response from Kasumi. In bare feet, she slipped soundlessly toward the Tea Room, hoping to pick up some conversation to clue her in to what was going on.
"I still say we should just splash her with hot water," Genma's voice could be heard arguing. "I don't see why that won't work if it did the trick the first time!" From the tone of his voice, he was arguing a moot point, and had been for some time. Nabiki could guess immediately who he was talking about, and from the context guessed that someone had cornered Ranma-chan with a cat.
"I agree with Saotome-kun," Soun whined in typical support of his friend.
"I have already explained to you both the danger Ranma-chan faces in this instance," that was Dr. Tofu, and from the strained sound of his voice, there was something seriously wrong that Nabiki could not account for. She held her breath, hoping the doctor would feel the need to explain things from the top. Fortunately, precedent was on her side. "Fa Shen was in full possession of Ranma-chan's body when I triggered the curse the first time. I suspect the shock of the turning into a boy startled her enough for Ranma-chan to reassert herself, but unlike her cat personality, I expect Fa Shen would not be dislodged that way a second time. She's an intelligent girl and quite capable of adapting to a situation once she is familiar with it. However, neither of them is in control at the moment, so triggering the curse might induce a coma. In her present condition, I do not think Ranma-chan could survive more than a day in such a state."
"But we can't just sit here and do nothing!" Genma protested. To Nabiki's surprise he seemed to be in genuine distress. Unless she was seriously mistaken, that was real parental concern coming from a man who had turned abuse and neglect into an art form.
"Tofu-sensei, I mean no disrespect, but is it wise to leave the girl under Cologne's ministrations? I don't see how Ranma's personality can reassert itself with those amazons crowding her, if their presence is what provoked this Fa Shen personality in the first place," Soun complained. Nabiki's eyebrows shot up. Her father was not completely dense, but someone must have spelled things out for him in detail to make him argue a point in his "it's a martial artist's duty to protect the weak" manner.
Nabiki quickly shifted what she had learned through her mind and considered the picture that developed. Nodding, she walked into the room and announced, "I am sure Ranma-chan will be delighted to know you two are so concerned about her. I thought you would be cheering her on to become Fa Shen at the first opportunity."
"Nabiki!? When did you get here? Do you know what is going on?"
Some version of that came from all three men, but she focused on the loudest voice, Genma's, and smiled. "I just got here, Mr. Saotome. If I am correct, the ghost of Fa Shen has reared her head?" she quirked an eyebrow, and waited for the nods. "Well, that complicates things. I better go see if Sis needs some help upstairs," she excused herself, careful not to mention Kasumi's name in Tofu's presence.
Slinking quietly up the stairs, she positioned herself outside the guest room and perked an ear to the conversation inside. In a moment, she confirmed that the three amazons were indeed present, along with Ukyo and Kasumi. Thinking back to the visits of both rival fiancées, and pondering the fact that, if her father had been correct, the amazons supposedly provoked the emergence of Fa Shen's ghost, Nabiki herself had a hand in creating this situation. She had hoped the attention from Shampoo would be good for Ranma-chan, and it burned in her gut to learn she had been wrong. Soaking up the quiet debate between the three teens and Cologne, Nabiki filled in the holes and considered the situation.
"Fa Shen become part of Airen before Airen split into reflections!" Shampoo interrupted Mousse, who was going on about what would happen if Ranma-chan was allowed to claim her amazon identity. "Shampoo no can kill Ranko! Is also Fa Shen inside!"
"Wait a second, Sugar," Ukyo cut in. "If that's true then this could also happen to Ranma and Ranko! That's crazy! They can't all be Fa Shen!"
"Is so, just like all can be Ranma!" Shampoo huffed.
"That is something to be concerned about," Cologne moderated, quieting the rest. "Obviously the legends about resurrection through a Jusenkyo curse need to be reexamined, since I certainly did not expect Son-In-Law to obtain anything more than the memories of his former incarnation. The girl who possessed Ranma-chan has a will of her own, to be certain."
"You knew about Fa Shen all along," Ukyo challenged. Nabiki resisted the urge to peer around the door way to see her expression. "You expect us to believe you weren't hoping Ranma would become her? If you were at all concerned about Ranma, you could have at least warned everyone that something like this could happen!"
"I am certain no one would have believed me," Cologne uttered dryly, after delivering a solid rap to Ukyo's head. "I sincerely doubt Fa Shen could have surfaced like this if Ranma-chan's psyche had not been weakened by doubts and uncertainties caused by the existence of her reflections. In his rightful mind, Ranma would have been too self possessed for her to gain a foothold, since the very idea of being reborn as a man would repel Fa Shen. For the same reason, I doubt Fa Shen could possess Ranma and Ranko in their current states."
"But it's possible?" Mousse asked hesitantly.
Cologne must have nodded, because a triumphant Shampoo crowed, "There! Stupid Mousse understand now? No can try stupid scheme, kill Ranko and make Shampoo Mousse slave!"
"Certainly not!" Mousse huffed, then mumbled, "Not if that just forces the old mummy to kill you so your honor is restored!" A skull ringing thwack followed.
