Deru shook his head, whether to deny this or shake off the gloom is not
clear. "Anyway, what about yourselves? Have you got a plan?"
Nabiki smiled the smile of someone who not only has a plan, but has kick backs set up from the contractors who will carry it out. "I'm going to finish this year at high school, then straight on to business school. Dad set up a college fund long ago."
Kasumi sighed. "I'd like to go to medical school, but. I don't have the time. I borrow books from Tofu sensei, though as you said, it's not as good as real schooling."
Deru nodded "True." He thinks of something. "How about Akane? She must have her own ideas."
Nabiki shrugged "Who knows? She's been occupied with other things at school."
They got up from the table and went their separate ways. Ranma to get their packs upstairs, Nabiki to read manga and Kasumi to do the washing up. Deru came in after her with the rest of the plates.
"Oh, there's no need to help." Kasumi said, "You're a guest."
Deru put down the plates by the sink. "Heh. Force of habit I guess. Ucchan does the cooking, I usually wash up. If you don't need me, I'd like to use the furo. It's been far too long since I had a proper wash."
"By all means. It should be free."
Akane had finished her homework and headed down to the furo. It had turned out to be much less work than she'd expected. As she relaxed in the hot tub, she thought about the events of the day. The silence was interrupted by a noise.
"Ano. Is anyone in there?" Deru's male voice called from outside the furo door.
Akane eeped and sunk into the water with a splash. "Y.Yes" she called, her voice less solid than usual.
There was the sound of someone stepping back, and frantically doing something with their clothes. "Ahhh! Very sorry Akane-san. Please let me know when you've finished." The door of the disrobing room slid open and shut.
Akane sighed. 'Just as well he asked.' she thought. 'I forgot to turn the occupied sign.'
After she'd finished, and peeked round the inner door to see if any other unexpected visitors had turned up, she dressed and went up to the guest room. Approaching she could hear voices.
".well, everything went as well as could be expected." Deru's male voice said.
"Yeah. We managed to stymie dad and sort things out." Ranma's male voice replied.
"I'm just glad that we ended up on friendly terms with everyone."
"Tendo-san wasn't too happy."
"It's not like he needs to arrange marriages for any of them. The only reason for this engagement is that promise about uniting the schools." A muffled hmph could have come from either of them.
Ranma spoke up. "I'm more worried about Akane. You saw how angry she got about this school thing. Have ya figured out how to sort her problem?"
"Tchaaa. It's not that easy. It all revolves around that idiot samurai wannabe she talked about. He's the key to it all. It's just like that time starting middle school. You were off with dad. I think that was when you visited that mountaintop monastery."
"Gahh. Don't remind me."
"I was the target of a 'lets get him' campaign too. So were some of the Chinese and Korean students. I persuaded the bullies that hassling us was not a good idea." His tone of voice, colder than usual made it clear how the persuasion had been applied. "That reminds me, there was this kid Shaoran Lee who helped. He'd have been a challenge for you. Now I come to think of it, he had a fiancee problem too. This girl who could have been Xian Pu's younger sister chased him all the way from China."
"Oh kami. Can you imagine if I'd fallen foul of those daft laws. Xian Pu coming after me to Japan yelling {You I love}." Ranma grinned, then sobered. "So you think if I pounded on this Kuno guy he'd back off."
"We probably need to be more subtle. Akane tried that. That's the problem. I need more info. 'Wars are won in the generals tent' and all that. Don't worry, we'll work something out. The falling star of Furinkan High is going down." [falling star = insei. We can't use True Blunder - Blue Thunder because kuno-baka hasn't used it yet, and besides it don't work in Japanese.]
Ranma snickered.
"You're right though. That battle aura of hers, she's using anger to channel her ki. If she doesn't learn better habits."
"I spent time working with Miyagi sensei too. It'll become a conditioned reflex. She gets angry, she'll call on the ki and pow! With it pumping her strength and training she'll kill someone." Ranma sighed.
"C'mon bro. You'd want to train her anyway. You were almost complementary about her skills."
"I meant it. It's criminal. Considering what she's done by herself, think what she could have achieved with partners who could match her."
Akane realised she had better get Deru as she'd been asked to.
