The Ties that Bind
Chapter five************************************************************************
Disclaimer: Clear Shadow is too poor to own much.
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The particular breed of rabbit of which Ceres had now become was not indigenous to China. In fact it had been the beloved pet of the young girl who had drowned in the Spring of Drowned Girl. So any Chinese passerby would have found it odd that one was now leaning against a tree root. Of course they might have found it odd that any rabbit was leaning against a tree root but this one in particular. Especially since it was doing something it hadn't done for six years. Misuka Ceres was bawling her eyes out. She didn't even chastise herself for showing emotion. She couldn't believe that Eriol of all people would do such a thing. Ranma had something to do with it. Of that she was sure. There was no way Eriol would be that cruel, or stupid, on his own. I shouldn't have come. Ryo-kun was right. Oh what'll uncle Aki think when he finds out that his only niece is now a…a…a pet?! She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that for the first time, she was totally unaware of her surroundings. Unfortunately there will always be those who use that sort of thing to their advantage, and one such person happened to be there. Pain shot through Ceres's furry body as she was lifted by her ears.
"I'll give you to Xian Pu!!" someone, a boy it sounded like, exclaimed happily in Chinese. No! Ceres tried to shout. I'm a girl! A girl!! The boy who held her so painfully brought her up so she could see him. Bangs and coke-bottle glasses hid his young face. From what Ceres could see and guess, which wasn't much considering she was the Mini-Me of bunnies, he was tall and wearing Chinese clothes, "Hmmm. You're really small…I know! I'll put you in a stew and give that to Xian Pu!" he grinned happily then stuck her inside his sleeve. Ceres would have dearly liked to bite his arm but unfortunately she couldn't find it. His sleeves didn't seem quite this big……… Finally after several confusing, and dark, minutes Ceres was fished out of her cloth prison. She was now in a camp. Already the boy had a stew pot going with the contents rapidly boiling. OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod! She kicked and squirmed. This boy had some nerve trying to skin and cook her! Oh yeah I'm a bunny…wait a minute! I'm a bunny!! I have teeth!!! With this handy bit of knowledge Ceres bit her captor as hard as rabbitly possible. He cried out in pain and tossed her…
Into his stew pot. Instead of becoming some chick's entrée, however, as soon as her furry body touched the hot water she discovered that she was human again. Everything from her lavender buns to her, and this was really embarrassing, completely naked body was back to normal. The boy who had tried to cook her stared at her as she stepped out of the very hot pot, took off his glasses, cleaned them, put them back on, blinked then began yelling.
"Demon bunny!!! DEMON BUNNY!!! I will destroy you!!"
"No!" Ceres cried, "I'm not a demon. I'm a girl. A normal everyday girl!" he looked at her funny, "Ok. Not normal not since I was pushed into a cursed spring." He nodded and visibly relaxed.
"Your accent is terrible," he told her. Ceres grinned.
"Thank-you. All the Chinese I know I learned partially from my mother and mostly from our guide, and I can hardly read it. I'm from Japan."
"That explains a lot," he reached over and touched a tear with his finger, "You've been crying."
"Yeah," he began rummaging around in his sleeve and within seconds pulled out a silk Chinese dress with long slits up either side, "Should I bother to ask where you keep all this stuff?"
"Ancient Chinese technique. Very handy I can tell you," he handed the garment to Ceres who ducked behind a bush and slipped into it, "Can I ask you your name Rabbit-Maiden?" he asked when she came back out and sat next to him.
"I'm not sure of the Chinese translation. In Japanese it's Misuka Ceres."
"I think it would be Tze Rez in Chinese tongue. It sounds better in your native tongue. Names usually do. I'm Mu Tzu."
"Mousse? Like the dessert?"
"Huh? I don't understand."
"Never mind. Can I ask you a question?"
"Ok."
"Why exactly are you out here looking for things to stew?" Mu Tzu blushed.
"I'm trying to prove myself."
"To who? And if I'm getting too personal tell me and I'll drop it."