"I am not deaf, you know." The distinctive sound of cloth fluttering as a body burst into motion proceeded another cranial concussion that rang through the walls. Cologne added with slightly more indignation. "I am not feeble either, you insolent pup! If you can't surprise me in my sleep, or slip me poisoned food, what makes you think you can get the drop on me from across the room?"
"Mousse has been trying to kill you!?" Ukyo and Kasumi asked in surprise.
"I am afraid that Son-In-Law has been a bad influence on Mousse. I am certain he thinks that if he can just defeat me, he could prove himself worthy of Shampoo. I made the mistake of informing him that if he ever succeeded in besting me, he had better take advantage of the opportunity to kill me, since it's a sure thing I will whip him within an inch of his pathetic life for his impertinence! Ironically, that equates to a command from an elder with the force of law," she cackled. "I will say this, it does keep an old woman on her toes!"
"I will never understand you amazons," Ukyo groused.
Nabiki strained her ribs trying to suppress her laughter. There was a long pause before Cologne spoke again. "Well, Ranma-chan's pulse is strong and her temperature is back to normal. I take that as a sign she will be rejoining us shortly."
"Or Fa Shen," Ukyo lamented.
"Shampoo think Fa Shen pretty nice, too bad is dead girl come back to haunt Airen. Is good no can give kiss of death to amazon womans, Shampoo not think be fun to kiss ghost! Not seem right give again kiss of death to Ranma-chan!" There was a strangled sound from Mousse.
"I have hot water ready if Ranma-chan is possessed when she wakes up," Kasumi informed everyone cheerfully. Nabiki smiled, that was her sister, always willing to banish demons and ghosts with a gracious apology and a smile. Nabiki decided she had sponged up enough information to make an appearance.
"I see that becoming a girl hasn't diminished Ranma-chan's appeal to the women in her life," Nabiki commented, entering just behind Shampoo and Ukyo. Seeing the two martial artists stiffen in shock sent a thrill of pleasure through Nabiki.
"Welcome home, Nabiki!" Kasumi beamed.
"I was wondering when you would show up," Cologne smirked.
"Someone had to make sure Ranko and Ryouga didn't get away from Mrs. Saotome before they all got on the train. That gives us a couple hours to get Ranma-chan here packed up and hidden away before her mother shows up and everything goes pear shaped."
Fa Shen and Ranma-chan returned to the porch overlooking the pond and resumed their seats in confusion. Coming to an agreement about their situation had not altered their circumstances in the least. In whatever corner of oblivion they had become lodged, with respect to the waking world, there seemed to be no obvious way for either of them to get out. A quick tour of the scene they found themselves in proved to be a detailed approximation of the Tendo Dojo, allowing Ranma-chan to fill her compatriot in on the specifics of her current home, but it did not provide any clues for how Ranma-chan was supposed to wake up. Her effort before that, closing her eyes and trying to will herself to wake up, had also proved fruitless. She choked down her rising alarm and tried to think of what to do, but in the realm of martial arts there was no technique or discipline particularly suited to this instance.
"I just don't get it," she muttered, scowling.
"I think this is my fault," Fa Shen winced. She thought about what she had experienced and done as Ranma-chan fought off her possession. "I mean, you were trying to shove me down, and I somehow dragged you down with me. Obviously that sent us someplace different from where one of is locked away while the other has control."
"It's kinda like a dream," Ranma-chan nodded. "I've had a lot of dreams where I knew I was dreaming, but I couldn't wake up. I'm sure there's something in here that'll snap me awake, I just haven't figured out what it is yet."
Fa Shen considered that and nodded. She allowed her thoughts to wander as Ranma-chan went back to studying the pond for inspiration. Confronting Ranma-chan had allowed her to get things sorted out, let her mind adjust to her death and resurrection. Reincarnation was a concept she could understand much better than resurrection. She had grown up with the idea that one day she would die, and later she would be reborn as a completely different person. There were those who could remember past lives, but they were just memories. In her case, she was literally back from the dead. Considering that she had been murdered, her life mercilessly cut short, she hoped the fact did not completely unbalance her karma. Ranma-chan was safe just remembering Fa Shen's life, but if she had actually become Fa Shen, as she seemed to be considering, it would wreak absolute havoc with Ranma-chan's karma. That was not just some fear of losing her identity and existence to Ranma-chan talking, either. Fa Shen suspected it would be just as bad for her to try and assume Ranma-chan's place. No, there was a unique path for both of them, they just needed to figure out how to walk it. Her future started with where she was now; her first step was dealing with it. She blinked and shook her head. It was mind boggling to sit there and get to know the person she had become, a person she was not simply because Jusenkyo had frozen her at the moment of her death and then thrust her onto Ranma-chan. A cold chill raced down her spine and through her limbs.
Her eyes widened as she continued to look at Ranma-chan. It had finally hit her. When she drowned at Jusenkyo, not only had her life been stolen from her, but Ranma-chan's life had been stolen from her as well. This was a lot more than being in two places at the same time. Ranma-chan was literally another person who just happened to have the same soul as herself. She could not be Ranma-chan without ceasing to be herself! That was why they had both been oblivious to each other. Fa Shen had not GONE anywhere when Ranma-chan was in control; she had BEEN Ranma-chan and Fa Shen had ceased to exist. Except as a bunch of untapped memories. She strangled a cry of shock.