Making noise, she went down the corridor to the guest room. She tapped at the door. "Come in!" came from inside. The scene was controlled entropy. While Genma's pack lay untouched, Both Ranma and Deru had their bedrolls out and stuff unpacked from their backpacks. Amongst the clothes stacked and folded but crushed in the manner of back pack compression were other odds and ends.
There were two battered towels hung by the window. Amongst Deru's debris were some books that looked to be textbooks from the titles and a battered clock/radio inside a tupperware box. Ranma had a number of paperbacks with lurid spaceships on the cover but with English titles. On the bedrolls Deru sat cross legged, facing Ranma who was lying down, eyes half lidded.
"I just came to tell you I've finished in the furo." Akane said.
"Thanks Akane." Deru reached over to snag a wash bag.
Akane decided to ask something that had bothered her. "How did you know I was in the furo? Was it some of that stuff I saw in the dojo?" 'Maybe they were just saying that stuff for my benefit.'
Ranma smirked. "You almost walked in."
Deru threw a balled up sock at him, which he caught in mid air, seemingly without seeing it. "Oh hush." He turned to Akane. "No. It's true I've trained to sense what's going on around me. I had to, to get an extra edge on dad and this grinning idiot. But it only works within a few feet of me."
"Hmmm.. that doesn't answer my original question." Akane pressed.
"Oh, right. The answer's much simpler. We've got into the habit of checking before we enter a bath. It was okay when we were all guys but since we've had the curse, checking avoids. embarrassing situations."
"You mean walking in on the other in female form?"
Deru nodded. "Yeah. I'm not sure who'd be more embarrassed. Of course we've both ended up seeing ourselves, couldn't help it. But, it'd feel like walking in on Ucchan. It's not particularly rational., I know." 'Besides', he thought to himself. 'despite what mum says, I don't think it's manly to peek.'
"Are you coming or going?" Ranma asked. "Your towel?" He said, pulling the aforementioned piece of clothing off the radiator and sending flying at Deru.
Deru said to Akane. "Noisy in here isn't it? Wild horses wouldn't drag me away without it." He caught the towel one handed. [Bad pun alert. Deru is a root word that can mean to arrive or leave, depending on context. And of course, Ran = chaotic, Ma = Horse.]
"Ya 'always got to know where your towel is' Bro." Ranma seemed to be quoting someone.
"You read far to much bad science fiction." Deru said mock mournfully.
"And who's fault is that?"
"Whatever. Later." Deru exited stage right, pursued by towel.
Akane was stumped for a minute. "What's all that about?"
Ranma holds up a book. Akane translates slowly. He grinned. "When we were working on reading English, Deru brought home some of these from some second hand store. I got into the habit of carrying a couple around. Anyway, it was a quote. Most important thing a traveler can have. Course it's even more applicable to water magnets like us. You got a favorite read?"
Akane shook her head. 'I'm not going to let on about my Sailor Moon collection.' she thought. "I hadn't realised you were the literary type."
"Ranma read book. Ranma read two book. Ranma smart." Ranma clowned.
Akane smiled.
Ranma turns serious. "Akane. I gotta ask you something. Assuming tomorrow works out alright, would you be willing to let me train you? I know it's short notice, but I'm sure we can work something out."
Akane considered what she'd heard earlier. "You could help to improve on those things you talked about in the dojo?" 'Will he have the nerve to say the stuff to my face?'
"That's the easy part. There's another part. It's going to sound weird, but you gotta listen." He took a deep breath. "This all comes from a sensei I trained under for a few months, Miyagi sensei. It's pure chance we met him at all. Pop got chased through his dojo with us in tow, why ain't important. Deru came back to apologise and got talking. How he managed to get dad to agree I still don't know, but we ended up training there in return for doing odd jobs. He taught us about ki."
"Every martial artist understands ki." Akane led.
"Not like him. He wasn't much to look at, but he could do some amazing things. He taught us the theory, but in a way we could apply. A martial artist manipulates ki, well everybody does, whether they know it or not. It's the life energy that pervades all things, both living and non living."
"I know this one. 'It surrounds us, and binds the galaxy together.'" Akane misquoted.
