A Reflections Mini-Sequel
A. V. Morgan
Part Five
As Ryouga, Ranma and Fa Shen turned to look at her, Ranko realized she had brought the conversation to the point they had been dreading. All four of them held a deep affection for the girl named Akane Tendo. They could hardly count all the battles "Ranma" and Ryouga had fought for or over her. Ranko suddenly had to ask herself, how many of those battles had begun over some insult or injury to Akane? But the truth was that they had given very little real thought to Akane's feelings. It was almost always just an excuse to fuel their rivalry. It had been very rare that either of them had truly confronted the harm they had done to her. Like when Akane's hair had been cut during their first challenge fight at Furinkan. Unable to comprehend the harm they had done, Ranma and Ryouga let her have a shot at them, and with Ranma, that had remained the only way he could acknowledge the underlying pain of Akane's rages. That was the extent of his understanding, really. Akane kept getting angry, and he never really understood why, only that somehow Akane had been hurt, and of course he never really understood why.
The mystery, however, was beginning to unravel itself in Ranko's mind.
"I never really got it before," she admitted now. With a deep sigh, she looked at the other three in turn. "I just didn't understand her at all. She was always so angry, and she always took everything the wrong way. I'd think, she can't take it if I tease her, but then she would tease me, so I didn't think I'd hafta hold back. An' it's not like she only got angry when she was hurt. It was like getting angry was her answer to everything, so I never could tell if I'd done something wrong. It got to the point that I'd let her hit me just in case I deserved it."
"But that just encouraged her. It made it okay for her to blame me for everything," Ranma cut in with a depressed look. "She was almost as bad as you, Ryouga. But a lot of times she was worse. She'd change on me, act nice or be helpful out of the blue and totally throw me off."
"Exactly," Ranko nodded, watching Ryouga bite her lip. Keeping her eyes fixed on Ryouga, she went on. "The second week of the mirror thing was particularly bad. She changed so much when Pops decided to make Copy-kun into Ranma, an' my whole life was falling apart. For the first time it was like she was a real friend, an' she really cared about me.
"I could see she was hurtin' 'cuz I'd learned to see that in her eyes. But it was… I dunno, she was hurtin' 'cuz of me, but not because I did anything wrong. She was hurtin' 'cuz I was so hurt and confused. Like she couldn't stand to see what was happening to me." Ranko fiddled with her chopsticks over a long empty plate, her eyes focused on thoughts she was hesitant to spell out.
"But it wasn't really the first time, Ranko. I mean, if you really think about it, you were in a lot of scrapes where Akane was really pulling for you. Whenever things were at their worst, it was pretty obvious from the way she was acting that she cared about you," Fa Shen prompted.
"But it never really… I mean, she's the same way with everyone! When she was like that with Shinnosuke, I thought she was plannin' on marryin' him—but then I find out she didn't love him. She owed him a debt for saving her life," Ranko reminded her, meeting her twin's eyes for an instant. Ranko shrugged. "I'd always thought she must have SOME feelings for me. But times like that actually made it harder to believe she felt anything special for me. It just meant she cared about people, especially people in trouble, and kids an' animals and such. There were a lot of times she'd felt pity for me, 'cuz of the curse or the stupid scrapes it got me into. I mighta hoped there was more, but it's not like I ever thought she really l-loved me or anything.
"Then I look at how I was always hurting her," Ranko dropped her utensils and crossed her arms. "Not like I ever tried to beat her up or anything. An' I am pretty sure I never meant to start any of the fights we got into. I could never figure out how half of them got started, and the other half I was actually tryin' to help her out." She turned a hard eye on Ryouga. She did not really need to point out how many times Akane had accused "Ranma" of picking on P-Chan or Ryouga. That was not the only reason that much, if not most, of the interaction between "Ranma" and Akane was antagonistic. Ranko closed her eyes, trying to let go of past conflicts, "Really, I just didn't get it. I thought she was the one always starting everything. I didn't realize that Pop had trained me to start fights without even noticin' it. It's ingrained in me, like a reflex."
Ranko could practically feel the others come to the same realization. Ranma and Fa Shen naturally picked up on what Ranko was saying. Ranko opened her eyes to see Ryouga regarding her thoughtfully. A look that said Ryouga was not just looking at her, at the face and form of the red-headed girl, but that the dark haired neo-girl was "seeing" her, the substance of the person within.
As a child of Genma Saotome, Ranko was an expert on all the ways a person could be hurt by another, since her father had ruthlessly and relentlessly scourged her with virtually all of them. In the manner of such things, the constant abuse had forced the former boy's psyche to toughen to the point where it was second nature to ignore or shrug off the pain of insults and injustice as casually as she dismissed physical punishment. The world of Ranma Saotome, the life in which Ranko had her roots, was a world of pain and punishment. At no time was she allowed to forget the millions of ways in which she was vulnerable, and so she had developed hundreds of millions of ways to protect herself. One of the very first techniques she had learned had been to reply to pain with anger, but the millions of methods that followed had disciplined that anger, given it the form and focus to transform her into an extremely effective weapon. True, the perfection of that weapon had been flawed, scarred by the nyanniichuan curse which revealed or created weaknesses and vulnerabilities "Ranma" could barely cope with, but apart from that it had become extremely unusual for Ranko to get or remain hurt by anything.
