"Ranma, You Idiot!"
----------------------
The dramatic fadeout left Ranma amidst the koi, pondering paradox as she took care of Genma. Manipulating Nanban space-time could re-fight the battle she had already lost, but to what end?
She didn't make the distractions during her skirmish with the goddess. But she had seen herself, or at least other Ranma Saotomes. Snorting, she decided to forget the whole thing -- a useless waste of even infinite time. Probability anomalies; not unlike contemporary physics could account for the reality of dimensional hopping. Nothing to do with her.
Unexpectedly, Ranma doubled over in agony, like her blood had started a slow boil.
Performing ki-probing to identify the pain's cause led to traces of silvery energy in her blood. Where the Nanban Mirror's dissolved ghost rested.
Was this the price of paradox?
Ranma Nanban-willed herself back to the finished battle, as a test.
She found herself flanking the Seruni-chan on the left side, and threw ki-flashbombs of compressed air, utilizing a variation of the buzzing fist.
"Cry of a Cherished Soul!" Yelled Seruni, throwing an energy kick that didn't connect with anything tangible.
"Ah, damn," said Ranma, knowing what would happen. Her attacks backlashed, pummeling her with hot burning air and brilliant lights.
Rubbing her eyes, she wondered why her danger sense kept screaming. Annoyed, sure it wasn't really brighter than noon, Ranma looked upwards – into a ki bomb powerful enough to destroy Tokyo.
--
"Forgot about that thing," mused Ranma to the koi on her head, noting she felt a bit better.
Dealing with Genma, the frustrated time tamperer changed back to male, and fled to his special spot near the river, a place where he wouldn't be bothered.
"Ok you stupid magic gizmo, we are talking. I see no point in returning to useless futilities."
Ranma swore the dissolved Nanban Mirror growled at him! Perhaps the blood around his eardrums had merely changed temperature.
Oddly, he got the idea one or two instances of parallelization were forgivable if uncomfortable. No artifact might do more. He was sure the thought wasn't his, but it made perfect sense.
"You can hear me." Ranma smiled through the pain, knowing battle approached.
It made perfect sense to go back: too many unresolved simul-paths might unravel his soul. No wait, that didn't make sense.
"I'm not an idiot!" Ranma punched the grass, fighting mental dissonance. This entire exercise was to establish dominance and find edges of limitations.
I'm sure I'm right! I can fight this paradox attack off all by myself, and be fine.
He recognized sarcasm not his own, before the pain came. Fighting paradox caused his internal mirror to vibrate. It hurt, worse than any cramp or ache encountered during the art; like jumping in a lake of boiling water under the cat-tongue pressure point, but more insistent.
He didn't know how long he remained steadfast. All consuming pain obliterated his sense of passing time. In an instant that extended an eternity, Ranma gave in.
He Nanban-teleported in the air above Seruni, hoping to blindside her early. His day ended in a silvery streak as he became energy motes.
-
Soon days blurred together like dominoes. Each Nanban overlap cost a repetition; Ranma felt like his memories of what real life was like slipping further away.
-----
After recovering, he looked in the phonebook, and circled styles with listed masters. The usefulness of the yellow pages as a resource for obscure dojo locations served beyond his expectations.
-
"Jinbei Tetsuo of the Firedancing School, I challenge you!" Yelled Ranma across a swaying rope bridge, shifting over an active volcanic vent. The magma pool beneath bubbled erratically. A cloaked figure turned and nodded.
-
"Kuretsai of the Spinning Drones, I challenge you!" The beekeeper bowed, as he let chi infuse the stingers and wings of his charges.
-
"Master Won Shu Sheng, I challenge you!" Yawning, the wrinkled ancient troll-like midget threw a net a ki, entrapping the nuisance before resuming his nap on a blue dojo mat. 'Much to learn here,' thought a struggling Saotome.
-----
With new tricks, Ranma moved to mastering the appropriate props.
"Thanks for letting me use the range, lieutenant." The officer nodded. "No problem son, police work would be a good career with your talent."
-
Engine roars filled the air as an F-15 took off on a counter-espionage fly-over. Officers ran around the Okinawa base like a disturbed nest of fire ants.
"Sergeant, don't give me that line of crap! Rocket launchers and kiloton bombs don't vanish into thin air!" The raving colonel was tearing the poor soldier a new one. His English not good enough to appreciate the fine art of military cussing, Ranma Nanban-teleported away with the arms cache he'd stolen under the Umi-sen-ken.
-
Sorry to have abused Dr. Miyamoto's trust, even indirectly, Ranma stuffed the experimental solenoid laser into her weapons-space. She teleported as alarm klaxons summoned security to the high-energy research area.
-----
Appearing in a burst of Nanban power, Ranma bowed before the Willow Tree Child. "I am ready to resume now." He announced placidly.
Staring intensely at her opponent, the little girl frowned. "I am prepared, though I grieve you are not stronger."
At peace, Ranma watched four male versions of himself appear with overlapping silvery coronas. They rapidly dispersed to the compass points surrounding the godling, while he levitated above her with a variation of vacuum flight.
Knowing the costs of overlapping, Ranma now exercised greater care.
Unconcerned at being flanked, Seruni-kami sighed, disappointed. "I understand now. Being locked by a temporal signature prevents your physical and spiritual tolerances from strengthening with practice. Your willpower is immense."
