Ranma Nibunnoichi - Reflections
A. V. Morgan
Part Thirty-One: Certain Sacrifices
From the roof of the Tendo Dojo, Ranma watched the rising sun bring the world back to life with crisp and vibrant color. She wanted to lose herself in the beauty of the brilliant blue and white sky, the gold tinting of reflected light that traced the edges of buildings, accenting their subdued, neutral tones, and the occasional flash of emerald plant life. She marveled at the sensitivity of her new eyes to colors, which rivaled the enhanced sense of touch of her delicate skin. It was hard not to rub her hands over herself, but she resisted, reminding herself that it was the same sensuality that betrayed her in her moment of awakening. She had the strength of will to suppress those erotic memories, but the decision she had spent most of the night struggling with had roused them repeatedly. It was impossible to consider what she was obligated to do, to help Ranko, without drifting into the pleasure such sacrifice entailed. Ranma would have preferred outright torture. At least that would be manly. If only she could be sure that she was not secretly grateful for the excuse to continue doing what she had done with Ryouga, she could be a man about it. It would be easier to sacrifice her manhood to save Ranko if she hated what she had to do. It was just wrong that the path to certain destruction should be so fun and exciting.
Still, the thing that bothered her most was that she was only afraid of how her decision would impact the people around her. How it would alter the way they thought of her. It hurt that her decision could cost her parents their son, one way or the other. She was still upset with herself over how her desire to be a man had caused her to lash out at Ryouga. When she came out of the bath and went upstairs to prepare for bed, they had passed in the hall, and he had refused to even see her. Her father had nabbed her when Nodoka was distracted and lectured her on her manly obligations, bringing up the feelings she had inherited toward Akane. Even though they felt as real and as strong as her feelings for Ryouga, she knew they were not her true feelings. The sight of Akane supporting Ranko had made it clear that there were no genuine feelings for her in Akane either. That seemed to be true of Shampoo and Ukyo too. Why should they feel anything for Ranma, when it had really been Ranko they had gone through so much with?
Soun and Genma had never shown much consideration for the feelings of their children, in their marriage pact. Ranma might have obligations as far as Akane and Ukyo went, but fulfilling those obligations could only hurt those girls the way she had already hurt Ryouga. The one good thing that could come out of her sacrifice would be a chance to make it up to him. If, in the course of saving Ranko, she lost all desire to be a man, that would no longer stand in the way of picking up where she and Ryouga had started. If he could ever forgive her for how that night ended. It would be easy enough to let Nodoka believe "Ranma" had died, since it would not be too far from the truth. Genma would go along with it, since if the truth came out he'd have to commit seppuku right next to his ruined son.
Ranma sighed. She was kidding herself. If it wasn't for the contract, she would not give any of this a second thought. She'd sleep with a hundred men if that's what it took, now that she knew it was far from terrible, and still be just as inclined to be a man. She had no real desire to give her manhood up. The problem with the contract was not even that she would have to die to preserve her family honor. While not eager to die, there was no question she was willing to lay down her life over a matter of honor. However stupid the contract seemed, there might be a reason beyond sheer absurdity for his mother to honor it. No, her concern about the contract was that if it were upheld, it would take his entire family down. If one thing became certain, after her talk with her mother, it was that she was not going to let her parents die because of that contract. If Ranma needed to die, she would take care of that in her own way, even if that meant literally. Genma would have to make his own amends, find his own way to restore his honor, but it ultimately could not be his fault if Ranma failed to be a man-among-men at this point.
Until she knew what it meant, in Nodoka's eyes, to be a man-among-men, she would not allow the contract to dictate her decisions. That left the question of what was the right thing for Ranma, as a martial artist, to do. That made it simple. Ranko needed to recover all of her ki to break the mirror's hold over her. Ranma knew how to ensure that. If this changed her feelings about being a man, well, it was not like that had not been a danger all along, because of the curse. If she was enough of a man, afterwards, she would face whatever obligations that demanded of her. Frowning in thought, she noted that the obvious expectations concerned the future, but it occurred to her that there might be matters in the past and present she needed to address while she was man enough, in spirit, to take care of them. Over the course of the night, she had plenty of time to consider the deeds performed in her name by Ranko. Ranko could not be held responsible, because there was no telling how much she might have been influenced by Fa Shen's personality, or her own need to discover herself as a person. Prior to the curse, Ranma had always been obedient to his father. From the memories she now had, the curse had created a person who lacked the trust and respect Ranma owed in spite of all his father's faults.