It had not helped that her father had carefully limited her interaction almost exclusively to other students and masters of the martial arts. In her world, there were people who pursued the discipline of the Art, those who practiced the discipline of the Art, and those who were ignorant of it. Her obligation was to test herself against the first, to learn from the second and protect the third. From the day she met Akane, Ranko had accepted the other girl's assertion that she was a student of the Art, constantly struggling with all the impulses that screamed that Akane was, in fact, no such thing. How many times had "Ranma" encountered other martial artists that he had utterly surpassed? It had not really mattered; Ranma had simply observed the dictates of his personality, classifying those beneath him in skill as belonging to the first and third category depending on the presence or absence of significant threat. He would protect those weaker than himself, but provoke and encourage any who dared to improve themselves.
There was one little problem.
It had never occurred to Ranma that Akane ALLOWED herself to be hurt, psychologically. In the realm of verbal and social sparring, Ranma had been handing out a constant stream of heavy abuse—mostly out of habit, thanks to his father—and Akane had taken all the blows full force, putting up only a token defense if she bothered to defend herself emotionally at all. She had never been taught, or figured out on her own, how to take mental abuse. Unfortunately, mental abuse was about the only kind of offense Ranma had been comfortable with handing out to a girl. Or at least one with Akane's physical ability. The only other example of such absurd idiocy Ranko could think of was the way "Ranma" never bothered to defend himself against Akane's physical abuse. The only difference was, Ranma could take the abuse. It was annoying and frustrating as hell, but he was always able to soak up the damage and come out little worse for wear. Most of the time, it was worth it, since Akane usually stormed off after dispensing punishment and Ranma was left alone to smooth down any ruffled feathers Akane had managed to tweak out of place in their verbal sparring. The whole time, the whole eleven months, Ranma had considered all the conflicts and confrontations as little more than sparring. It was never anything to get really bent out of shape about, apart from the fact that Akane's "attacks" were, to Ranma's way of thinking, dirty blows. In any terms, a kick in the nuts was way too extreme for sparring, and just about every argument with Akane involved some kind of attack on his manhood. That had been true from their first confrontation, and Ranma was not above sinking to low blows in response.
Obviously, Ranma had always given Akane far too much credit. He had simply assumed that his opponent would grasp the concept of never handing out a form of punishment she was not prepared to receive. It really came as a shock to discover, at this late date, that Akane was so angry, so HATEFUL, because she had been hurt so badly in their fights—because Ranma, and by obvious extension, Ranko as she was now, never realized that Akane had never learned how to defend herself or absorb the damage.
What that meant, as far as any of the triplets were concerned, was that Akane was someone who did not know how to fight. It made the three of them the very thing they all despised—bullies. "I never really understood it. She hardly ever treated me better than Pops did, but the thing was, I almost always let her hit me. Not 'cuz I wanted to get hit! I don't let people beat on me just because. It was like, I just couldn't raise my arms against her, even to defend myself. I didn't even wanna dodge," she admitted in mortification.
Ryouga noticed how Ranma and Fa Shen nodded in tandem.
"I sort of know the feeling. I don't know how to explain the feeling itself, but it sort of disarms you," the lost girl contributed, thinking of the inexplicable confusion she had suffered when she had been confronted by Copy-chan. With a swallow and a nervous glance at Ranko, she said what was on all their minds, "That's when you know you are in love. You realize, how easy it is to hurt… her… but at the same time, you can't do anything to protect yourself because it would hurt even more if you did anything to cut yourself off from her."
"Right," Ranko met Ryouga's eye. "But here's the thing. I've been like this almost since I met Akane, but… I never really put two and two together. I could never understand why she was always acting hurt over everything I said or did… hell, even things she only imagined or totally misunderstood. I should have figured it out the night Ranma and I went over to your house, Ryouga."
Ranma gasped and clutched at his chest.
"Ranma thought he'd caught you two in the act," Ranko put a supporting hand on her 'brother's' knee. "He thought he'd been rejected, that you an' Akane had decided to dump him and be with each other. And when Ranma told me what he'd seen, I couldn't believe it. It was just too painful to be possible.
"Which is what makes what happened today seem so… so… God!" Ranko wanted to spit and snarl. "I got in the habit of thinkin' that it's all just Akane. She gets mad about everything. She doesn't need a reason. I never even thought about what she'd think or how she'd feel, all I was thinkin' was that if Ranma and Fa Shen switched places, they wouldn't have the reversed-curse problem Fa Shen said would keep them from mastering their curses. I never thought about what it would look like, and besides, I thought we'd made sure no one would be able to spy on us."