As one, five Saotomes hidden weapons-materialized a pair of magnum forty-fours (one in each hand) and opened fire from five angles. Knowing the speeds the child moved, they fired at her real location and at her probable locations, using the dead accuracy perfected with weeks of practice at police ranges.
Moving faster than Ranma could perceive, Seruni became a pink and black blur as she dodged bullets. Halfway through the clips, he was proved correct in his suspicion, as the goddess moved backwards when a bullet struck one of her limbs. The speeds used made it unclear whether an arm or leg took the shot. Aside from a small change in her dodging pattern, the hit did no damage.
Gunfire stopped and calm reloading commenced. Watching this ritual, Seruni happily commented, "That was fun; we don't have weapons like these." She opened her hands, exposing the bullets she had caught. "Fast but ineffective."
"You let yourself be hit." Stated Ranma Saotome at the south compass point.
"Heh, you could tell? I wanted to see the force your weapons contained." Laughing, she tossed the bullets away. "Pathetic! Don't expect me to retain an unfavorable field position."
Relieved the Goddess was really a child in some ways, Ranma-west bantered back. "I wouldn't dream of it. My next trick is called 'Wildfire Burning in the Rain.' Prepare yourself."
The little girl smiled, sending lazy lances of light streaking at the Ranmas surrounding her with a wave of her wrist. With a Nanban flash, a female Ranma Saotome appeared, frowning at the streaking lines of light. Holding up a small metal disc with five holes punched in it, she delicately used the Happo Go En Satsu technique to steal the power of the strange spears of light. She didn't even have time for the Energy Return before Seruni moved in and banished her by snapping her neck.
Ranma-chan bought needed time.
'Wildfire Burning in the Rain' derived from a combination of high level chi techniques learned from the masters he had challenged. The Firedancing School provided the ability to imbue weapons with flame, allowing additional damage. Kuretsai of the Spinning Drones had shown the of use chi in guiding small objects in coordinated assault. Master Won Shu Sheng and his nets developed a direction and purpose behind the assault.
During this small pause, the five gun wielding men switched to semi-automatics taken from the arms cache of the Okinawa base. Imbuing the ammo casings with enough fire-ki that bullets were on the brink of exploding, Ranma Saotome fired.
Times five.
Like a startled hummingbird, the Goddess flew straight up, delivering a dynamic purple ki-uppercut with her aura while smacking bullets away. The hovering Ranma hurtled away with a pulverized weapon, resetting into silver energy motes. The bullets exploded upon contact with her hands, slightly throwing the Willow Tree Child off, until her purple corona-shield grew brighter, stabilizing her.
The repeat of semi-auto fire echoed mercilessly.
Drawn by the ghost of their destroyed companions, a hail of bullets glowing with ethereal red ki-flames unerringly sought the kami-child. A bizarre inverted rainstorm of shimmering fire. Wildfire Burning in the Rain.
Seruni streaked away, sending dots of ki towards the bullets following her, causing them to explode in two foot fireballs as they sought revenge.
Soon Ranma Saotome ran out of ammo and watched, admiring and disappointed at his latest failure.
In ten seconds, the Goddess destroyed the bullets following her with precision beyond human. Made of ineffective two-foot fireballs, a huge kanji statement decorated the sky.
It read, "Nice try."
A Kami-Hime-Ha slammed into the shooters, leaving a crater and ending their days.
----
Three hits from Genma sent Ranma-chan flying out of the pond, and reminded her integrating memory sets wasn't a good idea right now. The Fist of the God Princess had just blown her to bits for the fourth time. Annoyed, her father broke a sign over her head reading 'Pay Attention Boy!'
Ranma reached into herself, down into her inner volcano the Firedancing School had made her aware of, and called her Flame. Sending the old man into the air with a red flaming kick, she pointed at the aerial bear and used fire-ki like a confidence blast.
The flaming panda was doused in the waters of koi.
Grumbling as she went inside, trying to analyze combat memories, Ranma noticed a smirking Nabiki joining them for breakfast.
"Why Miss Lina, however did your chest get so big?" Asked Kasumi dreamily as she served.
The Tendo girls laughed at Ranma, who had never seen the Slayers.
Non-responsive, the red haired girl silently thought of the Willow Tree Child's destruction. Was this the same angry rage Akane felt, when she finally understood how pitiful her skill levels were compared to Ranma's own?
This was a moment missed.
-
The memories integrated during class, and Ranma sadly concluded he wasn't good enough to beat Seruni, and even with infinite time, might never be.
"I won't accept it! I can't accept it!" Roared Ranma in denial, forgetting he was quietly sitting at a desk.
"Delinquent!" Hinako-sensei used her signature attack; happy the monotony of teaching was broken.
Recalling times with Master Won Shu Sheng, Ranma looked at the incoming energy drain as a thread from a net, and with a flick of ki, deflected it to Akane.
"Enough." Snarled the heir to Musubetsu Kakuto Ryuu. "Take me to a technique that will defeat Gods," demanded Ranma, focusing hard on the Powers who bested him. Seruni, Izanami, and the Formless Duke were obliterated by the undefined might he sought with his will.
"Stop!" Shouted his teacher in vain.
Eagerly, the Nanban Mirror inside Ranma awoke at the thirst for destruction. The air cracked violently as he disappeared in a burst of darkling silver light.
"Miss Tendo, when you can move again, tell Mr. Saotome he has detention for disrupting class." Hinako-adult sounded unsteady.