Ranma-chan turned toward her in alarm, "What is it!?"
"Oh, gods," Fa Shen blanched. "You're not going to like this…"
Ranma-chan urged her to explain, her face growing paler as Fa Shen led her through the logic of her revelation. After repeating her thoughts, she went on, "The situation with you and I is different from the situation with you and your reflections. Actually, since you and I came together with the curse, they probably have my memories as well as yours, so they are our reflections. The situation you and I are in is similar to what happens to victims of the Chaunshontsuniichaun." Ranma-chan's glazed eyes and blank face told Fa Shen that she had no clue what she was getting at. Blushing and clearing her throat, she offered, "Maybe I should just compare the effects of the spring to the effects of this mirror you have told me about."
"I think I am going to get a headache," Ranma-chan moaned.
"Sorry, my mind is racing," Fa Shen took a deep breath. "Alright, I've seen cursed twins, and I also studied Ranma, the male reflection. Cursed twins do not share ki, the way we do with the reflections. When the curse is triggered by cold water, the original person ceases to exist and two exact incarnations of her take her place. They don't share ki, each one is as perfect as the original, each one is independent. When the curse is triggered by hot water, the twins cease to exist and a new 'original' manifests, possessing all the memories of both twins. The same thing seems to happen with the mirror, as far as memories go, but the process never makes the reflections independent. They're actually projections of the original."
"Projections?" Ranma-chan scratched her head in confusion.
"Yes," Fa Shen nodded. "The difference is in the magic. A Jusenkyo curse is hard to get rid of, because it actually becomes a part of the victim during the first transformation. The magic is really powerful. It creates and destroys. In the blink of an eye, it destroys one body and creates another. That way, the magic is only operating for an instant, the rest of the time the victim is perfectly normal." She paused to allow Ranma-chan to think.
Ranma-chan frowned and tried to put it into terms she could understand. "So, a curse is like a special technique. Say, like the Cat Fist. I 'learned' it, making it a part of me, but I can't control it."
"Did you say 'Cat Fist'?" Fa Shen recoiled in horror.
Ranma-chan nodded.
"I… no, we can talk about that later," Fa Shen shuddered and forced herself to push that aside. There would be time to make Ranma-chan tell her in detail how she had been subjected to that horror, and find out if there were any other such traumas and abominations rooted in her psyche. "If you mean what I think you mean, then that's a good example. What we call magic is something that exists in all of us. The trick being to know how to do something with it, and in the case of Jusenkyo, that 'knowledge' is branded into the psyche. Traditional Masters of the Shokei Fist were those who could take a curse and get control over it…"
"What!?" Ranma-chan interrupted. "Did you say it was possible to CONTROL a curse?"
"Yes, but, let me finish what I was trying to explain," she snapped.
"Uh, sorry. Go on," Ranma-chan hunched down meekly.
"Right, so, the magic of a curse does it's job in a flash, and then goes dormant. The mirror is very different, I think. From what I see, the magic exists entirely in the mirror, and it stays active to maintain the reflections of its victims. Basically, it's forcing us to be in two… sorry, three places at once. It's got us spread out keeping the different bodies alive."
"Um, if that's so, how could it work as a cure then?" Ranma-chan quickly repeated the assumptions they were currently working with.
"Obviously, the curse makes some kind of difference, if the only survivor of the mirror was a curse victim," Fa Shen qualified, propping her elbows on her knees thoughtfully. "My guess is that a cursed original acts as the focus of the magic, and the reflections just the effect. At the same time, it's the weak point. The mirror sucks the ki away from the cursed original and pours it all in the reflections. The original survives because the ki naturally flows back to its center. If the ki of the victim is stretched to the breaking point, the naked center is most vulnerable. The only thing the center can do is attempt to draw ki back to itself. The reflections have the advantage of being able to contain their ki, and a sudden demand would cause them to seal themselves off. Under normal circumstances, the original would die from a lack of ki, but the mirror is still actively draining the center, to the point where it literally unravels that body to suck up every last trace of ki. The original ceases to exist, and the final effects of the mirror's magic is to shunt the ki to the reflections. Assuming a normal curse victim, and not something like us, if the reflections survive the trauma of having the original's ki ripped in half, they both eventually recover and become independent entities," Fa Shen straightened her legs, leaning back and bracing her arms behind her while she stared out at the horizon. "I don't see how that would help you or I."
"You don't have to say that twice," Ranma-chan frowned and shrugged. "Okay, so, you were saying that you and me are like cursed twins. I did not follow that part."
"We're like that because we are two different people with the same soul. I am sure if we tried, we could remember each other's lives, but we both have our own unique perspective. By definition, I can't be you and you can't be me. The only way for you to be me is to BE me, and I am not you. Get it?"
"Uh…" Ranma-chan's face contorted as she worked that out. "Sure. I mean, that's what it means to be you. Oh!" she finally understood what Fa Shen was getting at. She was right, Ranma-chan did not like it. "But, I don't understand how that can work. How can I just cease to exist, even if I am you?"
"Um, you don't. You still exist, you're just me. It's 'Ranma-chan' who ceases to exist," she explained carefully.