"I still can't believe what happened!" Ranma moaned. His mind flashed back to those precious moments in the compact. If it had ever occurred to him that having sex with Fa Shen might be construed as cheating on Akane, he had been completely distracted from such thoughts by the realization that it was the first time for Fa Shen in her own body. It had been rather mind blowing for both of them to realize that, even though they had both had sex three times before, they were suddenly virgins again. It was the first time either of them had been intimate since Jusenkyo had restored them to their true sexes in their acquired bodies. He had not thought past the fact that they had been given a second chance to get everything right for their "first" time.
Ryouga laughed, "Well, you told me, but I don't think even Nabiki could have laid odds on the chance of Akane tracking you down and catching you in the act like that. It was like an act of God, like you were destined to be caught, and nothing could have stopped it from happening."
Ranko and Fa Shen sighed in resignation.
"But it did happen, and even if we explain it all, I don't know if Akane can ever forgive us," Fa Shen pronounced, absently gathering dishes into a pile. "We made a serious mistake, and Ranko was right, all we did was hurt Akane. Whatever our reasons, that isn't changed. Worse, Ranma and I have to do it again to get back to normal, even if we abandon trying to master the curses."
"Why?" Ryouga asked, perplexed. As far as he could see, the two were back to the status quo. "Ranma's a boy and you're a girl. What do you need to switch places again for?"
Fa Shen stared at Ryouga, setting down the stack of dishes with a thump. "You can't be serious. If we don't switch back, Ranma and I are stuck in the wrong bodies."
"But you're both the right sex…"
"You don't get it" Fa Shen cut her off, with a stern look. "Let me put it this way, you've had sex with Ranma when he was in this body. I know that, and I can even feel it—like it's echoing inside me—and it kind of creeps me out whenever I am around you, Ryouga," Fa Shen explained pointedly, standing up to come around the table to touch the part-time girl. "If you try, you can feel there's something, physically, between us. Only we both know there's nothing like that between you and me."
Ryouga gulped as the hand on her shoulder did raise strange, powerful feelings. The only word to describe it was intimacy. "I don't understand…"
"What's to understand? The body has it's own memories. This one knows it has had something special with you. It hungers for it all on it's own. And, while I can live with it, that's only because I'm just borrowing it. If I came back to my own body to find something like that, something I did not choose, it would eat at me. I'd feel violated…" Fa Shen shuddered, and brushed it off. "So, if we don't switch back, neither I, nor Ranma, can even think of being with any one else."
"Huh?" Ryouga looked up at her, as Fa Shen withdrew her hand.
"Are you really that dense, Ryouga?" Ranko stared.
"Wha…? I mean, no! I think I get what she's saying, but…" Ryouga shook her head and retreated from the table a bit. "This is just too weird."
Ranma cleared his throat, "So, not much has changed then. We still need the compact, and that means we have to get Akane to calm down. Maybe she won't forgive us, but we still have to explain this. How are we going to go about it?"
"Ranma, maybe it's best for now to just give her time," Ranko counseled softly, drawing his attention to herself and holding his eyes. One corner of his mouth turned down, but he gave a slight nod. With a wan smile, she assured, "She'll cool down on her own, and it's not like there's any hurry to get you two switched back. It really only matters if sex comes up, and right now it's best if it doesn't." Ranko rose up on her knees to gather up their cups and place them on a tray. "Let's just focus on getting back to our normal routine. Confronting Akane before she's ready is only going to make things worse, so let's wait for her to come to one of us. Maybe Ryouga can talk to her, but after dinner I think. What do you say, Ryou-chan?"
Ryouga shrugged, "That's fine. I could use some time to think. If I talked to her now, I'd probably make a hash of things."
Ranma stood and reached for the teakettle, "Well, in that case, why don't you and I go out an' spar for a bit?" Ranma tipped the kettle over Ryouga, restoring the lost boy's birth form.
"Take a kettle and a canteen with you," Ranko suggested, rising to join Fa Shen in carrying the dishes to the kitchen. It was always best to have some kind of water handy in case Ryouga had a pig-fit. "Maybe after we're done in the kitchen, we'll come out and join you guys."
As Ranko and Fa Shen busied themselves in the kitchen, washing the dishes from their meal and struggling to deal with the aftermath of Akane's cooking lesson, Shampoo bounded in the door, humming a tune to herself and bouncing past the other two girls with an abrupt, "Nihao! Shampoo have to deliver message to Great-Grandmother but be back quick quick to help with clean up!" This rapid promise was still echoing in the room as the two red-heads turned to track the lavender blur, coming to face each other with blinking eyes. With a shrug, they resumed their task. Shampoo flew up the stairs, around and down the hall, coming to a stop only as she reached the door to the matriarch's study. Announcing her presence, she waited for an invitation to enter. If the door had been open even a bit, she would have been free to go right in and deliver her message, but Cologne had been closeted with Nodoka for most of the day, going over the paperwork and formalities of Ranko and Fa Shen's adoption by Nodoka, and that worthy's adoption by Shampoo's own great-grandmother.