Akane shuddered. The energy that had consumed her fiancé felt evil enough for her to seek Cologne's help despite her wedding grudge against Shampoo. She was going there now.
When she could move again.
---
Teeth ripped his soul, and a thousand bloody pinpricks leeched vitality across his body. A barrier held him back, but allowing the artifact free reign, Ranma found himself compressed impossibly small and thrust across a hole.
As he traveled, incredible torment met indomitable will.
With a thud he landed in darkness on a hard, smooth floor. Barely able to move from life-drain, the martial artist achingly stood, feeling disorientated in the dark.
His eyes did not adjust, and Ranma feared the mirror had blinded him.
Reaching deep within, he conjured a simple construct of visible ki: a sphere of light. It flickered as he struggled to the find power to maintain it.
Blinking, he saw a tiny room with no exit, a prison cell. The strange walls enclosed him snugly, and his arrival had happened in the room's exact center. He had an urge to stretch his arms and touch the walls, but his raw senses screamed 'No!'
The gray walls, which weren't stone, metal, or plastic, felt like death.
Looking around, the room's décor consisted of a pedestal holding a black, non-threatening cube. Rusted chains decorated the floor near the object, as if their protection had been shed over centuries. Ranma received the impression the walls had acquired their color by radiation from this cube.
Approaching while limping with both legs, he saw squiggles covering the pillar. Like mad spiders, they twitched before settling into Japanese: "Power mad fools seek me. I kill those who use me. The Shimmer Void hungers!"
Ranma hesitated.
He pictured the Catfist manual with its warning of 'Only an idiot would teach this!' Ranma realized he was reaching for the cube. He wondered if his pride was making foolish choices. He might save himself by walking away.
Maybe he should leave, and use the technique of last resort he hadn't tried. Distaste and disdain crossed his face, directed inward.
Limping back from the simple pillar, Ranma pondered what he could lose. His physical and spiritual self were immune from change during this endless day, and with a proper balance of serenity, his mind should be fine.
Why not try it? Was being a power-mad fool worse than being an idiot?
The thought the mirror brought him into a non-place with different laws occurred after he grasped the cube.
He fell into Hell. Like being exploded and imploded, like stuffing enough sand into a pickle jar that the glass burst under the pressure.
The artifact calmly said, "Ranma, you idiot," before eating him. In this fleeting moment, he understood idiots and power-mad fools to be the same.
His curse began triggering randomly, leaving parts female or male in a weird amalgam.
The cube of appeared around him, sucking all that he was inside at an uneven rate. The walls shimmered with a dark alien sheen, black on black. Annihilation.
Standing on the verge of insanity and death, on an island far removed from good and evil, the residue of the Nanban Mirror acted to preserve itself, and indirectly, its host.
Ranma Saotome fell into the Koi pond.
With a painful wrenching, Jusenkyo proved relentless, and Ranma returned totally female.
Barely dragging her head above water, she blacked out.
---
Shimmer Void. An emotional state no sane mind might conjure. Ranma could now replicate it imperfectly.
He didn't wish it on his worst enemy.
Next time, and their would be a next time, Ranma would walk away. This lesson he'd learned enough times to finally understand.
---
"What's wrong boy!" Growled Genma at his heir as they sparred. He could tell the boy was toying with him, not thinking about the exchange of blows taking place. Several counters were potentially lethal moves, ones Ranma rarely used. The boy's behavior this morning felt evil, like malevolence chained but not contained.
Surprised his father picked up the negative undertones from his latest experience, Ranma answered truthfully.
"I found a technique which I must seal, one so horrible I could not use it to save my life."
Abruptly Genma stopped sparring, something he hadn't done of his own free will in years of identical days. Ranma long ago learned a hole in his father's defense to instantly end their morning spar with a knockout; until now exploiting that weakness was the only way of stopping Genma's assault, aside from injuring his father severely.
Sensei-like, the older man looked at his son. "I too once believed I had created techniques like you speak of. The Master," Genma shuddered reflexively, "Happosai told me 'you must master the technique before it masters you,' and he was completely correct."
Ranma looked shocked. This was good advice.
"Mastering the Sen-Ken techniques was trivial. As I feared, their use ended tragically. The Duty of a Martial Artist is to protect the weak, even if he protects them from himself."
His father referred to what happened to the Kumons.
"Listen boy, the story isn't over yet!" Genma cajoled, spinning out things his son had never known. "After performing the Seal, I found myself reluctant to grow in the Art, always fearing I'd invent new terrifying ravages of destruction. Be warned, Ranma, at the consequences of your actions."
"What would you know about that old man?" Sneered the teenager, impudently, remembering who had brought countless troubles to them both.
"Show me the technique, and I'll tell you." Answered Genma, intensely, matching the sneer with hint of the forbidden.
Uncertainty flashed across his face, but Ranma shouted at his father, "Fine! Pop, follow me, it isn't safe here."
-
They arrived at an abandoned lot, blocks from the Tendo dojo, and Ranma had thought the old fart would never miss breakfast for anything. A ruined mansion occupied the lot; a fire and the Japanese property market meant no one lived here, or would for years. Now a half demolished building decorated an overgrown field of boulders and grass.
"What is the principle behind your technique?" Genma believed nothing could be as devastating as vacuum, the space between suns. The Kijin Ryu Dan embodied this force, more horrible than a Demon or God. He suspected his son discovered the terrifying principle of negation.