Ranma-chan blinked a couple of times as she repeated that to herself. For some reason this concept seemed really important. It seemed to touch heavily upon the struggle she had been going through since her return from Mirror Mansion. It had been plaguing her, how could she just give up being Ranma? How could she survive that? If she succeeded, and it sure looked like she had, who was she if she was not Ranma? It had been surprisingly easy to let go of her masculine personality, though she had clung to the fragment of female psyche she had discovered and had been rebuilding her identity around it. Strangely, that had protected her from becoming Fa Shen, caused her to be someone who could not be Fa Shen. But who? She opened her eyes and whispered, "My self."
"What?" Fa Shen had no clue what that was supposed to mean.
"I am me," Ranma-chan elaborated, a look of confidence coming back to her. Fa Shen tilted her head in continuing confusion. "I mean, I am not Ranma. I am me. Ranma is who I thought I was, but Ranma was me." Fa Shen's eyes narrowed in irritation. Ranma-chan sighed, realizing that her point was not coming across. "Ranma and Ranko are both identities I associate with myself, but they're not who I am. I mean, they come from me. I don't come from them."
Fa Shen opened her mouth, but paused to think before speaking. Something Ranma-chan had said, while explaining her transition from male persona to female persona, came to mind. "Let me see if I get this. You told the others that Ranma was who you were as a man, and Ranko was who you were as a woman. So, are you talking about who you are as a cursed woman?"
"Uh, maybe. It's more like, I just realized who I am in spite of everything. Who I am underneath it all," Ranma-chan smiled, relieved to finally make her point. Now that she had put that much in words, she realized a better way to say it, "I am the one who understands me, even if I can't explain myself."
Fa Shen digested that. "You know, if you really pushed me to define myself, that's exactly what I might say. I don't see how you could be a different person than me, if that's the definition of who you are."
"I don't think so. If I understand what it means to be me, I don't think I could understand things the same way you do. If I understood you, I'd be you. I'd understand my responsibilities as you, and my responsibilities as me would be neglected. Man, that's confusing!" Ranma-chan stood up and began to pace around in thought. "This is why I hate thinking about things. You start trying to figure out what it all means and you just get sucked in deeper and deeper until nothing is what it seems to be anymore."
"Maybe you should stop when you reach something useful. It looked like you figured something out there, and it sort of does make sense," Fa Shen got to her feet and followed Ranma-chan out onto the grass. "There is a point where you and I are the same person. However we got to THIS point, we both have had our lives interrupted. Even if we have to do the same thing right now, we each have different paths to follow if we can survive this."
"Yeah," Ranma-chan kicked a rock into the pond. A thought suddenly hit her and the whipped around to stare at Fa Shen in excitement. "That's it!"
"You sure get excited when you come up with ideas," she quipped.
"Hey!" Ranma-chan scowled. Fa Shen grinned at her, gesturing for her to share her newest revelation. Ranma-chan nodded and composed herself, "We were tryin' to figure out why I couldn't wake up, but now it makes perfect sense. We got here by fighting over which one of us we were. Until then, we were sort of locked together. Now that we recognize each other, we're both tryin' to be ourselves, and neither of us wants the other to give up bein' herself, right?"
Fa Shen nodded, seeing how they had reached a deadlock by choosing not to fight for dominance. "Okay, so, what did you figure out?"
"We have to do it together!" Ranma-chan grinned, it was so obvious.
"Uh, together? Wake up together?" Fa Shen quirked an eyebrow.
"Yes! It's the only way we can keep our truce."
Ranma and Akane ate their dinner in silence. The meal had arrived while the two of them were brooding over the future. Neither had really dismissed the notion of joining forces to delay the wedding, but given the interest Akane's rivals showed in Ranma-chan they needed to consider other ways to frustrate their fathers. Akane had related Ukyo's opinion on Ranma-chan's prospects of regaining manhood through marriage to her, and it need not be said that Shampoo felt the same. This had caused Ranma to go quiet in private contemplation of whether or not they had any right to interfere with the two girls' interest in Ranma-chan. They both felt that any circumstances that allowed Ranma-chan retain some part of her former existence, that did not directly conflict with "Ranma's" family obligations, should be encouraged. Her survival might well depend on having something like that to hold on to. Otherwise, there was every chance that Ranma-chan might see no reason not to hand her existence over to Fa Shen.
Ranma, eating slowly because of his distraction, or at a pace normal for any other human being, put down his knife and fork and sighed. Akane looked up in concerned curiosity. Ranma gazed at her thoughtfully for several moments and decided to voice his thoughts as her expression changed to one of annoyance. "I was just thinking of Ranma-chan's other problem. Fa Shen. That whole thing, it's like… no, she WAS another person, not just memories," Ranma pointed out. "I have this really bad feeling about that. I think Ranma-chan's in a lot more danger than just dying or losing her identity."
"I've been trying not to think about that," Akane's face immediately fell.
"Yeah, well, you're not going to like this then," Ranma frowned. Akane watched him push his unfinished meal away from himself, carelessly tossing his linen napkin over his plate as if to hide an unappetizing sight. That, more than anything, told her what he had to say next was definitely not going to be good. She picked at her food for a moment, avoiding his eyes, but found herself dismissing her meal as well. It was an excellent meal, but her nervous stomach was unable to appreciate it. When she finally met his eyes, he bit his lip. "I have this feeling that she's different from my neko side. I mean, that's a totally different state of mind, but when I'm a c-c-cat I'm still me, y'know?"