Ranma could not resolve the problems created by the engagement, but recognized that it would be dishonorable for her to fight Genma, Soun and Akane as her surrogate had. The multiple engagements created enough problems and conflict, and she would have to take responsibility for that mess. Not a pleasant thing to look forward to. Ryouga was another problem. Not just the emotional attachment, Ranma had to do something about the whole P-chan situation with Akane. By turning Ranma… Ranko's honor against her, Ryouga had created a dishonorable situation for Ranko, Akane and himself. The worst thing, however, was the way Genma forced Ranko to hide from Nodoka. Nabiki had been right. The situation should have been explained. Lying to her was unforgivable, and Ranma resented having come into the middle of that deception and ending up contributing to it. She shuddered at the thought of trying to fix that problem. In retrospect, lying to her had been the correct thing to do, but unless Nodoka could understand that, it was not safe to enlighten her.
"Damn. I know it's not your fault, Ranko, but you sure made a mess out of my life!" she growled.
"Oh, she had help, no question of that!" Cologne chuckled.
Ranma jumped straight up in shock. She had not heard the old woman sneaking up on her. "Dammit! I hate when you do that!" she growled, landing softly on her toes, braced for combat. Relaxing, she settled back where she had been seated. "What do you want, old woman?"
After delivering the obligatory skull-crack with her staff, Cologne perched on it in front of the girl. "I actually came up here to enjoy the sunrise and warm my old bones, youngster. However, seeing as you seem to be wrestling with things, I don't see any harm in offering my counsel."
"You came all the way over here to 'warm your bones'?" Ranma challenged skeptically.
"I see you have been distracted quite a bit longer than I expected, child. In case you had not noticed, Kasumi deemed it too late, when we concluded our meeting last night, for people to return to their homes. As Happi never returned from the clinic, I availed myself of the use of his room, with Shampoo and Mousse. Ukyo shared Akane's room and Ryouga slept in the dojo," Cologne informed.
Ranma sighed, smirking. "Great. The gang's still all here." She stretched and ran her fingers through her hair, noticing she had forgotten to braid it before going to sleep. Ironically, braiding her hair into the characteristic pig-tail was something that was after her time. Ranma had usually just tied his long hair back in a pony-tail. Producing a string, she proceeded to do just that, asking Cologne to fill her in on the meeting, since she had been with Nodoka while it was going on.
Cologne covered the highlights.
"You're kidding!? Mousse challenged Ranko to a marriage duel, and Ryouga…?" she could not finish past the sudden stab to her heart.
Cologne saw her cringe and clutch her chest in pain and shrewdly overlooked it. "That is correct. The boy wishes to challenge Shampoo's claim, no doubt to position himself to challenge Shampoo directly, before the council can rule on Ranko's eligibility."
"So Shampoo isn't going to be after me?"
"I am not sure that anyone is after you at the moment, but no, Shampoo has no claim to you. You would need to regain your manhood and defeat her in combat to regain her interest."
"Like I'd wanna do that!" Ranma scowled.
"Oh? Perhaps someone else has caught your fancy? A certain wandering young man, perhaps?" Cologne prodded.
Ranma jerked. Looking away she shook her head, "Echoes of someone else. Besides, I don't think he'd be interested anymore." Ranma tried to change the subject, "Say, if the Kiss of Marriage is not gonna shift to me, what about the other one?"
"The Kiss of Death? No, that one has already been dissolved. If Ranko chooses to remain entirely female, the Kiss of Marriage will be dissolved too, though that is no protection from Mousse. With no option of claiming Shampoo as his bride, he certainly would take marriage to Ranko more seriously."
"That's a status thing?"
Cologne nodded.
"Well," Ranma sighed, "first he'd have to be able to defeat her. I'm kinda tempted to go kick his head in for thinkin' he can use her like that to get to Shampoo!"