The silence drew out between the father and son, and the sun glistened on several boulders, which had once been a Buddhist garden.
"It is called Shimmer Void." Muttered Ranma in a small, quiet voice with understated dread.
Nodding sagely, Genma wasn't surprised it was a void technique. The Yuurei-Sen-ken, the abandoned Ghost of a Thousand Fists, left him feeling oddly empty. Food, lots of food, made the feeling go away.
"Carefully boy," whispered Genma, "when dealing with darkness, always remember you are you and It is It. Otherwise it has a way of mixing into you, leaving pollution in your spirit."
Observing his son looked less afraid, the older man nodded seriously, emphasizing the importance of his words.
As Ranma began drawing darkness into a ball between his hands, an ugly sheen of black beyond black that shimmered malevolently in sunlight, Genma produced no visible reaction.
He hadn't expected the boy to reach this level until his mid-twenties, but after Phoenix Mountain, he had learned of Ranma's true ki-potential. While Genma hadn't walked away unscathed from the Void, he would make sure his son did.
"Release!" Boomed Genma Saotome commandingly, before his son manifested more darkness than a man might handle.
A wave of dark annihilation flew from Ranma's hands, absorbing a tree, some old foundation supports and half a car-sized boulder. Where the attack terminated it looked like a million jagged teeth had eaten a thousand bites of stone and soil.
Unmoved as his son shuddered from touching evil, Genma Saotome, the Dark Horse, watched Ranma realize he was still alive.
"Again." He demanded, relentless. Not flinching at his growling stomach, the head of the Saotome clan knew it would be hours before his son won against the Void.
-
Against his will, trained by his father a final time, Ranma Saotome mastered the Shimmer Void. Would it remain sealed eternally?
-----
He spent the week living it up at Japan's tastiest restaurants with Nabiki's money. Procrastination was pointless, but needed time to collect himself. After his relaxing seven days, Ranma entered the Kami Realms through the Shikoku Gate. Best to give the brat time to calm and walk over.
---
The varnished wooden marker held a new message:
"Super-beings got you down? Willow Tree Children putting shade in your sunshine? The God of Crossroads recommends trying his own special branch of Martial Whoop-Ass! Only four years and ninety five days of servitude, trivial to a timeless being. Act now to accept this limited offer!"
Ranma Saotome looked at the sign with longing and distaste.
"No thanks."
Slowly walking along the road, upper fork western path, Ranma slowly traveled to the Plains of Pain. Today was the end.
--
Twenty minutes away from the Goddess, he rediscovered the rest of the arms cache he'd stolen from the American military base. Kiloton bombs and rocket launchers lay next to a bunch of high-powered rifles.
"Useless." He snorted, hiding a couple grenades in his weapon space, because you never knew when you'd need a grenade.
Two steps away, a brilliant solution to his dilemma appeared in a burst of silvery Nanban light.
His female side approached and handed him a pulsating hunk of reddish brown metamorphic rock. "Volcanic ki focus. You'll get memory washed to avert paradox. We have the idea after the little brat's first counter." She disappeared with a Nanban flash, leaving a white afterimage on his retinas.
'A chance!' Thought Ranma with dawning hope. The ki-focus technique he'd played with long ago, but thanks to physical reality resetting, it had proven useless. The Kami-Planes didn't reset with him!
"Yes, yes, we are an idiot." Agreed another copy of himself who handed off a sparking Tesla Coil charged with lightning-ki. "Hide these with hidden weapons so we don't lose direct contact with the foci and they can't be stolen or destroyed." He Nanban-flashed out, leaving Ranma blinking.
"Careful with the dry ice; sort of unstable." Warned another Ranma as he passed over a steaming cold-ki focus. Making sure he didn't have trouble concealing the steaming cold source, this Ranma vanished also.
"This one is nervous energy! Happo-go-en satsu at a night concert!" Shouted a Ranma-chan wearing jeans and a black and white T-shirt with 'Metal' on the front, as she threw a bag of empowered yen coins at him. She didn't vanish, instead laying on the Plains of Pain and falling asleep.
"I disgust myself, but the brat doesn't understand this emotion." Admitted another Ranma as he handed over a slightly damp pair of racy scarlet panties oozing perverted ki. He vanished in shame without a silvery flash, seeming to slowly evaporate.
"Kodachi helps too." Bestowing upon herself a small golden hair ribbon glowing with holy ki, Ranma-chan punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Thank her properly." She muttered before fading out.
"This is a derivative of dark, I think it's safe." Growled a tense Ranma as he gave himself a hunk of obsidian focused with void power. Relieved and rid of his burden, that Ranma left too.
"I'm last, topping off your energy." His female side grabbed his wrist and transferred ki into Ranma. "I'd do more, but you don't have ki-reserves to safely hold my power. Be still, this is planned so the runt will underestimate us." Explained Ranma-chan, erasing the memory of this encounter with a comforting forehead massage.
-
Slightly depressed, knowing he intended this as his last battle with Seruni-chan, Ranma used an idea developed over months of planning 'Wildfire Burning in the Rain.' Ten minutes away from contact with the goddess, Ranma ran.
Faster, and faster, stirring the grass violently, until with a jump and force of will, he flew on a wave of vacuum. Feeling less drained than expected, Ranma imbued the ki-wave below him with a redundant structure and a few surprises.
The pink-clad divine girl waited for him in the air.