Akane blinked, but otherwise gave no reaction. She suddenly knew where this was going. "You don't think Fa Shen's the same? I mean, you don't think Ranma-chan was just out of her mind?"
"I was thinkin' about it when I was comin' back to meet you after that fight with Kodachi. The old mummy said I got her memories 'cuz part of her soul was trapped in the spring, her ghost. Well, if people only get cursed with her exact form because her ghost tried to possess 'em, doesn't it kinda make sense than that she actually did possess me? It would explain why I had enough ki for two people," he pointed out miserably.
"I didn't think of that. So, you think that was the real Fa Shen that attacked you," Akane concluded, leaning back and crossing her arms.
"Yeah," Ranma nodded.
"We've seen enough real ghosts, and similar things, I can't say it isn't possible, but," Akane frowned. She shook her head, "The only way that could make things worse is if she… Wait, why do I think you're worried about more than her trying to possess Ranma-chan?"
"Oh, that would be a problem with any ghost, but because she was murdered I'd have to feel sorry for her. I mean, her life was not finished. It was taken away. Same thing is happening to Ranma-chan, so she'd really feel for her," Ranma elaborated. Akane stiffened in growing comprehension. "I'm worried that, if there's no chance for Ranma-chan to get her life back, it'll make her wanna give Fa Shen what she can't have for herself."
"You don't think she'd really sacrifice herself for a dead girl!?"
"Why not? I know I would, if I could," Ranma shrugged.
"Why? That's insane!"
"No it isn't. As a martial artist, I am always willing to exchange my life to save someone else's."
"But she's already dead!"
"No. I don't think so. 'S more like she hovering on the brink of death," Ranma argued stubbornly. "Her body died, but her spirit is still alive, like that weirdo, Eggroll. Her ki isn't cold like a real ghost's."
"What?"
"Don'cha remember that weird ghost that wanted Happosai to steal her underwear?" Akane wrinkled her nose in disgust over being reminded, but nodded in confusion. "Yeah, well, even when she was calm, her ki was colder than my 'Soul of Ice' but when she got upset, it got so cold it felt hot. The ki she put into those paper panty illusions was literally sucking the life outta the old fart!" Ranma crossed his arms in contempt at the way Happosai had acted.
"So, you think Fa Shen's alive because her ki is warm?"
"Yep," he smiled. He gestured for silence as someone approached their table. The waiter had noticed that they had both stopped eating and shoved their plates aside. He inquired if they were interested in a dessert, but Ranma grunted and shook his head, so Akane decided not to order anything. They had done enough to satisfy her father's expectations of a "real" date, and she felt no inclination to drag it out. She waited patiently as the table was cleared and Ranma settled the bill.
Once they were outside, Akane turned to him, "So, now what should we do?"
Ranma shrugged, "I know this wasn't much of a date. I was plannin' on doin' something after dinner, but I really oughta swing by the dojo and get some things if I'm gonna sleep somewhere else tonight."
"Before your mom gets back with Ranko?"
"Yeah."
"Where are you and Ranma-chan going to sleep tonight?"
Ranma noticed the forced nonchalance and chuckled. They both knew that Dr. Tofu did not have room for the pair to sleep in his tiny apartment over the clinic, and that Shampoo or Ukyo would fall over themselves offering a place to sleep—most likely in their own beds, since they had as little room as Tofu to spare. "Actually, I was thinkin' me and Ranma-chan would shack up in an empty lot somewhere. Pops will sleep as a panda, like usual, so I can snag the tent for us," he explained, to Akane's relief.
"That sounds okay, after you're done getting your camping gear you can go pick up Ranma-chan from the clinic," Akane nodded, approving the plan. With this understanding, the two fell into step and began the walk back to the dojo. By the end of the first block, they were quietly holding hands and trying to pretend it was no big deal.
It was hard to decide if things had improved much since she nearly shocked poor Ryouga to death. Ranko had spent the rest of the meal trying to figure out if he was so pale from blood loss, from that spectacular nose bleed, or if he was simply terrified that the topic would come up again. While she lured him into conversation by bringing up and discussing some of their past exploits, she was surprised to find that she was insanely tempted to return to the question of what the pair of them might do with the contents of her purse. If she had any idea what effect the glow her shameful thoughts brought to her face had on Ryouga, she might have realized how easy it would be to lead the lost boy down that path of experimentation. Fortunately, she was too busy wondering at herself. She had always been a very physical and sensual person. It came from how she grew up, a great deal closer to nature than most and possessing far more developed senses. In fact, when it had been vital to preserve her manhood, she had convinced herself that the torture she suffered every time she had bathed was simply an example of how hyper sensitive she was. It was her habit to wash and rinse in cold water before soaking in a furo or onsen. She had gotten used to bathing in cold water within the first week she was cursed, and perhaps that had something to do with why she was only careful to bathe in hot water at public baths or in the company of Mousse or Ryouga.