Ranma winced. "Walked into that. You saw 'that film' too. But where do you think that America-jin George Lucas got his whole force thing from in the first place? This explaining stuff ain't easy, Deru's the one with the words. What it comes down to is, you used ki to amplify that cinderblock punch, and from that aura you were lighting off, you weren't using anywhere near your full power. Without it, you might have cracked those blocks, but you couldn't have pulverised em. We both use it almost automatically when we fight, lots of practice I guess, but we never understood how."
"And this leads where?"
"There's two ways to get at ki. The first is to meditate and understand yourself so well that you have no. conflicts, I guess. Then your will becomes your action and you can use your ki to affect things as easy as breathing. Miyagi sensei had that down pat. But there's another way. A strong emotion, or state of mind can give you the same singleness of purpose. Then you use that as a bridge to channel ki. The way pop did it was to push us into doing things beyond our capabilities. If you got the right sort of mindset, you grab hold of ki to do what your body can't."
"Your father explained this?"
"Nah. I don't know if he even understood why he was doing it, just how. At least he never explained it. I think he just followed the same methods his sensei used. Anyway, the big thing is what emotion you're using. In your case it was anger, and that is. not a good thing."
"So what do you use?" Akane gave him a look.
"Self confidence! I can do anything because I know I can do anything. When it comes to the crunch, I never lose. I am the best after all." Ranma flicks his pig tail back and grins, taking some of the pompousness out of the words.
Akane can't help but smile. "I knew it, you are an egotistical jerk."
"True. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to use my confidence. Of course I can use other stuff, anyone can, but it just seems to fit. Miyagi sensei was good at getting you to understand the stuff." He stops grinning. "That takes us back to your abilities. Now anger is a great key to unlock ki with. The determination to defeat your foe, destroy your opponent, induces the right kind of single mindedness. Problem is it becomes a habit. And it feeds back. If you keep doing it that way pretty soon you won't be able to become angry without grabbing hold of ki and using it to attack the source of your anger. It's just as well you're a good person. If you weren't those idiots who attacked you would be toast by now."
He sighed. "There's a word for someone who becomes like that, a berserker. That's one thing they got right. 'Anger, fear, hate, they lead to the dark side of the force. They are an easy path, but they will consume you.'"
"So what am I supposed to do?" Akane folded her arms, "Give up martial arts? Try to act like Kasumi?"
Ranma shook his head. "No! I don't think that would work for you anyway. If you found some opposing strong emotion, say love, and trained yourself to feel that whenever your anger was tripped, it would defocus or limit your ki abilities. Remember what I said about singleness of purpose. However, it would also limit your ability to go beyond what you've already achieved. Your best bet is to find some less destructive emotion as your channel. Determination maybe, considering how much you've managed to do, you must be almost as stubborn as I am. 'And that', as someone said, 'is going some'."
"And you'd be able to help me?" Akane said, not revealing anything in her tone.
"I can try. Unlike dad, I have some idea of what's involved. Deru can help too." Ranma paused, trying to see if he'd been understood, that he hadn't alienated Akane.
Akane thought. 'He has to be sincere, he can't be that good a liar.' She spoke quietly. "Didn't someone once say, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'" She grinned.
[In the manga Ranma's background would be the Mount Fuji, fans, the whole works.] Ranma's face lit up. "You'll do it? That's great Akane! You won't regret it." He paused for a moment. "No, I take that back. The training's not going to be easy. It'll be the hardest thing you'll ever do. You will regret it. But it's worth it. Take it from someone who's been that route." He's clearly juiced at the prospect.
Akane can't help but think. 'Nabiki's right, he is cute, especially when he gets enthusiastic like that.' "I don't have to turn into a boy do I?" she teased.
Ranma grimaced, "I think me and Deru can avoid some of pops more idiotic mistakes."
Akane stopped for a second. "Ranma you idiot! I was kidding!"
Ranma relaxed. "Now it's insults. Ohhh. When will a sensei get some respect." He put his hand to his forehead theatrically.
"Yes sensei, of course sensei, three bags full sensei." Akane relaxes too, thinking of how Ranma and Deru were acting earlier.