Pouring on speed, with the leading vacuum edge as sharp as when he bisected a greater oni, Ranma flew directly at her whirling crystal eyes, reflecting the azure sky.
Precisely at the last moment, the Essence of Sea let him fall through his own ki-construct, and Ranma watched his opponent gleefully miss her body stomp and start riding the vacuum wave like a surf board.
He fell, smiling.
The seeking part of his trap triggered, and the Willow Tree Child laughed when her 'wave' began turning impossibly tight loops attempting to shake her and cleave her in half.
Bringing immense satisfaction, Ranma's delay ki trigger expired, and the wave exploded into a white orb of wind and power in the middle of an extremely tight maneuver.
Cratering the ground with his body, Ranma felt happiness. 'Hit the little bitch at last!' He thought grandly; the feint within a feint within the attack worked.
Climbing out of his crater, Ranma unthinkingly accepted Seruni's helping hand up.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Pleaded the little Goddess cutely as she jumped up and down with his hand gripped tightly. Her hair was slightly disheveled, and a couple sooty smudges decorated her outfit's pink skirt. "What a rush!" Seruni said, her yellow crystal eyes whirling madly in pleasure.
"Sorry kid." Said Ranma as he tried pinpoint ki-blasting her grip away while performing a judo throw.
"Meanie!" Accused the hovering goddess, gripping his hand still.
Spinning his body down hard, creating another Ranma-sized crater overlapping the first, Seruni let go and asked, "What's next then?"
In the middle of being slammed down, Ranma's brain flared in a marvelous idea. 'Why didn't I think of that sooner!' Mourned Ranma as he smacked his forehead, undoing a memory block. 'Doesn't matter!' He exulted.
Jumping out of the hole, he drew upon stored nervous energy and sent hundreds of tiny scattershot ki-blasts to seek and torment his opponent.
"Not powerful enough." Snorted the divine girl, as her aura fountained massively, hurling Ranma back a dozen steps as the attack harmlessly evaporated.
Exhausting passion, light, and darkness, he sent a triply energized corkscrew at the raging aura storm. An inner core of alternating light and darkness was sheltered by perversion. Knowing the attack would fail by itself, Ranma howled "Akane no BAKA!" and threw holy cutting ki vortices until half his foci were exhausted.
A blinding flare of power indicated the Willow Tree Child was busy, and Ranma backed away, hoping for one last opening.
The amazing aura in front of him lowered, and Seruni walked forward with another smudge on her outfit, near her heart. "Redundant elemental seeking blasts produced from ki-focuses." Identified the girl. "Nice work around for your limited power level."
As she spoke, he used the last of his boosted power, those of the elements to create a ki-storm around the goddess. Knowing this attack ineffective by itself, Ranma tried a combination of the Gentle Stilling Breath and Hi Ryu Shoten Ha techniques to draw out the oxygen inside his trap and intensify the magnitude.
When the energy died away, the Seruni was revealed to be peacefully meditating.
"Do you understand yet?" She asked.
Panting with energy exhaustion, Ranma knew he had lost.
Not because his Art was weak, but because hers was strong. Reduced to employing cheap energy boosts just to attack, Ranma understood he'd been fooling himself. Without truly becoming stronger he couldn't win, and while his existence repeated, that couldn't happen.
Exhausted, defeated, and lacking new techniques he was willing to employ, Ranma Saotome became female and collapsed to her knees.
Curious, the Willow Tree Child approached.
"I give up! I give up." Faux-sobbed the red haired girl. Unknown even to herself, a few tears were real.
"So mother, your newest champion fails!" Proclaimed the kami-girl with an upheld fist, in a booming multi-harmonic ki-voice.
Ranma groveled, employing truly for the first time in her life a technique she'd always felt the utmost contempt for: The Crouch of the Wild Tiger.
"Waaah!" Wailed the red head pitifully, theatrically, and though she refused the admission, genuinely.
At first Seruni-Hime looked uncomfortable, then downright sad, as Ranma spilled her story about the Bane of Heirs with snot hanging out of her nose.
"Fine! Fine! I'll help." Said the little girl.
"You will?" Ranma stopped crying and wiped her face in her shirt.
"Yes, because you are walking my path, that of inevitable mastery." Said the Goddess of Ki Inside Life.
Ranma nodded. At first she had trained to become the best, and when she had gotten there, she wanted to become even better. The way required constantly learning, and with constant learning, mastery was inevitable. She couldn't learn much more the way things were.
"We didn't have to fight, we could have played Go." Said the smaller girl wistfully.
"Fighting was the best way."
"So physical violence is better in advancing our Art than peaceful intellectual debate?"
"Yes."
"Calling violence active and pacifism weak or inactive, is an example of a false dichotomy; any five year old knows that, Ranma-san." Seruni chided him gently, gesturing at herself.
"But, but, but. . . . . .." She stuttered, thinking, 'Would I have learned what I did?'
"If you explained at the beginning rather than insulting me and attacking, you would have spared yourself frustration and humiliation. Instead you have paid much for useless power that demands to be used. We could have played with ki too, and playing go would have taught you even more; think about that."
"Whatever power I have, I'll use to help people." Visions of happy fiancées danced in his head, as Ranma changed into a man and looked off into the distant blue sky.
"Helping people for their own good is always a trial. Be careful though, you wouldn't want to learn this lesson a third time."
He wondered at the price of false pride, letting silence stand until Seruni spoke again.