After an unusually long pause, Cologne admitted her former heir and heard the girl's message. Shampoo obediently passed a note from a senior member of the council and bowed to excuse herself. Her sharp eyes had picked up a strange flushed pallor on the two older women's faces, but as they had composed themselves to admit her, Shampoo knew this was not the time to voice her curiosity. Before she could leave, however, Cologne cleared her throat. "Shampoo, Nodoka and I are feeling a little parched. Would you kindly send Ranko in with refreshments? Tell her to bring a setting for herself, as well. There is something her mother and I would like to speak with her about."
"Yes, Great-Grandmother," Shampoo bowed again and left.
Nodoka turned to Cologne, with a raised eyebrow.
"Of the three, I think it would be best to speak to her first," Cologne stated, in answer of the unvoiced question. Returning her attention to the documents and books they had been perusing together before they had been distracted, she cleared her throat again. "As I was saying earlier, this is a necessary subterfuge. For both girls, it is perfectly honest and accurate to say that this is their place of origin. It is rather fortunate we were able to find confirmation of your father's trip to Jusenkyo. Ranma in particular should be quite surprised to learn that he was following in his grandfather's footsteps," Cologne looked up at Nodoka with a grin. "With proof of his passage, and of course the reputation of this village, it was not difficult to invent a half sister for you whose passing necessitates you taking custody of the girls. Your own adoption can easily be explained as a concession to us, assuring that the girls will retain some of their heritage in your custody."
"I do appreciate your help in establishing legal identities for the girls, but I confess, the whole thing seems so complicated," Nodoka bowed from the neck, still fighting the blush and the thoughts that sustained it.
"You should be encouraged, Child," Cologne reached out a withered hand to cover Nodoka's comfortingly. "From what we have learned, we can assume that this friend of your fathers will be understanding if he ever learns about Ranma's condition."
"It's just so strange, though," Nodoka met the old woman's eyes. "I just cannot get over the idea that my father was… was my mother. What are the odds that I'd be the daughter of his curse?"
Cologne sniffed, "I think it a bit more odd that the origin of his curse is so mysterious. According to the records the Guide showed us, he arrived already cursed in Fa Shen's image, in search of a cure. It is even more surprising that he escaped from the Musk and waited to use the Kaisuifuu he had stolen until after you were born. But, given the facts, what other explanation is there?"
"And as strange as the idea of posing as his own wife might be, I am surprised that a priest like Masaki Katsuhito would risk his reputation by forging the wedding certificate," Nodoka looked at once disturbed, outraged and grateful. "But you are correct, he must have known about the curse before it was locked, or he would never have gone along with it. I find myself even more curious about my father's friend. It was a very humane thing for him to do, under the circumstances." Nodoka sighed once again, "But, I cannot help but be disturbed and afraid of what this means for Ranma. If this could happen to my father, it could just as easily happen to my son. Because of Herb, the threat has reared its head twice already, and it makes little difference if the risk is greater for Ranko and Fa Shen at present."
"I am personally far more disturbed by the alias your father used on his visit to the cursed springs. I can only hope it was some combination of a perverse sense of humor and some knowledge of the history of the Nyanniichuan. I would hope that is the only reason he called himself Lo Shen," Cologne muttered darkly. "I dread the very notion that the true Lo Shen was wandering around fifteen hundred years later, still a picture of youth and vigor and seeking a way to free himself of his sister's form."
Nodoka laughed, "Well, the one consolation in that would be knowing that he did not sacrifice his manhood to bear me! If he was Lo Shen, that fate had already befallen him before." Nodoka sobered thoughtfully and added, "However, it does make one wonder about the obligation he left me. If his curse was the origin of his demand for a true male heir, is there any hope of Ranma fulfilling it?"
Cologne sighed and looked down, "I am afraid the priest is the only one who can answer that question. I would personally say that no one could be more of a man than Ranma. Only Fa Shen and Ranko compare to him, by contrast. Where he has endured this curse to become more than a man, they have transcended womanhood. None of those three are bound by the limits other men and women, and even most of those cursed as they have been, impose on themselves." Cologne's head turned faintly to pick up the sound of approaching feet. Ranko was making no effort to conceal her approach, but even then it was difficult for the old woman's trained senses to detect her. "She comes. How do you want to address this other matter?"
Nodoka bit her lip. "I don't know, M-Mother. I don't even know how to bring it up. It kills me to see that look in their eyes…"
Cologne nodded and called out, "Come on in, Ranko." In a lower voice, she advised her adopted daughter, "Just remember what I told you. Nothing in your life can prepare you or account for the truth about your child. There is no room for assumptions or prejudice."