"Now that is more like it. Welcome to the Shinjuku Wrecking Crew."
"Huh?"
"It's what we call our little group, me, Deru, Ucchan."
"Ucchan? Ukyo?" Akane asked, remembering the earlier conversation. "Why do you call her that?"
He gave an edited version of Deru's tale. When Akane asked about his feelings he replied. "She was my first friend, still is my best friend, but I never felt.romantic about her." he finished with, "I reckon dad never meant to go through with the engagement anyway. Sounds like one of the old panda's scams."
"Seems like you don't respect your father at all."
Ranma thinks for a minute. "As a martial artist, yes. Whatever else I say about him, pop was great, is still great. He devoted years of his life to training us. He still keeps us both on our toes when he trains with us. I just wish it carried over to him as a human being. I'd even say he's a role model."
"What?"
"Simple. I watch how he acts, then do the exact opposite. Usually works. Deru, of course makes excuses. He can't get his head around the idea that dad is a bad lot."
"Your brother doesn't seem to take after him though. He's a nice guy."
"Moms influence I guess. He worries too much. I think he's got some idea that he's to blame for the whole curse thing, at least something has been bugging him. He's scared of what Ucchan will think of him."
Akane smiled. "From the story you told, she knows what it's like to be forced to be someone you're not."
"I've tried telling him that, but well. he's in love."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"It seems like when you're in love your judgement suddenly goes. All the wits kinda dribble out of your head."
"That's an interesting way of putting it." Akane said rather sharply.
Fortunately, at that moment Deru entered the room.
&&&
Deru had walked back from the furo, and passed by Nabiki's room. He paused for a moment. Then he knocked. "Yeah, who is it?" Nabiki's voice came.
"Deru. Can I talk?"
"C'mon in."
Nabiki was lying on the floor doing stretches. Deru didn't seem affected.
"If you're busy I can come back later." he said, and turned to go. Nabiki got up. "Just finishing." she said.
"It's just about the photos. Specifically the ones showing the transformation. I know it must be a fascinating subject, but could you keep them to yourself? We've tried to keep knowledge of the curse to as few people as possible. If someone you showed them to leaked it to a reporter. Can you imagine the kind of publicity we'd get if some newspaper found out? I suspect our families lives would become a living hell." Deru held out his hands.
Nabiki hadn't in fact decided what to do about the photos. On the one hand they presented a huge immediate profit. On the other hand she could end up with a family of very good martial artists annoyed at her. She thought back to the dojo. 'No,' she thought, 'the long view is more profitable.' "Were you serious about training my younger sister?"
Deru seemed wrong footed by the sudden change of subject. "Well Ranma was. What's that got to do with anything?"
"Well obviously if you're training my sister, and this sort of thing happened, our family would get fallout too. Under those circumstances I'd have to keep the secret, for our own sake."
Deru nodded. "Thanks. But I don't know if Akane will accept. She's proud of what she's done on her own, and she has a right to be. But I'm hoping that she won't let that stop her asking for help. Speaking of help, what do you know about this guy Takewaki Kuno?"
'Perfect. I can control what they do.' She thought quickly. "He's in my class. He's pretty much the way Akane described."
Deru looked surprised. "Couldn't you have reasoned with him? Surely it's clear Akane doesn't want anything to do with him."
"This is Kuno we're talking about. Reason isn't high on his list of priorities." 'Besides he pays well for pictures.'
"If we got him promise on his honour as a samurai not to go after Akane do you think he'd keep it?"
"How would you do that?" Nabiki asked.
"If one of us challenged him with that as the stakes and defeated him, that would do it."
"Maybe." Nabiki was thinking carefully.
"At least we've got to get him to call off the goon squad. If Ranma."
The plotting continued for some time behind closed doors, then Deru emerged with the smile of someone determined to do good, no matter how much it hurt. He headed quietly back to the guest bedroom.
Nabiki had made several phone calls to various associates [minions] and was already getting ready for bed. She had the smile of someone who's going to make money, lots of money in the near future. As a stereotypical anime villainess she would at this point also have produced an "Ohohohoho!" which would leave even Kodachi looking for new underwear. But she wasn't, so she didn't. The peace of the household was thus undisturbed.