"We shall travel to Mount Uka, where I will make an apology my mother can hear, fulfilling your bargain. Of course, I have a condition."
"What would that be?" Asked the overwhelmed martial artist, prepared to accept anything.
"Piggyback ride on the way up! Wai!" The young goddess had her priorities.
---
Hours later they arrived at Castle Uka. Jumping off Ranma's back, Seruni-Hime landed next to Uka's gates and shattered them with a delicate flick of her wrist.
"Hey you vindictive bitch!" Called the young Goddess to her mother. "I humbly apologize to Ranma for kicking his ass with such joy and delight, I am genuinely contrite I had to kill him so often before he realized how superior I am in absolute power."
No response was forthcoming.
"If you don't have Dad materialize the antidote, I'll do to you what you've threatened me with far too often in the past." Boomed the small Goddess in an impossibly loud voice. Her eyes swirled an angry shade of crimson.
No response.
Settling into a stance Ranma recognized, the Willow Tree Child thrust out her hands and gathered power.
"Ka."
Swirling pinkish red energy began surrounding her in a corona.
"Mi."
It began to diffuse into a sickly pulsating ball in her hands.
"Hi."
The ball condensed and expanded.
"Me."
Into an angry red wave twenty feet in diameter.
"Ha!" Finished Seruni as she released the attack, far larger than Ranma had witnessed before.
But the Fist of the God Princess didn't go more than a few meters until it hovered motionless in the air.
Calmly walking in front of her own massive display of power, the Goddess with the outward aspect of a five year old reached down and picked up an oddly shaped glowing vial.
"We can go now." She giggled in a normal voice. "Don't ask, it's not your business."
Closing his opened mouth before disaster struck. Ranma pointed to the hovering tidal wave of malevolent red ki.
Gesturing upwards with her free hand the Goddess smirked. Her energy immediately shot vertical, seeming to shatter and reduce itself on metaphysical defenses against aerial attack. Finally, thousands of feet up, another small hole was blasted in the castle walls.
"See ya tomorrow at the gate, when this ends." Said Seruni, surveying her handiwork. Realizing his day was indeed up, Ranma faded out with an expression of surprise.
----
After discharging the obligations of Nanban Overlap, Ranma flew to Shikoku and performed the necessary ritual to open the gate. Rather than finding the usual signpost, he found a door hovering in the air with the kanji 'Open me Saotome' engraved with fine calligraphy.
Obeying, Ranma looked through the doorway onto a solitary cloud hovering in an endless expanse of blue. The old weather-beaten man he recognized as Izanagi stood with an aura of leadership, and motioned Ranma to join him.
Stepping on solid air, Ranma walked through six layers of sky, joining the old God.
"So you have proven yourself; my prophecy is invalidated!" Laughing unrestrainedly, Izanagi, God of the Sky, observed the petitioning martial artist much like a pet owner enraptured their charge could now roll over.
"Whatever; just uncurse me." 'You overgrown windbag.' He only thought the latter; having learned not pissing off deities was a survival skill.
"No, no, this is the part where I explain how clever I am, and you rethink your entire worldview! For now you are but a mere mortal, while I am a primal manifestation of the Sky, free to ride the winds of infinite futures and wisdom. The Bane of Heirs was meant to force a descendant in your line to fail, and it did." The old kami smiled beatifically.
"When was the last time you did something like this?" Inquired Ranma, bored but wise enough not to wish another labor upon himself. His mission had succeeded.
"Around three hundred twenty years ago, your many times great grand father begged the kami to curse his daughter for betraying family honor. As with all prayer, the consequences for both branches were duly evaluated."
Sighing like a prairie windstorm, Izanagi paused. "I'll repeat the same thing I told that stupid over-sexed ancestress of yours when I cursed her: The Bane of Heirs is ultimately a test, meant to teach a thick-headed descendant who comes into too much power too fast. By selecting the worst possible mate that would still make you happy, it will insure the person finally granted Power won't be smart enough to use it very well."
"So what did great-great-great-great-grandma think about this?" No ancestor of his would have taken such an insult gracefully!
"Pulling the hidden ties inside her kimono, she exposed herself, gestured between her legs and asked if I wanted to have a good time. You see, Ranma Saotome, your ancestress had brought disgrace upon her family by sleeping with anything willing, including her two brothers and the family donkey. Her father couldn't afford a big enough dowry to be rid of her. Our curse of testing might have taken many forms, but we deemed the Bane of Heirs most appropriate."
"Shocked?" Asked the Sky-God with amusement.
Ranma stared blankly ahead.
"No matter. The excess power the curse was designed to diffuse involves the Shard of Passage, an ancient artifact which allows travel between worlds, times, and possibilities. It helped create what you've come to know as the Nanban Mirror.
"The Nanban Mirror, while not present in all existences you affect, is a minor artifact. It can be broken and nullified, or even shattered and maintain a bit of power. It is merely an echo of the Shard of Passage.
"Somelives you are the designated guardian of the Nanban Mirror after wresting it from Happosai, in others you use it or a variation of it to tinker with the chaos surrounding you. However, this world, our world, is virtually unique in possibilities. So unique it could never happen again because it already has. In this world, Happosai rendered the Mirror back into sand from the Shard, a form of the artifact nearly as powerful as the original. You internalized this dust, gaining too much power.