Ranko eased the door open with her foot, trays of tea and snacks balanced in her hands and atop her head. She glided into the room, absently closing the door behind her with the same foot, and approaching the low table where the two women were seated as though completely unencumbered. With a deft, darting and floating grace, she juggled trays of refreshments and cleared space on the table all at once, serving the three of them even as she completed placing her burdens down. It had the effect of appearing as though everything served and sorted itself out before them, as the girl casually sat down. Straightening to attention, she looked at Cologne, "You wished to speak to me, Elder?"
"You may call me Great-Grandmother, Child," Cologne smiled, reaching for her cup to take a sip of tea. "Your mother and I have finalized all the adoption paperwork. The ceremony is just a formality. It makes a wonderful excuse for a celebration, but there is no need for formality here."
Ranko's eyes widened. "I see." She picked up her cup and gulped deeply, before a faint noise from her mother reminded her of her manners. She flushed faintly and took a delicate sip before placing her cup down. "So, this means I am officially Ranko now?"
The two women nodded with warm smiles. Nodoka looked directly at Ranko, "There will be a few more legalities to take care of when we return to Japan, but this establishes you as yourself." She could not help but grin, "I can see that you are curious how we managed it, and I apologize for keeping all the details from you until now, but… well, when you hear what we've learned, you will understand."
Ranko studied their faces for a moment. She had not really understood the difficulty of establishing her identity until Ukyo sat down with her and pointed out all the factors involved in fabricating a new identity. Ranko was fortunate in not having a real past to hide at the same time, but a whole host of legal problems presented themselves as a result of her basically appearing out of nowhere. Such things mattered little in terms of the wandering life style she had known as Ranma, but even then the proper paperwork and documentation had existed that allowed Ranma to cross international borders, attend school, work, etc. Without such documentation, Ranko would never be able to function on her own. She would be dependant on others who were established and willing to bend the rules to accommodate her, either as a guest like in the Tendo home, working "under the table" as she had for Cologne at the Cat Café, or at worst being forced into a life of crime one way or another simply to support herself.
Ranko munched on a rice cake, waiting for Cologne or Nodoka to elaborate. Cologne noted the girl's patience with concealed approval, wondering if this was a true sign of growth, or if the girl simply did not know what question to blurt out first. With a slight chuckle, she picked up where Nodoka left off, "While you kids were kept out of the loop, you might have noticed when your mother and I went through the records at the Guide's hut. As I mentioned back in Nerima, I had a suspicion that one of your ancestors might have had an encounter with the Nyanniichuan, to explain your mother's appearance. In addition, you mother confided that her father told her tales about the Joketsuzoku while she was growing up, indicating that he might have visited our tribe prior to her birth."
Ranko tilted her head and considered that, "So, you were looking to see if he showed up in the guest book?"
"Correct. Fortunately, his visit predated the register that was stolen by Taro, and that record was still in the archive," Cologne replied, taking another sip of her tea. With a gesture to Nodoka, she continued, "On a first look, it seemed my theory was wrong, since his name did not show up. However, your mother recognized his penmanship in a different name. An obvious alias. A man, who fit the general description of you in masculine form, and possessing a nyanniichuan curse, who signed his name as 'Lo Shen'." Cologne paused as Ranko jerked at the name and stared at her in disbelief. "Oh, yes. I was rather startled myself. But I seriously doubt HE could have survived fifteen hundred years while hardly aging a decade. With a little effort, we found a picture of your grandfather in the archive. The man must have been in his twenties when he arrived, and the dates of the picture and the entry were both a year before your mother's birth. From the notes of the Guide of that era, he sought the Chuanshontsuniichuan intending to test the legend of salting the water and using it to split himself into male and female incarnations.
"But, before he could, he was confronted by the Musk, his curse was locked and 'she' was abducted. Apparently, word of your grandfather's curse and skill as a warrior had reached the Musk, and they had been pursing him as a prospective bride," Cologne revealed. With a deep sigh, she went into detail. The story was put together from a combination of Jusenkyo, Joketsuzoku and Musk archives—the last solicited through Herb, who was equally curious to know how Ranma/Ranko and their mother were born in the image of Fa Shen. Not surprisingly, Herb's father had brought the information containing all the real answers, on the condition that he be allowed to examine Nodoka. "He had kept the story of his attempt to marry this 'Lo Shen' a secret. Only the possibility that Nodoka was his daughter lured him down from his palace."
Ranko stared at her mother in disbelief, "His… DAUGHTER!?"
Nodoka flushed to her roots, wondering if her face matched her hair as well as her daughter's did at the moment.
"How could he think you were his… No! Your mother was…!?"
"My father," Nodoka breathed in shame. Clearing her throat, when several moments passed as Ranko fought to regain her voice, she clarified, "That much we do know now. My father escaped from the Musk, after stealing the Kaisuifuu, but he did not use it until after I was born. The amazons had heard of the theft and pursued in hopes of recovering the kettle for themselves. They were not able to find my father, but they did learn that I was born and the kettle hidden at Mount Horiisan after my father was unlocked. My 'mother's' death was a story made up to conceal the truth about my father's ordeal and keep his curse a secret."