Nabiki smiled the smile of someone who not only has a plan, but has kick backs set up from the contractors who will carry it out. "I'm going to finish this year at high school, then straight on to business school. Dad set up a college fund long ago."
Kasumi sighed. "I'd like to go to medical school, but. I don't have the time. I borrow books from Tofu sensei, though as you said, it's not as good as real schooling."
Deru nodded "True." He thinks of something. "How about Akane? She must have her own ideas."
Nabiki shrugged "Who knows? She's been occupied with other things at school."
They got up from the table and went their separate ways. Ranma to get their packs upstairs, Nabiki to read manga and Kasumi to do the washing up. Deru came in after her with the rest of the plates.
"Oh, there's no need to help." Kasumi said, "You're a guest."
Deru put down the plates by the sink. "Heh. Force of habit I guess. Ucchan does the cooking, I usually wash up. If you don't need me, I'd like to use the furo. It's been far too long since I had a proper wash."
"By all means. It should be free."
Akane had finished her homework and headed down to the furo. It had turned out to be much less work than she'd expected. As she relaxed in the hot tub, she thought about the events of the day. The silence was interrupted by a noise.
"Ano. Is anyone in there?" Deru's male voice called from outside the furo door.
Akane eeped and sunk into the water with a splash. "Y.Yes" she called, her voice less solid than usual.
There was the sound of someone stepping back, and frantically doing something with their clothes. "Ahhh! Very sorry Akane-san. Please let me know when you've finished." The door of the disrobing room slid open and shut.
Akane sighed. 'Just as well he asked.' she thought. 'I forgot to turn the occupied sign.'
After she'd finished, and peeked round the inner door to see if any other unexpected visitors had turned up, she dressed and went up to the guest room. Approaching she could hear voices.
".well, everything went as well as could be expected." Deru's male voice said.
"Yeah. We managed to stymie dad and sort things out." Ranma's male voice replied.
"I'm just glad that we ended up on friendly terms with everyone."
"Tendo-san wasn't too happy."
"It's not like he needs to arrange marriages for any of them. The only reason for this engagement is that promise about uniting the schools." A muffled hmph could have come from either of them.
Ranma spoke up. "I'm more worried about Akane. You saw how angry she got about this school thing. Have ya figured out how to sort her problem?"
"Tchaaa. It's not that easy. It all revolves around that idiot samurai wannabe she talked about. He's the key to it all. It's just like that time starting middle school. You were off with dad. I think that was when you visited that mountaintop monastery."
"Gahh. Don't remind me."
"I was the target of a 'lets get him' campaign too. So were some of the Chinese and Korean students. I persuaded the bullies that hassling us was not a good idea." His tone of voice, colder than usual made it clear how the persuasion had been applied. "That reminds me, there was this kid Shaoran Lee who helped. He'd have been a challenge for you. Now I come to think of it, he had a fiancee problem too. This girl who could have been Xian Pu's younger sister chased him all the way from China."
"Oh kami. Can you imagine if I'd fallen foul of those daft laws. Xian Pu coming after me to Japan yelling {You I love}." Ranma grinned, then sobered. "So you think if I pounded on this Kuno guy he'd back off."
"We probably need to be more subtle. Akane tried that. That's the problem. I need more info. 'Wars are won in the generals tent' and all that. Don't worry, we'll work something out. The falling star of Furinkan High is going down." [falling star = insei. We can't use True Blunder - Blue Thunder because kuno-baka hasn't used it yet, and besides it don't work in Japanese.]
Ranma snickered.
"You're right though. That battle aura of hers, she's using anger to channel her ki. If she doesn't learn better habits."
"I spent time working with Miyagi sensei too. It'll become a conditioned reflex. She gets angry, she'll call on the ki and pow! With it pumping her strength and training she'll kill someone." Ranma sighed.
"C'mon bro. You'd want to train her anyway. You were almost complementary about her skills."
"I meant it. It's criminal. Considering what she's done by herself, think what she could have achieved with partners who could match her."
Akane realised she had better get Deru as she'd been asked to.