"Your subconsciousness obeyed Happosai's hidden command to live a perfect day and constructed this time repetition, during which you have earned spiritual and worldly knowledge. Exploring the depths of this power, you began to scratch the surface by visiting a possibility, a slightly perverted World of Imagination where you learned to properly attune for dimensional travel. Doubtless you realized the Shard of Passage had become selective to lechery from its previous holder and would default to such situations when possible."
"Actually I hadn't figured that out, but it makes sense." Admitted Ranma, surprised.
"Fix your attunement soon then." Scolded Izanagi. "This is where the Bane of Heirs comes into play. By forcing your attention upon our curse, you gradually developed your control over the Shard's power in a relatively safe environment: the Kami Planes. Your encounter with Seruni shows that."
"I'd hardly call nearly getting eradicated from existence 'relatively safe!' " Said Ranma, shuddering at his encounters with the Formless Duke and the Shimmer Void.
"Ah, but it is far safer than opening a random pathway into the heart of a sun, or a world of the Damned. It is safer than inadvertently inviting an empowered destroyer by attracting its attention; safer than viewing what Might Be and drawing a hero back into life by circumventing fate. Walking paths in ignorance, heedless of consequence, would ruin your Earth, not just you. Could you atone for that?"
Ranma flinched.
"The Bane of Heirs caused you to fail in exploring your powers, and by that failure our world is safe. Now it is time to give what you seek." Gently, Izanagi touched Ranma's forehead, and he felt winds blowing. Faster and more rapacious than any Hi Ryu Shoten Ha, but as gently as a wet cloth placed lovingly upon his brow.
"I don't feel any different," ventured Ranma hesitantly.
Izanagi, who now resembled a tired old grandfather, leaned heavily on his staff. "I have sealed your dimensional shifting powers, and permanently removed any chance you could even develop prophecy, prescience, or higher magnitude time walking. You may no longer destroy our universe by experimentation, though what remains is still vastly unexplored."
Nodding, Ranma agreed. "I am tempted to abuse what powers I have, but high-handed revenge has no useful purpose. What good is ruining other's lives to reclaim my own?"
The Sky God smiled. "I bid you meditate on these revelations. Time will stand still while you breathe in this new air. Please, open the door when you finish." Izanagi vanished, taking the infinite sky with him.
Ranma found himself inside a building. A well-used dojo, with exotic weapons adorning the walls and padded practice mats interrupting the polished but scuffed hard wood floor, made the martial artist inside him comfortable. 'This is a good place.' He thought, relaxing and beginning contemplation.
---
"Hey Ranma, I've come to test you!" Seruni, wearing a pink sundress, gleefully bounced onto her victim's crossed legs, and started swaying back and forth like she was on a swing set.
Irritated, Ranma soon flipped upright, abandoning the upside down meditation posture that was his favorite.
"What is it, runt?" He asked warily, assuming a highly defensive stance.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to kick your ass again!" Quipped the small goddess playfully. "Now turn into a girl, lay down and relax, 'cause we are having a heart to heart."
Sensing reluctance, the girl added, "Don't make me turn this place into a slumber party setting with cutesy dolls and frisky unicorns; I like it now."
"Stupid tomboy." Muttered Ranma, as she laid on a practice mat.
"Oooh, thanks big sister!" Said Seruni, as she blurred, finally settling down with her head pillowed between Ranma's breasts and her dark hair over the older girl's face. "This is comfy."
"Now what?" Questioned the goddess's living sofa.
"We talk about what girls talk about during slumber parties."
"And what would that be?" A slight dollop of dread accompanied the question.
"Your love life, of course!"
Ranma groaned.
"Come on big sister! Details, details."
"Must I?" Stalled the older girl.
"It's either that or play 'Truth or Dare,' which would end the same, but be harder on you." Seruni sounded reflective. "Maybe we should do it that way? It would be more fun for me."
"I concede. What do you want to know?" Ranma sighed.
"First, how many girls we talking?"
"Akane, Ucchan, Kodachi, and Shampoo." Replied Ranma tiredly, having thought about this far too much.
"Now, now, don't try to oversimplify," chided the goddess. "You've really considered more, haven't you?"
Thinking over days that blurred into years, Ranma realized the small child resting on her chest was correct. Now that she knew them, Ranma wouldn't mind marrying either Kasumi or Nabiki under the right circumstances, and said so.
"Well now, what attracts you to each lady -- what makes their souls shine." Summoning a glinting mote of power, Seruni gently touched Ranma's heart chakra. "Here, this should help."
A wash of memories flooded Ranma's mind, and she saw the moments, the Right Moments, which defined how her feelings about the women in her life.
Kasumi calmly pulled out a plate of bamboo and offered it to her father, a day after the cursed pair had arrived. Kasumi smiling obliviously, unbothered by the destruction around her that was Ranma's life. Her face always radiated a sense of peace and trust.
Nabiki facing down Izanami's wrath, for once on his side totally. Nabiki admitting to arranging the wedding disaster, because her sister wasn't ready. Nabiki conning him out or Kuno out of money, simply because they would lose it anyway, and why not to her? The same girl using him for her own ends, occasionally misreading him, but leaving a fair way out. Usually.
"Kasumi accepts what she cannot change, and Nabiki tries to change what she cannot accept."
"What about who you thought you loved once, and might still? What about Akane Tendo?" Prodded Seruni.