"I would not recommend that. On the off chance you slipped and knocked yourself out, it could be you who had to marry him," Cologne laughed.
Ranma slowly turned to meet her eye and stared hard. "What!?"
Cologne grinned, "You and Ranko have several things in common at the moment, starting with being permanently female and legitimate reincarnations of Fa Shen. Those two things are enough to make you both recognizable as amazon warriors."
Ranma burst to her feet in dismay. "You mean I have to marry any jerk who can beat me up!? What does that mean if I go back to being a guy!?"
"Well, that would come as a shock to the tribe. It is quite unusual for a reincarnated warrior to remain male, if that is how they were reborn, after being reunited with the tribe. However, when it happens, the 'man' is regarded as an honorary woman. It usually is necessary for 'her' to accept and use the female form given by the nyanniichaun, though 'she' is allowed to take wives instead of husbands," Cologne snickered.
"So, because of Fa Shen, I'm always gonna have to be a girl?"
"If you did not always reject it out of hand, you might just find you could enjoy it, child," Cologne finally laughed out loud. She stopped at the odd look on Ranma's face as she shouted her response.
"That's the problem! Are you forgetting that stupid contract!?"
Cologne sighed and composed herself. "In point of fact, I have not. However, as you have put it, 'stupid' is an appropriate description. I would also assert that stupidity is one of honor's greatest adversaries. I fail to see the honor in a contract intended to diminish the potential and capacity of one's own offspring."
"Heh. You mean, you wish I was a girl. An amazon girl."
"You are," Cologne stated, turning to excuse herself.
Ranma scowled and sulked as she left. As much as she did not appreciate having any more encouragement to abandon her manhood, it was a small relief to think she had some options if she ended up losing it. Scrubbing her face with her hands, she tried to dismiss the things Cologne had given her to think about. Unfortunately, she was not allowed to, as Mousse came over the peak of the roof.
"She has no idea how true that is," the blind boy announced, striding purposefully toward the red-head and squatting down to meet her eyes. With a knowing grin, he continued, before she could speak. "I had a little talk with Ryouga, last night. Your lover needs to learn not to think out loud."
"I don't know what you're talking about," she instantly denied.
Mousse adjusted his glasses and noticed how pale she suddenly was. "There's no reason to deny it, Saotome. Personally, the only thing that shocked me was learning that you were a virgin until last night. From the way you two carried on, I thought you had indulged yourselves many times already."
"You might wanna give your last words more thought, Mousse," she grated dangerously. Behind her anger was an overwhelming outrage that Ryouga had been so careless! However, she held on tight and tried to discourage Mousse. "It's pretty stupid to mistake someone's fantasies for reality. Of course, you never could tell the difference yourself, so I'll just have to remind you!" She rose to her feet and prepared to cut loose.
"Relax, Saotome," Mousse backed away and stared off the edge of the roof. "All Ryouga actually let slip was that sex had to be the source of the ki that you gave Ranko, since that was the only new thing you both did last night. If I did not depend so much on my ears to get by, I would never have heard what he was muttering to himself. I doubt anyone else could have. However," he turned back to the girl, "what really interests me is what he admitted to when I asked him what he was talking about. All he said was that you figured out how to heal her. Since he will not talk to you—it seems you broke his heart—he asked me to speak to you on his behalf and urge you to heal her."
Ranma dropped bonelessly to her rear. "I am screwed," she moaned.
"You WERE screwed, if you want to be accurate about your tenses," Mousse grinned, pacing forward to stare down at her. "I do believe I know what you meant, however. It would probably be bad if your mother learned of this, so I will promise you now, as long as you agree to hear me out and give me an honest reply, that I will never even hint about what I have or will learn about your sexual exploits. Is that reasonable?" Mousse asked pointedly.
Ranma sucked in a deep breath and then nodded cautiously. Mousse sighed and moved to sit down next to her. Ranma studied his face and noticed he seemed ashamed of himself. "What do you want, Mousse?"