"I don't believe it!" Ranko shouted, turning on Cologne. "For one thing, if this is all true, how come you didn't know about any of this!?"
Cologne did a fair job of blushing herself, as she responded to the challenge, "Well, there is a fair bit of irony to that part of the story. You see, I led that mission to Japan. The confusion comes in with what we did and did not know at the time. The first we learned of the incident was when a woman arrived in the village pursued by Musk warriors. Physically, she resembled Nodoka in stature and age, and she had dyed her hair black. The disguise was good enough that she did not bring Fa Shen to mind, and she never let on that she was cursed. What struck me at the time was that she was familiar with our customs, avoided conflict with any of the women here, and was desperate to escape from the Musk. It was a situation we had dealt with for generations, whenever some outsider girl was so unfortunate as to fall into their hands, and we took pleasure in frustrating her pursuers. Only the fact that she was reputed to have made off with one of the Musk treasures inspired us to follow after her."
Cologne chuckled to herself and took another drink. "Initially, she was not that difficult to track. But when we first caught up to her, she had shed her disguise in order to book passage to Japan. We would have lost her then if we had not literally run into her. At the time, we assumed her change in appearance was the disguise, since the only place where an oriental woman could pass as normal with your coloring, Ranko, is here in this village. In practical terms, it made sense, since with that shocking red hair, no one could hope to remember her features. The problem was, she still wore clothing we had given her, making it easy to confirm her identity. We confronted her, demanding she hand over the kettle. She proved a formidable opponent when we tried to capture her, managing to escape without incurring a kiss of death. A technicality, since she maneuvered us into knocking each other out!"
Cologne cackled loudly at the memory, "Oh, she was a feisty one! An expert with a sword and quite skilled in chi manipulation. She even managed to reverse a Hiryu Shoten Ha on me! That leaves little doubt where some of your own talent comes from, Child. But, by the time my party came to, she had left the country. Her trail was growing cold by the time we made it to Japan. It took us too long to track her down.
"We arrived in Okayama Prefecture, and when we asked around for a woman fitting her description, we were pointed to her grave, told that she had died in childbirth, and that her husband had taken their daughter and moved on," Cologne paused to study Nodoka. With a heavy sigh, she concluded, "That was only six months after the woman first appeared in the village, so there can be no doubt she was impregnated while a prisoner of the Musk. As impressed as we were by the woman, we considered adopting her daughter, assuming the 'father' would be happy to rid himself of a bastard and a girl. Because of that, and on the assumption that he had taken possession of the kettle, we continued pursuit."
Nodoka made a noise of discomfort, drawing attention to herself.
Cologne looked at her and grinned, "Well, if we had known then what we know now, we would have understood the man's protectiveness of you. When we tracked him down, he had completed his mission to hide the kaisuifuu. Not surprisingly, he recognized us all at once, and did not hesitate to inform us that he was aware of our customs. He refused our demands to hand over the girl and the kettle. The kettle, he claimed, was safely hidden, and he gave us a choice. We could continue to pursue him and his daughter, or we could search for the kettle, and to encourage us, he told us the location to search. I decided, if the kettle was hidden, the first priority was to rescue the girl. After all, it seemed a terrible fate to let her be raised by a man in a patriarchal society like Japan."
Ranko considered that. "You know, with just the general location, Mousse, Ryouga and I would have found the kettle on our own if we'd had the time to look for it. I mean, talk about stupid hiding places! A giant stone kettle sitting on the peak of a mountain spring? Talk about obvious!"
Cologne harrumphed, "Well, in point of fact, we never did go to Mount Horiisan. It was enough to know where to look for it, and the Musk certainly had no clue where to begin looking."
"So, you planned to adopt my mom, but it's kinda obvious you never did. What happened?"
Cologne sighed, "As you can imagine, he did not dare to fight us. He would have to have beaten at least one of us, and it would not have pained us to gain a worthy husband in addition to the daughter of a worthy woman. Instead, he tricked us. In hindsight, I realize what he did; using his curse, he confronted us as the ghost of the girl's mother. With the chi techniques at his disposal, he was able to project his image, to make himself seem a convincing phantom. You can hardly blame us, after we were thrashed by a dead woman, for deciding it best not to invite further wrath. It amused us to think of the poor man haunted by this vengeful spirit, forever watching over the girl."
Ranko and Nodoka stared wide-eyed at that.
In the lull, Ranko heard a disembodied snatch of conversation echo in the room. The voices were instantly recognizable as that of Fa Shen and Shampoo, as the former asked the latter about her intentions.
"…just want to know if you are in on it, Shampoo."
"No. Mousse decide to do his self," the other girl retorted. "Also, is only training now. Even Mousse not know if he want still challenge Ranko, but he say he ready to challenge if Shampoo try anything with Ranko again."