She looked down, outwardly listening to Ryouga describing one of his long journeys, and swallowed hard. It was too easy to summon up images of his naked body. Even as a boy she had admired the simple animal beauty of his form, but only as a girl could she admit that it made an impression on her. With a stifled moan if anguish she reminded herself not to retreat behind her own masculinity. When she tried that to shake off the feelings prompted by her mother's demonstration, she had been horrified to discover that the memory of her former body gave her an overwhelming appreciation for the male form that her current wiring and hormones transformed into pure, gut wrenching lust. No, Ranko was not particularly feminine, but she was certainly female through and through. She should have known it would happen, since she had already experienced the reverse as Ranma.
She had been a sixteen year old boy when she was cursed, and he had developed quite normally. Without a clue, he had nevertheless developed a fascination with and appreciation for the female form. While he guarded himself from the distractions girls represented to his training, he certainly had developed a desire for girls which accounted for the actual trauma of his transformation. It did not make sense at the time, and he had been terrified that it was some aspect of the curse, trying to make him accept it, but the simple fact was that he had been attracted to his cursed form. The feelings he had felt toward girls, which his father had assured him were normal, just a way for him to know how much he liked them, were strongly aroused by his curse. He was quite positive he hated his curse, but at the same time his feelings were telling him he liked it more than he liked other girls!
Fortunately, those feelings had gradually changed to something he was familiar with in his normal form, an unconscious appreciation for how his body was built and how it worked. As much as he hated it, he could not deny his curse had given him an excellent new body with different strengths and weaknesses, and more importantly, a new challenge to his martial arts skills.
Ironically, the shift in perspective had totally demystified girls in his eyes. To his shock, the next time he encountered girls, they had not aroused any special interest. No more than he'd ever felt towards other boys. As had been the case with boys, there were certain situations that provoked strange responses similar to attraction, being touched in certain places or in certain ways that tempted him to lower his guard. His view of people's attractiveness shifted to other things, such as hygiene, health, fitness, personality. Perhaps that was why Shampoo had seemed ugly to him until she fell for his boy side.
Of course, there had been something else that had helped change the way he looked at things, from the beginning. His first bath as a girl had, unintentionally, become the longest bath of his life. The first time he had been given an opportunity to satisfy his curiosity about girls' bodies, his hands had been the only practical means to explore with. Like any boy his age, he was already familiar with the electrifying grip of pleasure, so when it bit him then, it had been a thankfully familiar experience. After all, with the loss of the part of him he associated with those wonderful sensations, he had assumed he had lost the capacity for such feeling altogether. It had been a relief to learn that something so profound had not been lost. Unfortunately, the mechanics of pleasure were different in this new form, radically so. By the time he exhausted the gripping need, there was nothing he did not know about his new anatomy. Worse, his new form seemed to have a greater capacity for pleasure, since he had refused to relent until he reached the point where his girl body climaxed in ejaculation. As a boy, he would have been spent at the first peak, but as a girl it had taken a virtual mountain range to erupt.
The worst of all, his father had come running to his disturbing cries and stood there in absolute shock witnessing it all. Ranma had not been too disturbed, since the same had happened to the boy at a younger age, and his father had taken him aside to assure him that what he was doing was as natural as eating and excreting, and like the latter to be done in privacy and only to relieve the pressure. So, it was a shock to see his father break down and decry his shame for what his son had done. It had been incomprehensible. In spite of his initial discomfort, Genma had permitted no complaint against pissing or shitting as a girl, saying that hot water was a luxury during a training mission and would not be provided to accommodate his insecurities over his new form. When he calmed down, Genma finally took Ranma aside and explained that his new form was not "designed" to relieve his "manly" pressure, as evidenced by the difficulty Ranma had obviously had with it. Attempting to do so was unnatural and he was forbidden to do so again.
Ranma had tried to comply with the command, but it was impossible to bathe without arousing that need. Fortunately, it was only necessary to peak once to fulfill that need. It was enough to break the spell of pleasure, and in time he learned how to avoid getting aroused in either form. Now, it struck her as ironic. She had continued to "clean the pipes" to relieve "manly" pressure, but used her female form to release her tensions because it was less messy. Because her father insisted that "girls did not do that" she had never had any compunctions about what she was doing. In fact, she was positive that she was reinforcing her manhood by doing such a "manly" thing even in her female form. She found herself giggling, as she thought back over the past few days. Thanks to Copy-chan, who had gone into explicit detail on the topic of making love with Hiroshi and Daisuke, Ranko now knew that the things she had feared the curse might tempt her with, the things Hiroshi and Daisuke had hinted Ranma might do which "only girls could do", were in fact things she had done all along. Maybe Ranma would have lost that fear if he had taken their comments more seriously. She now knew that she had dismissed outright sexual innuendo as absurd. The way boys talked about sex acts, they all sounded like ways to piss someone off. Sticking this in that, sucking on those, getting together naked, it all sounded like perverse ways to offend and humiliate people, and therefore were not to be taken seriously.