"I must ask two things of you, Ranma. Since you've been told about my challenge to Ranko, I want to make sure you understand my intentions first," he announced, before repeating the conversation he had with Fa Shen the other night. He then confirmed what happened when he delivered his challenge to Ranko. "It goes without saying, Ryouga is not happy with me, but even knowing she has to fight me as soon as she is able, he told me to tell you this. 'Heal Ranko. Take Ranko's advice and get Fa Shen to help you.' He said you need a guy to help you—which is obvious when you know what he's talking about—but that he can't be that guy. Since this is also my first request, I strongly urge you to speak to Fa Shen at once."
"What's your second request?"
"Well, it's the same one I made of Fa Shen. I need your help to train so that I can defeat Ranko," he admitted.
"I don't need you to tell me to do the first, and you should know I would not help you like that against Ranko. I can't do that to her," Ranma bit her lip.
"So. I guess I should go tell everyone the good news about you and Ryouga then," Mousse threatened.
"Fine. Then start running, I'll catch up to you when I've taken care of things here," Ranma replied woodenly, fighting to remain still.
Mousse sighed. "I'm not going to tell. I never planned to. Damn you, Saotome. I need your help. Weren't you listening? I am only interested in another shot at Shampoo!"
"You just tried to blackmail me. I'm supposed to trust what you say!?"
Mousse sagged and looked away. "Like you would have helped if I just asked for it!" he accused disdainfully.
"You never tried asking."
"Fine. I am asking!" he huffed.
Ranma shrugged and climbed to her feet. She walked to the edge of the roof and turned before responding. "You're asking the wrong person. If Ranko says I can help you, then I will." She jumped down and began racing to the clinic to see Fa Shen. The best she could do for Ranko right now was to help her recover quickly, so Mousse had as little time as possible to train for their challenge. Because of her short stature, she was already at a serious disadvantage fighting Mousse, as their first combat had proven. Only with ki attacks at her disposal could she win against him now.
In spite of feeling weaker than she could ever remember feeling, Ranko had not been very tired. Part of that stemmed from the hours she had been in a trance, through which her body had apparently slept. So, despite the late hour when she had finally gone to bed, she had awakened well before sunrise and listened to Ranma toss and turn listlessly in the futon beside her. Because of Nodoka's presence, and general fatigue, she had not started a conversation with her obviously insomniac twin. She regretted that when the other girl threw aside her covers and slipped out the window. Something weighed very heavily on Ranma's conscience, Ranko concluded, and wished she had the strength to climb out after her to find out what it was. As the sun came up and gently lit the room, Ranko grew more and more restless, worrying about Ranma, until she finally had to get up. That was a painful process, since even with her ki boosted by what Ranma had poured into her, she was still operating on the dregs of her spirit. Grateful to have her balance and coordination at least, she strained and panted to crawl out of bed and drag her body over to the door. By the time she reached it, the sound of her struggles woke up Nodoka, who was instantly at her side.
"Ranko! You should not be exerting yourself!" she cried softly. Ranko chuckled and continued to fight to her feet, using the door frame for support. Nodoka lent her strength, but pulled her back into an embrace. "Shhh. Just relax and tell me where you're in such a hurry to go?" the woman crooned.
"The bathroom, for starters," the girl winced, suddenly noticing the pressure on her bladder. That got Nodoka moving. She slipped one of Ranko's arms over her shoulder, put one of her own around the girl's waist and carefully walked her to the upstairs bathroom, next door to the guest room. The small room offered only a sink, toilet and mirror, but that was all that was needed. Ranko blushed, but accepted the woman's help removing her pants and positioning herself on the toilet.
"I hate not being able to take care of myself," she complained as her mother cleaned her up, moments later.
"There is no need to be ashamed of taking help when you need it," Nodoka soothed, sensing the girl's embarrassment. She stood the girl up, bracing her with a shoulder to pull her panties back up, but left the pants off at her insistence.
"It's that much less for me to struggle against to move," Ranko pointed out, as they reentered the hall. "Do you mind helping me downstairs? I'd like to get a bath in before everyone wakes up, since I'm moving so slow."