"No I don't mind. I want to prove myself worthy of the hand of a warrior girl from my village."
"By making her lunch? No offense."
"I have nothing to offer her in the way of strength. She beats me every time," Ceres smiled to herself, Where have I heard that before? "So I have to prove my worth in some other way."
"You have clothes that hold a mountain of… of…. Stuff. If that doesn't impress the hell out of her than she's not worthy of you," Mu Tzu grinned and blushed.
"Thank-you. You're very kind. But this technique is more common than you think…would you like to come to my village? I'm sure the Elder can find a suitable teacher for you…if you want to learn." Ceres considered this. Why not? I don't have anything keeping me here.
"Lead on Squad Leader."
"What?"
"Um. Never mind."
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Mu Tzu's village, Ceres was shocked to discover, was that of a tribe of Chinese Amazons. At first she was tense, ready for any unexpected attacks but, as Mu Tzu had explained, the tribe was more than willing to welcome her.
"You have the aura of a great fighter," he told her, "It's in the way you walk and hold yourself. The women respect that and the men find it insanely attractive."
"Oh…o-kay…" Mu Tzu was showing her around when he suddenly turned fire engine red. A second later Ceres figured out why. A girl about Ceres's own age of 16 was coming towards them. Ah. Mousse's crush. I'd bet my life on it. The girl was pretty, skinny without appearing sickly, with long hair that was couple of shades darker than Ceres's lavender.
"Nihao!" she said cheerfully, "I'm Xian Pu. Welcome to our village," Ceres bowed politely. Xian Pu grinned then turned to Mu Tzu and scowled, "Don't you have something useful to do?" she asked pointedly. Mu Tzu muttered something about mending robes and ran off, "Why were you spending time with him?" Xian Pu wanted to know, "Men are so much weaker and not worth much. Except for breeding and to use as a punching bag."
"Normally I'd disagree. But lately I've been thinking the same thing."
"You were called Tze Rez right?"
"Yes. It sounds better in Japanese believe me."
"I would much like to learn Japanese. Great-grandmother knows it but doesn't have time to teach me."
"I could teach you some. If you could teach me to read Chinese."
"You don't know how? But you speak it fairly well. Your accent is really bad but that can always be fixed and reading Chinese is so easy."
"To you perhaps. You've been reading and speaking it your entire life. Speaking Japanese comes easy for me but I doubt you will think so."
" I hope you will stay and teach me."
"I hope I can stay. I've always wanted to learn some of your fighting techniques."
"Well you will have to prove your worth but I doubt you'll have a problem with that."
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The elder of this particular Amazon village happened to be very, very, old woman who was also Xian Pu's great-grandmother.
"So," she said as Ceres stood very straight in front of her and an assembly of everyone, even the men, in the village, "So you, a Japanese foreign girl wish to join our tribe."
"Yes, Elder."
"Well you're polite that's one thing. What is your name?"
"Misuka Ceres."
"Mi-Misuka? One of my old students married a Misuka. Yes… I see her in you. You mother is Hibiki Nadeshiko?"
"Was. Both of my parents were in a car accident six years ago."
"I am sorry for your loss little one. Your mother was a wonderful woman and a great fighter. You must hear this often but you look very much like her," Ceres smiled.
"Thank-you."
"I knew your father as well. He was strong…for a man," she grinned which instead of making her look friendly, came off as being scary beyond all reason, "You enter this village under strange circumstance, yes?"
"I was pushed into an Accursed Spring."
"You were training?"
"That was the purpose. I was with a group of two boys and one of the boy's father. The father and son fell into the Spring of Drowned Panda and Drowned Girl. That was this morning. During the afternoon they were trying to find some way of reversing it. Well the father was. The two boys decided to play a little trick on me."
"They pushed you in?"
"One who I counted as a friend, yes. The Spring of Drowned Rabbit apparently. I took off for the woods and was found by Mu Tzu…he tried to uh…stew me," there was a ripple of laughter and more than one whispered "Way to go!" from the males.
"This boy. Would you be willing to take revenge for what he did to you?"