Making noise, she went down the corridor to the guest room. She tapped at the door. "Come in!" came from inside. The scene was controlled entropy. While Genma's pack lay untouched, Both Ranma and Deru had their bedrolls out and stuff unpacked from their backpacks. Amongst the clothes stacked and folded but crushed in the manner of back pack compression were other odds and ends.
There were two battered towels hung by the window. Amongst Deru's debris were some books that looked to be textbooks from the titles and a battered clock/radio inside a tupperware box. Ranma had a number of paperbacks with lurid spaceships on the cover but with English titles. On the bedrolls Deru sat cross legged, facing Ranma who was lying down, eyes half lidded.
"I just came to tell you I've finished in the furo." Akane said.
"Thanks Akane." Deru reached over to snag a wash bag.
Akane decided to ask something that had bothered her. "How did you know I was in the furo? Was it some of that stuff I saw in the dojo?" 'Maybe they were just saying that stuff for my benefit.'
Ranma smirked. "You almost walked in."
Deru threw a balled up sock at him, which he caught in mid air, seemingly without seeing it. "Oh hush." He turned to Akane. "No. It's true I've trained to sense what's going on around me. I had to, to get an extra edge on dad and this grinning idiot. But it only works within a few feet of me."
"Hmmm.. that doesn't answer my original question." Akane pressed.
"Oh, right. The answer's much simpler. We've got into the habit of checking before we enter a bath. It was okay when we were all guys but since we've had the curse, checking avoids. embarrassing situations."
"You mean walking in on the other in female form?"
Deru nodded. "Yeah. I'm not sure who'd be more embarrassed. Of course we've both ended up seeing ourselves, couldn't help it. But, it'd feel like walking in on Ucchan. It's not particularly rational., I know." 'Besides', he thought to himself. 'despite what mum says, I don't think it's manly to peek.'
"Are you coming or going?" Ranma asked. "Your towel?" He said, pulling the aforementioned piece of clothing off the radiator and sending flying at Deru.
Deru said to Akane. "Noisy in here isn't it? Wild horses wouldn't drag me away without it." He caught the towel one handed. [Bad pun alert. Deru is a root word that can mean to arrive or leave, depending on context. And of course, Ran = chaotic, Ma = Horse.]
"Ya 'always got to know where your towel is' Bro." Ranma seemed to be quoting someone.
"You read far to much bad science fiction." Deru said mock mournfully.
"And who's fault is that?"
"Whatever. Later." Deru exited stage right, pursued by towel.
Akane was stumped for a minute. "What's all that about?"
Ranma holds up a book. Akane translates slowly. He grinned. "When we were working on reading English, Deru brought home some of these from some second hand store. I got into the habit of carrying a couple around. Anyway, it was a quote. Most important thing a traveler can have. Course it's even more applicable to water magnets like us. You got a favorite read?"
Akane shook her head. 'I'm not going to let on about my Sailor Moon collection.' she thought. "I hadn't realised you were the literary type."
"Ranma read book. Ranma read two book. Ranma smart." Ranma clowned.
Akane smiled.
Ranma turns serious. "Akane. I gotta ask you something. Assuming tomorrow works out alright, would you be willing to let me train you? I know it's short notice, but I'm sure we can work something out."
Akane considered what she'd heard earlier. "You could help to improve on those things you talked about in the dojo?" 'Will he have the nerve to say the stuff to my face?'
"That's the easy part. There's another part. It's going to sound weird, but you gotta listen." He took a deep breath. "This all comes from a sensei I trained under for a few months, Miyagi sensei. It's pure chance we met him at all. Pop got chased through his dojo with us in tow, why ain't important. Deru came back to apologise and got talking. How he managed to get dad to agree I still don't know, but we ended up training there in return for doing odd jobs. He taught us about ki."
"Every martial artist understands ki." Akane led.
"Not like him. He wasn't much to look at, but he could do some amazing things. He taught us the theory, but in a way we could apply. A martial artist manipulates ki, well everybody does, whether they know it or not. It's the life energy that pervades all things, both living and non living."
"I know this one. 'It surrounds us, and binds the galaxy together.'" Akane misquoted.