"I don't think you are in any condition to bathe yourself, young lady. I will take you down stairs however. I am sure Kasumi won't mind helping you when she comes down for her bath," Nodoka proposed. The girl shrugged, just grateful to be out of her room. Before her thoughts could wander, Nodoka surprised her by asking, "Seeing the price you've paid, was this attempt at a cure worth it?"
"I- excuse me?" Ranko was stunned. She suddenly remembered what Nabiki told her, about the confrontation with Kuno. "Oh. I suppose it was. If I had not blundered into it, Ranma would never have been able to get free," she observed thoughtfully.
"Are you saying the cure was a success?" Nodoka brightened.
Ranko shook her head sadly. "Not a complete success. There are some problems that have to be taken care of before Ranma will be able to get back to normal," she hedged carefully. It was ironic that, now, Ranma had to be cursed to fix the side effects of the "cure" for Ranko's curse.
Nodoka concentrated on steering them both down the stairs, not speaking until they reached the main floor. "Can you explain why one of you has to die to overcome this curse?" Nodoka begged. Ranko stared at her and asked her to explain exactly what "Ranneko" had said to give her that idea. Nodoka hesitated, deciding to take the girl into the Tea Room and sit her at the table before repeating the conversation she had with Ranma in the bath the night before. While she was talking, Cologne entered and sat herself on the edge of the table to listen. When Nodoka completed her recitation, she turned to the old woman. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I am Nodoka Saotome."
"Ah, yes. Ranma's mother. It is a great pleasure to meet you Nodoka. I am Cologne, Matriarch of the Jokezoku," she smiled and held out her hand. Nodoka took her hand in friendship and smiled at the old woman in surprise.
"You're kidding!? You can't mean the fabled tribe of Chinese Amazons!?" Nodoka laughed in amusement. Cologne's eyes widened, surprised that the woman recognized the name, but simply nodded firmly. "You're not kidding." Nodoka blinked off her surprise. "I am so sorry. I did not mean to offend. My father used to tell me stories about the Jokezoku. I thought they were just fairy tales! Imagine that! And here you are, the real thing!"
Cologne's eyes narrowed slightly with interest. "I don't suppose you could tell me about these stories of his? I'd be most interested to learn what legends of our people have traveled so far."
"Oh, I haven't heard any since I was a little girl," Nodoka waved it off. "I doubt I can remember more than how he used to tease me about my mother. She died when I was born, you see, so all I know about her were the stories he told me, and of course he tried to make her sound very exotic." Nodoka sighed. With a laugh, she went on to explain, "I used to be very self conscious of my hair color, you see. When I was a girl, my hair was as red as Ranko's here. My father would try to comfort me by saying that, where my mother came from, hair like mine was quite normal compared to the other women in her 'tribe'!"
Cologne smirked. "Well, if he was talking about the Jokezoku, he certainly was not wrong about that! You should see my Great-Granddaughter!"
Nodoka thought back. "Would she be the girl with the purple-hair I saw coming out of the guest room when Ranneko and I went to bed?"
"That would be the one. However, I can't say that your father's stories could be true. I've been around quite some time and I don't recall losing one of our girls to a foreigner, who could possibly be your mother," Cologne noted skeptically. Her own suspicions, however, as she studied the woman, suggested that Nodoka's mother might well have been a victim of the nyanniichaun. One who bore the stamp of Fa Shen. Knowing she could not mention this to Nodoka, she probed in another direction, "I don't suppose I could meet your father? I think I might enjoy learning how he became acquainted with our tribe."
"I am sorry to say, he died about a month or so ago. I was hoping to learn from him if little Ranko here, and now her sister, might be related to me or my mother," Nodoka replied, with a tinge of resurfaced grief.
"I am sorry to hear that," Cologne sighed. Death was Mystery's greatest ally, the ruthless protector of her secrets. She allowed herself a smile, however, imagining the woman's reaction to discovering Ranko's true relation to her. Then, remembering the contract, shuddered. The conversation drifted into talk of the amazon tribe, and an edited version of how they became acquainted with Ranma. Kasumi arrived and the conversation paused long enough for her to agree to help Ranko bathe. After they exited, Nodoka continued to ask her questions and found herself intrigued by the different views of the amazons, especially as they pertained to the status of women. Cologne was just revealing that Ranko and "Ranneko" were considered amazons through reincarnation, when Akane stumbled down stairs and approached.