"If you forgive me for saying Elder, but I really don't believe in picking on those who are that much weaker than I."
"I see. Well let me offer you a proposition. If you fight this boy. And win. Then you will be re-born into this tribe. Push him into an Accursed Spring. My Granddaughter and the one who found you shall accompany you as witnesses. Xian Pu. Mu Tzu. Come forward now."
"But…but Great-grandmother why Mu Tzu? He is a man. He is not worthy of such and honor."
"As true as that is Xian Pu. He is the one who found Ceres," she replied shrugging.
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Ceres might not have been so ready to shove Eriol into one of the springs if she had different blood flowing in her veins. Unfortunately, for Eriol really, her Hibiki blood was dominant and Hibiki blood meant honor and honor meant a strong sense of justice. Eriol had caused her insult and he needed to atone for this injustice. Ceres looked around at all the springs and gulped. It would really, really suck if she were to fall in another spring. Her escorts were concealed, silent witnesses to her test. Upon reaching Juesenkyo Xian Pu had wished her good luck and Mu Tzu had given her a quick hug (out of Xian Pu's line of vision obviously.) Good, Ceres thought as the camp came into view, They haven't left yet. She walked over, glad that she was enough of a stoic so that none of the myriad of feelings she now felt showed on her face, and stood over Eriol. It took a couple of seconds for him to wake up and a record total of 3.4 more seconds to recognize and hug the girl.
"Ceres! I'm so glad you'r-" he was abruptly cut off by the punch to the stomach. He fell to his knees, gasping and looked up at her.
"You dare touch me after what you did? You did this to my life. You made it a disaster."
"Wait a minute!"
"Thanks to you I have seen HELL!"
"Ceres-" she hauled him up by the collar and threw him towards the springs.
"Fight me. Now. Over the Accursed Waters."
"Over the- Ceres what are you-"
"Now. You've already cursed me for no reason, do not dare deny me my revenge. As a student of Anything Goes Martial Arts you cannot refuse a challenge," Eriol, reluctantly and only after a death glare from Ceres, jumped onto a bamboo shoot. A second later Ceres joined him.
"This is insane Reichi," Ceres's scowl deepened at the use of Eriol pet name for her. Instead of answering she chose to attack. Eriol, instead of blocking or sending an attack of his own merely jumped from shoot to shoot.
"If you keep jumping about like that sooner or later you'll fall in."
"Ceres stop this. I get it I've hurt you. I'm sorry," Ceres paused mid attack and settled (sorta) on a shoot.
"Sorry? You're sorry?!? I AM HALF GIRL, HALF BUNNY!!!" she began glowing a deep violet, the color of her eyes, "I never did anything to provoke you!" Eriol began hopping backwards, "Look at me! I'm a freak now!" her hands were crossed over her chest. It was like all the tragedies that had occurred in her young life were being played in front of her eyes. Her Ki was heavy, so very heavy. It whistled as the outline thickened around the girl, "You don't know what it's been like for me," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes, "Shishi….Hoko…DAN!!" the Earth erupted as a huge wave of raw emotional Ki flew straight up. Eriol chanced a glance at Ceres's face. The expression the girl wore was enough to break his heart. He only saw it for a split second, however, as the Ki slammed back down to Earth with incredible force. Where there were springs and bamboo shoots, now there was only a crater. Eriol, it seemed, had managed to evade the brunt of the attack but couldn't evade it entirely and went flying into a spring just outside the ring of destruction. And in the middle of it all, still standing on her shoot, was Ceres. She stared at the horizon for a moment before falling headfirst off the shoot. Mu Tzu caught her just before she slammed into the ground. Xian Pu, he explained to the only semi-conscious girl, was running to the village to tell the Elder that she had passed the test and also that she would need a healer. Ceres nodded and passed out, unaware that she had nearly blown up half of the cursed springs, unaware that Ranma and Genma had slept through the whole thing, and unaware that a very wet raven had puled itself out of a spring and was now clumsily flying her way.