The images came faster. A girl asking an unsure stranger 'want to be friends?' The passing of Saffron. The Martial Arts Cheerleading Competition. The Golden Pair. The trips to Dr. Tofu. The kidnapping princes. Ryuugenzawa. And more, so much more.
"Akane and I, we are always saving one another when it matters, but we can't save each other from ourselves." With this admission came a feeling of rightness, as if he'd pinned down a part of their relationship he'd never understood.
"Violence. Adversity. Trickery." Suggested the Goddess next.
Thoughts of such trouble came with the image of the girl dedicating to killing him, and then marrying him. Near death experiences flashed in his mind's eye, of the running battle that was the last few weeks of China. Then came the strange shift into unrestrained affection; Shampoo really was wild! The reversal jewel. Her job at the Nekohaten earning the phoenix pill. That stupid bicycle. Finally, Ranma blushed as she relived intimate times with Shampoo, during endless days of no consequences.
"Xian Pu is the most passionate girl I've met." Said the tripping martial artist in flawless Chinese.
And the thought of unrestrained passion conjured up memories of darkness and piercing laughter. Kodachi wasn't liked by pre-timelooped Ranma. Too many images of poisons, sneak attacks, and underhandedness; lying paralyzed on a roof. Then he had found while Kodachi Kuno the rhythmic gymnast was a superficial crazy bitch; Kodachi Kuno, the Devil Hunter serving the Nine Spokes was a dependable ally and friend.
"Kodachi understands my sense of duty, the meaning behind my Art."
Friendship led to the last girl, Ucchan, who he couldn't think of differently. He saw moments of concern, good times, and laughter. He also remembered Ukyo's indecisions between okonomiyaki and femininity.
"Ucchan is my best friend; I haven't met anyone truer than her."
Satisfied, the Goddess stopped her trickle of power. "Sounds like you have some thinking to do Saotome." She commented lazily. "My final exercise is for you to make the choice. Pick a girl and marry her; if you're ambitious pick more than one! We give you permission."
A bit floored at being granted divine providence to take multiple wives, Ranma seized on the lull in conversation. "And what about you, runt? How's your love life?"
"I'm too young. Right now I'm doing the things I need to do, so later I can do the people I want to do. Maybe in another hundred years."
Deliberately digging her elbows into the most sensitive nerve clusters of Ranma's breasts in a not- comfortable way, the young goddess stood on Ranma's stomach and bounced off.
"No cheating on my task, I know you know how to break out of the rut you're in." The Goddess disappeared from his presence.
Ranma returned male and continued contemplation. When he grew tired of thinking, he opened the large double doors at the front of the dojo.
-
He stood in the middle of a vast amphitheater, but instead of tiered seating, there were hovering pillars with gateways open to the sky. Hundreds of vistas, most with a being of obvious power behind them, were displayed from each of the portals. Some watched intently, while others performed routine tasks around their domains like presiding over ceremonies, snuggling a spouse, eating dinner, or processing rules.
This was the kami-plane equivalent of prime-time television, and the show had now gotten to the happy ending part. Old man Izanagi had assumed the position of omniscient narrator, and settled nicely into the role of chastising the hero.
With a puff of wind, he whistled piercingly, and as if on cue, a door opened and the game show entertainment stepped out. "Ranma Saotome: come on down!" screamed a voice in his mind.
"Congratulations! Your wish has been fulfilled!" Espoused the canny sky god in a voice remarkably like Rod Roddy on 'The Price is Right!' "
A swirl of wind and life surrounded Ranma like a spotlight, and he felt slightly refreshed. The others in the actual amphitheater – Seruni, Izanami, and a gathering of small kappa, applauded politely.
Looking a bit spooked, since wishes in the past had led to nothing but trouble, Ranma cautiously approached the Sky God, who spoke solemnly to him while breaking a strange decanter of glimmering liquid over his head. The impromptu bath made his nerves tingle, and when it ended, he felt a sense of loss; of a burden torn violently away.
"Very well, the Bane of Heirs is exorcised. Ranma Saotome, do not return to the Kami planes until after the death of your first wife. We have come to regard you as an eligible quasi-immortal bachelor, but we are wise enough to let you live your life first."
Looking at the Kami he'd come to consider friends, Ranma was shocked at such harshness. Pulling him aside, Seruni smiled at him, and conjured a topographic replica of Japan using her spiritual powers. Millions of points of light flashed gently while moving on the map. Some moved slowly, but others blurred in a streamer of light, like passengers on a bullet train.
"Ranma, each of these souls is a mortal woman you might marry, and Japan is but a small portion of Earth-Realm. Potentially you have the choice of a billion women for your first bride, however we know you have seriously considered less than ten."
"Here's some advice from an old god," said Izanagi, "helping people for their own good hurts less if you remain mysterious." The Master of the Sky floated back, having said his peace.
Kissing him gently on the cheek, Seruni-Hime whispered to him: "If you return, I'll grow up for you, for you'll have traveled far down my path. Remember always the price of pride."
Seruni rejoined the Sky God, and linking powers with impressive pyrotechnics, they banished him from their realms.
Ranma whispered, "Goodbye to you too, brat."
---
Next: "Worlds upon Worlds over Possible"
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--Rest in peace, Rod Roddy, "The Price is Right" was my favorite game show as a kid
--My reviews have pointed out this arc makes readers less emotionally involved because the emphasis on the fights was on curbing Ranma's pride and not on an opponent like Happosai. If you have suggestions on making this section more emotionally moving, please leave them in a review.