Seeing the girl wished to talk to her, Cologne interrupted herself and turned to her. "Good morning, Akane. Is there something I can do for you?"
"Good morning. Actually, I just wanted to know if you wanted this back?" Akane reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out the bottle of water Cologne had tossed her, after pouring most of its contents on Ranko to lock her curse. She carefully handed it over to the ancient amazon.
Cologne stretched out her hand gratefully, "Yes, indeed. Thank you, Akane." She was about to return the bottle to the pocket where its sister resided when she noticed something odd. Peering closely, she noticed that one corner of the label was peeling off. She almost dismissed it when she noticed that there seemed to be another label underneath it. A frigid jolt sparked down her spine, as she carefully peeled the top layer off and looked at what was underneath it. With shaking hands, she pulled out the other bottle and stared at the label. The two were identical. Without hesitation, she sprung to her feet and raced to the bathroom, praying it was not too late.
Akane was instantly worried by the woman's actions. Having peered over Cologne's shoulder, she had seen the discovery of the other label, and the comparison. Remembering the explanation from the previous night, she gasped in terror and raced after the diminutive woman. When she saw Cologne burst through the doors of the washroom and furo, she knew the worst was inevitable. Cologne was shouting as she entered.
"Ranko! Stay away from hot water!"
"Cologne!?" Kasumi's startled voice came out.
"What's wrong!" rang Ranko's panicked cry, followed by the sound of water splashing and naked flesh hitting the tiles.
Akane pushed past Cologne, who had frozen in shock on entering the bathroom, and looked down at Ranko. She was panting, laying sprawled on the bathroom floor, with wisps of steam rising from her wet skin. Only terror inspired by Cologne's shout had given her the strength to thrust herself out of the bath, but the effort left her too exhausted to resist gravity as it crushed her to the ground.
"This is impossible!" Cologne gasped.
"Ranko? Are you okay!?" Akane was instantly beside the girl, pulling her up into her lap as she knelt on the hard tiles.
"I can barely move," the red head responded, close to hyperventilating. She flopped as Akane wrestled her around so she could sit back against her body. With her head aimed roughly in Cologne's direction, she fought to lift her chin and look at the old woman. "What's going on?" she gasped.
"You were in the bath?" Cologne demanded.
Kasumi nodded, "We've been in here for several minutes. I didn't want her to catch cold, so I washed her as quickly as I could and brought her in to soak with me."
It was obvious the girl had not changed. Cologne sagged, holding a hand over her heart. "Thank the heavens. It was a false alarm! Please forgive the intrusion, girls. Ranko, you can go back in and finish your bath."
"What happened? Why were you so scared?"
Cologne held out the bottles and the loose label. "I thought I used the wrong water to lock her curse. If I had, though, she would already have evaporated," she took a deep breath and allowed herself a nervous laugh. "I must have reused an antidote bottle for the chisuiiton water."
Cologne and Akane returned to the Tea Room and resumed their seats. Faced with Nodoka's alarm, Cologne simply stated her fear of having used the wrong medicine to help Ranko. Nodoka took the used bottle and examined it as she listened to the explanation.
Frowning, Nodoka looked up. "It looks like ordinary water. What is it supposed to do?"
"For you or me, that is ordinary water. It wouldn't do a thing. But for someone cursed like Ranko, it was the only thing that saved her life," Cologne explained. Seeing Nodoka's skeptical look she waved her hand. "Go ahead. Drink it if you're curious. It won't do anything to you. But, believe me, if I had been wrong about this, Ranko would already be a memory." Cologne sagged. She was getting too old for such excitement.
Nodoka opened the bottle and paused. "So, it's just been blessed or something?" Cologne nodded, and put the other bottle away. Nodoka shrugged and took a sip. "Wow," she shivered. She had felt a shock go through her body as she sipped. It had felt rather pleasant, actually. With a grin, she tipped the vessel up. "It really does have something special," she commented, before taking a long swallow and emptying the bottle.