"You're kidding? Are you sure he isn't planning on challenging you directly? I mean, after your marriage was dissolved, and your claim to Ranko forfeited, it's not unlikely he would want another shot at you."
"Is possible, but Mousse must wait one more month before he can challenge Shampoo again," she informed solemnly, though whether because she was troubled by the deadline or the delay was unclear.
Ranko blinked, turning around to pinpoint where the voices were coming from, and found herself looking at a vent in the floor. With shock, she realized that Cologne's study was directly over the dining room. The pair of amazons downstairs must have just entered the room, after completing their work in the kitchen. The vent in the floor was meant to channel heat from the hearth in the room below, but sound was conducted just as effectively. With a sinking feeling, she turned to look at the two older women in the room, as her mind flashed back over the conversation she had participated in earlier. Had the voices of Ranko, Ranma, Ryouga and Fa Shen carried as clearly as this?
One look at the composed faces of Cologne and Nodoka, as they took in the pale of shock on Ranko's face, answered that question. With a painful gulp, Ranko stammered, "Y-you d-di-didn't c-call m-m-me in h-here to t-t-t-talk a-ab…"
"About your grandfather?" Cologne finished for her, with a guarded expression. At Ranko's nod, she sighed, "As a matter of fact, we did wish to talk to you about that. But. As you fear, Nodoka and I did happen to overhear something rather shocking over the past hour or so. I confess, we did not wish to eaves drop, but we could hardly ignore what the four of you were discussing."
Ranko curled up on herself and shuddered, "Ohgodohgodohgod!" Everything that was mentioned and discussed with Ryouga roared through her mind. All the secrets the trio was desperately afraid of their mother finding out, had been spilled out on the floor. At the thought of their life's blood and viscera following suit, Ranko simply keeled over unconscious.
Afternoon had settled in warm and beautiful, resplendent in a riot of early spring vigor. Vibrant green shoots shot up from the rich dark soil, pushing aside the dull grey and gold debris of last season's decaying plant life. The heady scent of nature's potpourri filled Akane's nose as she wandered the outskirts of the village. It barely penetrated the haze of bitterness that dragged her angry thoughts into furrows of depression. If she could just bring herself to face the hurt that fertilized her rage, she might break out of the dangerous cycle, but every time she allowed her thoughts to return to the shocking image that seared her mind, she recoiled violently from the stab of betrayal.
In the wake of discovering that Ranma was cheating on her with Fa Shen, with shut-eye chaperonage from Ranko, Akane had discovered new depths of pain and anger. It rivaled the betrayal of P-Chan being revealed as the cursed form of Ryouga at the same time she learned that the lost boy had slept with Ranma.
It was disturbing how these things always seemed to come down to timing and the incredible perversity of fate. A nagging voice inside her kept asking her if what she had caught them doing that morning had been going on all along, or if she had just happened to stumble along just in time to catch Ranma trying sex for the first time as a male? She keenly remembered her justification for attempting to have sex as a boy with a girl Ryouga. She had been desperate to know if she was even capable of that kind of intimacy with a female, for Ranma's sake. Why would Ranma, or Fa Shen for that matter, be any different? What normal girl or boy would not wonder—after the sort of experiences those two had in their new bodies—if they were still capable of performing in the roles they were born to? What kind of moron would blame them for trying to find out? That was why she had refused to listen to any excuses from them. If she was forced to forgive them, she would have nothing to be angry with them about. She would have to face the pain she felt without that familiar protection.
It was so obvious, in retrospect, that it made Akane furious that she had not anticipated it. Or was that, because she had anticipated it instantly, when the first reflection entered their lives and set her sights on Ranma? Maybe she had some suspicion from the very beginning, when she blurted in outrage, "He's a couple by HIMSELF!" at the time of their engagement.
Deep within, Akane's conscience was adding fuel to the fury, reminding her that it was not Ranma's fault he had taken over copy-Ranko just when she was losing her virginity. Akane was the one to blame for that date ever happening, and it had been eating at her since. She was not sure who to blame for the fact that Ranma had to have sex again—also as a girl, and with the male Fa Shen—in order to heal Ranko. And maybe, she was not really angry with Ranma at all. Maybe she was really just afraid. What was love but the thread that wove a pair of unfinished souls into something whole, complete? How could Akane compete… how could she even have a hope of completion in Ranma, when Ranma was so obviously capable of completing himself?
But these thoughts were too deep, too disturbing for her mind to cope with. It was just too confusing, and the note of depression only grew stronger as she reflected on the most recent addition to her unhappy musings.
Once again, she remembered the bitter sound of Ranko's voice as she stormed away from the path to the tournament ground, promising, "I'll deal with you later, Tomboy."
Akane had fled from what she had thought was another fruitless confrontation with Ranma by stepping off the path just around the bend from where she had knocked the red-headed boy into the ravine, in order to avoid the amazon witnesses to the fight. The instant she spotted her opponent's female form stalking by, and reflexively hid behind a tree, she had known that she had made a mistake.