There had been too much her father had kept her ignorant of. Whenever she did get some clue, it was always out of context and she had refused to admit her ignorance. The worst had been her period. Calculating back, she now assumed her first period had gone unnoticed while she was swimming home from China. The cramps had come the morning she and her father left, and Genma had blamed it on the fish they had eaten for dinner, forcing her to quit griping and start swimming. In short time, she was too miserable from swimming in the cold water to worry about cramps, and the two or three days it took them to reach Japan was enough to leave her with no trace of bleeding. No, she had not confronted that insanity until she had been living at the dojo for a month. Naturally, she had been fighting recently, so she had faced the discovery of blood in her boxers with understandable dread. The cramps added to the assumption that something inside her was ruptured, but pain was never enough to keep her down. It never occurred to her to speak to Kasumi, she just flew straight to see Dr. Tofu.
The doctor had calmed her panic, and examined her at once. After a number of embarrassing questions she had not understood, except to say that no one had ever touched her down there, and she could not imagine anyone even wanting to, he stifled an embarrassed laugh, and tried to explain that there was nothing to be worried about. Ranma had been livid. She recounted a recent battle where she had taken a hard blow to the abdomen. There was obviously something very wrong with her, she felt like something was shredded inside of her. Then, after explaining that this was not his area of expertise, the doctor had explained she was having her period. Tofu had carefully explained the female reproductive cycle, bringing out a book to illustrate that a girl's body was different on the inside and why. The shock of learning that she was capable of becoming pregnant overwhelmed most of the lesson, especially an abbreviated explanation of sex. She got away with, have sex, get pregnant, and some carefully memorized instructions for purchasing certain items to deal with the immediate problem. If she had paid any attention to the discussion on sex, nothing in the world would have gotten her to select and use tampons. Because pads required panties, she did not give them a second thought. Thus, until recently, tampons were the only thing she knew of that had any business going in "there".
Ranko looked up and smiled at Ryouga. As hard as it was to believe, studying him as feelings of love and lust churned along with all of these thoughts, she could not deny she had found a much better use for that portion of her anatomy. Ranma-chan had been right, unfortunately she had given Ranko the idea that it would be difficult. She did not have to become a girl, she only had to admit that she already was one. Blinking, she realized that Ranma-chan had not misled her. She had put it exactly right. All she had needed to do was understand.
Ryouga had rambled on almost desperately, aware that there was something worlds apart from his tales of wandering going on in her mind. He could see it in the mercurial shifts of her expression, as she blushed and occasionally giggled to herself at inopportune moments. It did not really bother him that she was only half listening to him, because when she looked at him his heart did a back flip or tried to burst out of his chest. The glimmer of love or passion or humor burned in her eyes, adding to the radiant glow of her face, made her even more beautiful. Realizing that he had lost his train of thought, he gulped and glanced around, "I think every guy in the room is staring at you!"
She blushed a little darker, but her smile grew into a grin, "The only one I want to look back at is you."
Ryouga pulled at his collar, expecting a cloud of steam to emerge. "Ah," he laughed nervously, "Are you sure that's just water you're drinking?"
She frowned a little, cutely, and tipped her glass to look inside, "I actually tried to get something stronger, but Mom apparently told the waiter I'm under age. Sure feels like I'm three sheets to the wind. I guess I'm just drunk on you!" she looked up with another radiant smile.
Ryouga opened and shut his mouth a few times, striving for words.
Seeing the poor boy was about to blow a gasket again, she sighed. "I didn't expect it to happen so fast. I keep thinking there's something to figure out, Ryouga, but the truth is, I have all these feelings inside me and all I needed to do was stop pretending they weren't real. Now that I have," she paused as Ryouga stiffened in realization and leaned forward. She collected herself, "Everything I felt for you with the koi rod, I am feeling now, and then some. I've been a girl for a lot longer than I realized, and I was so messed up 'cuz I didn't dare look for what I wanted. For the first time I understand Ukyo and Shampoo, how they felt about me, 'cuz… I feel that way with you."
"Ranko?" he whispered in shock and suppressed hope.
"Ryouga…" she looked down. She firmed her resolve and looked up, "I love you. I don't understand how, or why… I mean… I've always liked you, even when you're being a total ass, even when you're tryin' to kill me, I respect you, I am impressed by how strong you are, how good you are." Ryouga was literally gaping at her in disbelief. "I mean, there are times I really hate you, like all that crap with P-Chan and Akane, and blaming me for everything that goes wrong in your life. But the fact is, I'm not much better'n you when it comes to dealing with people. All I really know is the Art, and… let's face it, I wouldn't be as good as I am now without you. I wish you didn't hate me so much, 'cuz, without that you seem to be a pretty decent guy."
Ryouga was clearly having a hard time with this mixed, but honest appraisal. He wanted to retort, wanted to refute all the bad things she had said about him. Unfortunately, though he was hearing Ranma, he was seeing Ranko, the complete person Copy-chan could have been, and instead denying the first accusation, he found himself refuting the last, "I don't hate you!" Suddenly, as he heard his own words, he calmed down. His mind cleared and he continued, from the bottom of the list, "I know I would not be as good as I am if it were not for you. I don't really know much about the Art, I just picked up things as I went. I only started fighting to make people stop laughing at me because of my problems. I don't understand people, Ranma… Ranko… Hell, I certainly don't understand you. Akane's the first person who ever made me feel happy. She's a nice person, and she's always been nice to me, standing up for me, telling me I'm a good person. I never wanted to be her P-Chan. I hate that as much as you do, but, I'm usually pretty helpless when she gets me in that form." He took a deep breath, seeing that she was really listening to him, trying to hear him out.