Akane, still staring at Cologne, was the only one to notice the elder jerk in alarm at Nodoka's words. Before she could speak, however, the empty bottle thumped onto the table. Akane watched as Cologne paled, before turning to look at Nodoka, half afraid of what she might see. With a sigh, Akane saw Nodoka grinning to herself as she circled the mouth of the bottle with a finger. Then she gasped.
"A- Auntie N-No-Nodoka!"
Nodoka looked up, confused. "What's wrong, Akane?"
"Y- your h-h-hair!" Akane pointed in disbelief.
Nodoka frowned and reached up to feel her hair. Her immediate dread, that the water had perhaps caused her hair to fall out was dismissed at once as she felt her thick, long hair still tied securely in a bun at the back of her head. Still, the girl and the old woman were looking completely flabbergasted, so she pulled at the knot securing it in a bun and let her hair unravel, so she could pull it forward and look at it—now expecting it to have turned white or something. "I suppose I should have known better than to drink magical water. How irresponsible of you, Cologne," she chided, preparing herself for a shock. She was not prepared to see the brilliant, scarlet hue that had returned to her hair. "Good heavens! My color is back!"
Cologne and Akane turned to each other. Nodoka sprung to her feet and danced out of the room in obvious delight as she celebrated this magical transformation.
"Can you explain what just happened?" Akane croaked.
"Merciful Goddess. There is only one explanation," she reached out for the bottle and pulled it carefully to her chest. At that moment, Mousse walked through the room and asked if anyone had seen Ranko. Cologne stared at him, then the bottle, and finally back up at him. She threw the bottle at him, held up the label in her hand and demanded. "Mousse! Do you know what this is? Or, more importantly, how it came to be mislabeled!?" she barked commandingly.
Mousse caught the bottle easily and looked at it. He
recognized the label at once. A second glance, leaning in close to read the
label in her hand, and he suddenly froze in terror. "You used this on Ranko!?"
The old woman nodded, and Mousse pulled a similar bottle out of his pocket. "Quick!
Where is she!?"
Cologne rose to her feet and
glared at him, conveying the grief of a ruler as she announced, "Ranko has
taken a hot bath." Mousse let out an anguished cry and crumpled to the ground.
"No! I didn't mean…! I was just…" he choked and turned to face Cologne. "You have to understand! I was just trying to protect myself! I didn't want you to lock me in my cursed form!"
"You are an idiot, Mousse! Do you have any idea what you have done!?"
"I meant her no harm! I… I was ready to marry her!"
"Do not lie to me, child! You meant to use her!"
"But…" Akane tried to interrupt.
"Silence. Akane, he needs to learn the error of his ways."
"But…"
"Shhhh!" Cologne winked at her. Akane choked down her protest and stared at Mousse. The matriarch glared down at him, where he was prostrating himself before her, and demanded, "Mousse. Knowing what you have done to Ranko, I ask you. What are your intentions?"
Mousse squawked and looked up in confusion. "Intentions!?"
"Consider the situation and how it effects my Great-Granddaughter."
Mousse swallowed hard. If he had just killed Ranko… He shook his head violently and tears began to stream down his face. "No! No! It was an accident. I will not claim… I will not use this to enslave Shampoo!"
Cologne stared him down. Mousse bowed his head. "I am pleased to hear this, Mousse," she stated gently. The blind boy jerked up to a kneeling position and stared at her in abject confusion.
"What?"
"Though you scheme and manipulate like the lowest sort of criminal, you are true to your nature as a master of hidden weapons. It is all bluff and bluster. Sleight of hand. Isn't it?" Mousse gawked at her, wordlessly. "Why would you ignore the chance to claim Shampoo?"
"It is not worth Ranko's life. It is not worth Shampoo's death."
"Well," Cologne sighed, "I suppose it is a good thing Ranko is not dead, then. Isn't it?" She smiled as Mousse jumped to his feet, and then keeled over in shock. She glanced over at Akane and chuckled. "However, because of your stupidity, instead of locking her curse, you have caused me to cure it," she delivered the final blow. It staggered Akane as much as Mousse.
"Whaaaat!!?" she howled in disbelief. "How can that be!?"