Of the three who had hurt her, Ranko was the only one Akane had a hope of reconciling with. The only one she might have allowed herself to listen to, anyway. She desired it too, desperate to know what had motivated the girl to cover for her siblings in their perverted activities, but even more concerned with warning the girl of both Ranma's gross intentions as well as the initial threat of Mousse's training. She still wanted to kick herself for forgetting her original reason for confronting Ranko that morning. But when Ranko came to her, intent on trying to clear things up, Akane had blown whatever hope of reconciliation she had out of the water.
That was reason enough for her to flee from the village in despair. It was just the kick in the head she needed to start thinking again, and unfortunately, the first thing she thought of was the possible consequence of clobbering Ranko. She knew all too well how powerfully influenced her present and former fiancés were by their sense of honor. She had no idea how that would mix with Fa Shen's background and their new allegiance to the amazon tribe. She had no idea how likely they were to follow through on something like the kiss of death, and however much she wanted to believe the three would refuse to obey that aspect of amazon law she was painfully conscious of how they had already reacted to matters involving the kiss of marriage. In and of themselves, Ranma and Ranko were not killers, but Fa Shen was, and the other two were drawing more and more from their former self.
Akane felt, with growing dread and disgust, that the three would carry out that fatal duty if there was no way for them avoid it.
Thus, instead of returning to the village to find Ranko, she haunted the outskirts brooding. She was almost positive that she had not provoked a kiss of death. Almost. She felt enough trepidation that she did not want to test it. But all that left her was plenty of time to do nothing but perch on a boulder sinking into a pit of anger and depression. The aura surrounding her had become thick and cloying, a deep teal shot through with waves of blue and green. If it were just rage and frustration, she would have blown it all off in her outbursts against Ranma and Ranko, but the underlying pain had not abated and continued to feed the demons of Akane's passion.
It was much easier to blind herself with rage. With Ranma constantly harassing her, it was so easy to keep the anger alive, to lash out. But it also blinded her to the fact that it hurt her more than him, and that pain just fed back into her anger. So, there really was nothing she could have done to prevent what her fatal preoccupation was about to bring down on her.
On one level, she was feeling the pressure building in and around her, so it was an instinctive response to grasp for some way to vent her emotions. Because of her isolation, her normal method could not be applied. There was no one to beat on, and she had long since given up on breaking rocks and trees when that gave her no relief. She was simply itching to let it all off in one great explosion, and she had observed the method that came to her so many times she did not even have to think of it. For the same reason, any normal doubts she might have had about being able to perform such a technique herself was completely bypassed. The impulse struck her, and before she knew it, she had cupped her hands in front of her abdomen and allowed the massive cloak of chi to funnel into a globe between them. What she did notice, as the ki attack reached critical mass, was that her mind suddenly became clear and focused. She had a split second to realize that she had powered up a devastating attack and had it aimed directly into the village.
With a squawk of awe and terror, she shifted her stance and directed the swelling ball of chi to fire off directly overhead, in perfect imitation of Ryouga's ultimate final attack. Once the rush of power had ascended into the heavens, she continued to stand in disbelief with her tingling arms pointed to the sky. "I don't believe it," she gasped. How many times had Ranma—or rather, Ranko—commented on what Akane could do with her powerful aura, if she could only manage to harness it? "I just threw a ki attack!"
For an instant, all of her troubles were wiped from her mind as pride in her accomplishment surged through her. Then she noticed that the glowing ball in the sky had stopped diminishing and now appeared to be growing again.
"Wha…" she squinted her eyes. A cold chill ran down her spine, and sweat popped out on her brow. "Ohmygod. It's coming back down!" she cried in a panic, turning to race away from ground zero. To her shock, she felt something twist around and then bite into her ankle, some tangle of weeds that used her own motion to twine around her leg and trip her. As she fell onto her face, she reflexively covered her head and prayed to survive her own debut attack.
It never even occurred to her that there might be a hidden danger, something far more insidious than the risk of being crushed, charred or blasted in the detonation of spiritual energy. The harsh lesson Ryouga had learned had not really sunk in, since until that moment Akane would never have considered herself at risk. It was only as a disturbingly familiar tingle sang through her body, as she was flattened and seared by the heavy, burning manifestation of her own anger and depression, that she remembered the Instant Nanniichuan and the residue it had left in her chi. In the same way Ryouga had resurrected his Heitonniichuan curse by powering up his perfect shishihokodan, Akane had breathed new life into the ashes of the magic that had touched her, and inadvertently turned it on herself. The only difference, however, was that she did not have a curse that would allow her to reverse the effect.
By the time the villagers arrived on the scene, drawn by the sight and explosive sound of the massive detonation of chi, the battered young 'man' lying in the center of the crater had stopped convulsing in pain and begun shuddering in misery.