Taking a careful drink from his glass, he collected his thoughts. "Akane's the only good thing about my curse, Ranm- Ranko. I'm sorry, I always figured I'd have this conversation with Ranma, if I could ever calm down enough to just… talk." She nodded silently. "I'm not going to explain what it's like to be P-Chan, or how that effects my feelings, but just believe me, when I am in that form, it's not easy to walk away from her. When I get back to normal, I can't deal with… I try to focus on other problems. Like Ranma."
"Why do you hate m- Ranma so much?"
"Oh, you don't have to make a distinction there. And the problem isn't that I hate you. And I am talking to you, Ranma. It's always been you, it's always been that I liked you. Akane was the first person to make me feel happy, but you were the first person to be nice to me, to treat me with respect." Ryouga hung his head. "Even though we fought every day, and even though you made fun of my sense of direction, you still were there every day making sure I didn't get lost. You made me feel like someone cared if I was around, actually wanted me to be around. You were my only friend, and…" He took a deep breath and sighed. "I knew you were leaving soon, and I knew that the thing you cared the most about was the Art, and… I hoped if I could earn your respect, I could deal with you leaving. I tried so hard to get to that last fight," he hunched forward and tears started to form. "I was so excited when I started I got completely lost, and the harder I tried to find the way back the more lost I got, but the whole time I was thinking, 'Ranma understands, he won't give up on me. He'll be there, no matter what.' But when I finally arrived, you were gone. I thought, maybe I can still catch up to you, everyone said you'd only been gone a day. As I followed, searching for you, I kept replaying everything over and over in my mind, and I began to fear that the whole time you were mocking me. That you were just pretending to be nice so you could keep me around to make fun of. The idea that you didn't respect me enough to wait as long as it took grew and grew until I thought you never had any respect for me at all, and for betraying my friendship, I swore I'd teach you a lesson. I'd get some respect from you if I had to break every bone in your body."
Ranko stood up and came around to his side. "Ryouga, I had no idea."
Ryouga relaxed, grateful for being able to hold back the tears that wanted to spill forth. Blinking until his vision was clear, he straightened and looked at her, standing there looking ashamed and helpless. "If I had found you before Jusenkyo, I might have stopped after one fight. I might have said something, asked you if you were deliberately making fun of me, but then I got that curse, and things just got worse and worse, and I forgot the real reason I was after you in the first place. I mean, to start with I was jealous of your curse. Who cares that you turned into a girl, you were at least human. But I was so hung up on the advantages I never considered the disadvantages. In fact, I was thrilled that it seemed to bother you so much, since it allowed me to mock you the way I thought you were mocking me. I say thought, because after what you said about pork tonight, I realized that you just never think before opening your mouth, do you?"
Ranko shook her head in shame.
"Now I know that it's my own damn fault you hate me. All the crap I did since coming to Nerima, trying to kill you, trying to steal Akane away from you, blaming you for everything and never once giving you a chance to explain, or trying to figure you out. Every time you got in my way, I got more angry at you, but even when you were using your curse to mess with my head, you were just trying to keep me from getting closer to Akane, and you probably only did that because of me using my curse to take advantage of her," he continued, wincing as she nodded with a grim face. He sighed, there were hard feelings there, for all the above reasons, but she was listening to him. He shook his head. "Honestly, just hearing you say you liked me, that you respected me, even when we were fighting, is more than I ever expected. How can you possibly love me?"
Ranko crouched next to his chair and studied his face. He had touched on a lot of her uncertainties, the things that made her question the sanity of her feelings. She shrugged, "I already told you, I don't get it myself. Maybe it's 'cuz I'm a girl. Maybe it's 'cuz the only real man I know well enough to measure others against is my father, and compared to him you're a knight in shining armor. Maybe because whenever you've had a perfect opportunity to take me out for good, you've shown mercy. I do know one thing, though."
Her eyes stared into his, holding his attention. "What?"
She slipped something into his hand, and curled his fingers closed over it. With her hand resting on his, she leaned forward, "I'm willing to finish what she started." While he was distracted, trying to figure out what she was referring to, and rubbing his fingers over the object in his hand, she flowed forward, her arms going around his neck as her lips pressed against his. His attention now pulled in three directions, he absently slipped his arms around her shoulders and let himself marvel at the warmth and silkiness of her mouth against his. His fingers played over the foil packet, making out a round shape inside like a large rubber gasket. At about the same time, his mind flashed on a spectacularly mind blowing moment in his life. Leaning very close, her nose almost touching his, she smiled and purred, "Do you wanna make love with me?"
As his body began to stiffen, Ranko casually slipped one hand down between his legs and grabbed what she found there, hoping to give his body a clue where to send the blood instead of his nose. Between that suggestion, and the kiss, Ryouga suddenly found himself oddly light headed. With the last of his mental resources, he pulled back, fighting the spinning of the room to focus his eyes on Ranko and very eloquently said the most intelligent thing he could. Alas, the previous unspoken words were, "What the hell is this?" and the appropriate answer, spoken in a room filling declaration, was, "Condom!" With this unbridled declaration of his love, he promptly keeled over backwards, dragging Ranko along to the ground with him.