Ranma winced. "Walked into that. You saw 'that film' too. But where do you think that America-jin George Lucas got his whole force thing from in the first place? This explaining stuff ain't easy, Deru's the one with the words. What it comes down to is, you used ki to amplify that cinderblock punch, and from that aura you were lighting off, you weren't using anywhere near your full power. Without it, you might have cracked those blocks, but you couldn't have pulverised em. We both use it almost automatically when we fight, lots of practice I guess, but we never understood how."
"And this leads where?"
"There's two ways to get at ki. The first is to meditate and understand yourself so well that you have no. conflicts, I guess. Then your will becomes your action and you can use your ki to affect things as easy as breathing. Miyagi sensei had that down pat. But there's another way. A strong emotion, or state of mind can give you the same singleness of purpose. Then you use that as a bridge to channel ki. The way pop did it was to push us into doing things beyond our capabilities. If you got the right sort of mindset, you grab hold of ki to do what your body can't."
"Your father explained this?"
"Nah. I don't know if he even understood why he was doing it, just how. At least he never explained it. I think he just followed the same methods his sensei used. Anyway, the big thing is what emotion you're using. In your case it was anger, and that is. not a good thing."
"So what do you use?" Akane gave him a look.
"Self confidence! I can do anything because I know I can do anything. When it comes to the crunch, I never lose. I am the best after all." Ranma flicks his pig tail back and grins, taking some of the pompousness out of the words.
Akane can't help but smile. "I knew it, you are an egotistical jerk."
"True. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be able to use my confidence. Of course I can use other stuff, anyone can, but it just seems to fit. Miyagi sensei was good at getting you to understand the stuff." He stops grinning. "That takes us back to your abilities. Now anger is a great key to unlock ki with. The determination to defeat your foe, destroy your opponent, induces the right kind of single mindedness. Problem is it becomes a habit. And it feeds back. If you keep doing it that way pretty soon you won't be able to become angry without grabbing hold of ki and using it to attack the source of your anger. It's just as well you're a good person. If you weren't those idiots who attacked you would be toast by now."
He sighed. "There's a word for someone who becomes like that, a berserker. That's one thing they got right. 'Anger, fear, hate, they lead to the dark side of the force. They are an easy path, but they will consume you.'"
"So what am I supposed to do?" Akane folded her arms, "Give up martial arts? Try to act like Kasumi?"
Ranma shook his head. "No! I don't think that would work for you anyway. If you found some opposing strong emotion, say love, and trained yourself to feel that whenever your anger was tripped, it would defocus or limit your ki abilities. Remember what I said about singleness of purpose. However, it would also limit your ability to go beyond what you've already achieved. Your best bet is to find some less destructive emotion as your channel. Determination maybe, considering how much you've managed to do, you must be almost as stubborn as I am. 'And that', as someone said, 'is going some'."
"And you'd be able to help me?" Akane said, not revealing anything in her tone.
"I can try. Unlike dad, I have some idea of what's involved. Deru can help too." Ranma paused, trying to see if he'd been understood, that he hadn't alienated Akane.
Akane thought. 'He has to be sincere, he can't be that good a liar.' She spoke quietly. "Didn't someone once say, 'Do or do not, there is no try.'" She grinned.
[In the manga Ranma's background would be the Mount Fuji, fans, the whole works.] Ranma's face lit up. "You'll do it? That's great Akane! You won't regret it." He paused for a moment. "No, I take that back. The training's not going to be easy. It'll be the hardest thing you'll ever do. You will regret it. But it's worth it. Take it from someone who's been that route." He's clearly juiced at the prospect.
Akane can't help but think. 'Nabiki's right, he is cute, especially when he gets enthusiastic like that.' "I don't have to turn into a boy do I?" she teased.
Ranma grimaced, "I think me and Deru can avoid some of pops more idiotic mistakes."
Akane stopped for a second. "Ranma you idiot! I was kidding!"
Ranma relaxed. "Now it's insults. Ohhh. When will a sensei get some respect." He put his hand to his forehead theatrically.
"Yes sensei, of course sensei, three bags full sensei." Akane relaxes too, thinking of how Ranma and Deru were acting earlier.
"Now that is more like it. Welcome to the Shinjuku Wrecking Crew."
"Huh?"
"It's what we call our little group, me, Deru, Ucchan."
"Ucchan? Ukyo?" Akane asked, remembering the earlier conversation. "Why do you call her that?"
He gave an edited version of Deru's tale. When Akane asked about his feelings he replied. "She was my first friend, still is my best friend, but I never felt.romantic about her." he finished with, "I reckon dad never meant to go through with the engagement anyway. Sounds like one of the old panda's scams."
"Seems like you don't respect your father at all."
Ranma thinks for a minute. "As a martial artist, yes. Whatever else I say about him, pop was great, is still great. He devoted years of his life to training us. He still keeps us both on our toes when he trains with us. I just wish it carried over to him as a human being. I'd even say he's a role model."
"What?"
"Simple. I watch how he acts, then do the exact opposite. Usually works. Deru, of course makes excuses. He can't get his head around the idea that dad is a bad lot."
"Your brother doesn't seem to take after him though. He's a nice guy."
"Moms influence I guess. He worries too much. I think he's got some idea that he's to blame for the whole curse thing, at least something has been bugging him. He's scared of what Ucchan will think of him."
Akane smiled. "From the story you told, she knows what it's like to be forced to be someone you're not."
"I've tried telling him that, but well. he's in love."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"It seems like when you're in love your judgement suddenly goes. All the wits kinda dribble out of your head."
"That's an interesting way of putting it." Akane said rather sharply.
Fortunately, at that moment Deru entered the room.
&&&
Deru had walked back from the furo, and passed by Nabiki's room. He paused for a moment. Then he knocked. "Yeah, who is it?" Nabiki's voice came.
"Deru. Can I talk?"
"C'mon in."
Nabiki was lying on the floor doing stretches. Deru didn't seem affected.
"If you're busy I can come back later." he said, and turned to go. Nabiki got up. "Just finishing." she said.
"It's just about the photos. Specifically the ones showing the transformation. I know it must be a fascinating subject, but could you keep them to yourself? We've tried to keep knowledge of the curse to as few people as possible. If someone you showed them to leaked it to a reporter. Can you imagine the kind of publicity we'd get if some newspaper found out? I suspect our families lives would become a living hell." Deru held out his hands.
Nabiki hadn't in fact decided what to do about the photos. On the one hand they presented a huge immediate profit. On the other hand she could end up with a family of very good martial artists annoyed at her. She thought back to the dojo. 'No,' she thought, 'the long view is more profitable.' "Were you serious about training my younger sister?"
Deru seemed wrong footed by the sudden change of subject. "Well Ranma was. What's that got to do with anything?"
"Well obviously if you're training my sister, and this sort of thing happened, our family would get fallout too. Under those circumstances I'd have to keep the secret, for our own sake."
Deru nodded. "Thanks. But I don't know if Akane will accept. She's proud of what she's done on her own, and she has a right to be. But I'm hoping that she won't let that stop her asking for help. Speaking of help, what do you know about this guy Takewaki Kuno?"
'Perfect. I can control what they do.' She thought quickly. "He's in my class. He's pretty much the way Akane described."
Deru looked surprised. "Couldn't you have reasoned with him? Surely it's clear Akane doesn't want anything to do with him."
"This is Kuno we're talking about. Reason isn't high on his list of priorities." 'Besides he pays well for pictures.'
"If we got him promise on his honour as a samurai not to go after Akane do you think he'd keep it?"
"How would you do that?" Nabiki asked.
"If one of us challenged him with that as the stakes and defeated him, that would do it."
"Maybe." Nabiki was thinking carefully.
"At least we've got to get him to call off the goon squad. If Ranma."
The plotting continued for some time behind closed doors, then Deru emerged with the smile of someone determined to do good, no matter how much it hurt. He headed quietly back to the guest bedroom.
Nabiki had made several phone calls to various associates [minions] and was already getting ready for bed. She had the smile of someone who's going to make money, lots of money in the near future. As a stereotypical anime villainess she would at this point also have produced an "Ohohohoho!" which would leave even Kodachi looking for new underwear. But she wasn't, so she didn't. The peace of the household was thus undisturbed.
