"Moment's End"
-----
Ranma held no regrets; she felt building anticipation, like a sleeper awakening from a lingering dream on Christmas morning. On this day of Moment's End, she would leave the expected patterns behind, and rejoin the normal world. Already the building serenity inside her longed for release, an illusion of paradise.
Standing tall in the koi pond, she laughed and left the waters, throwing her arms to the side in a slow upward stretch. This grand gesture disabled her attacking father by brushing his chin with impossible force for such a slow motion. Rubbing his jaw, her father knelt involuntarily, much like a badly trained servitor abased himself before a king. 'In a way,' supposed the girl radiating white serenity, 'this awakening is a second birth.' And then she was no longer a girl. Genma's small mind emptied of violent thoughts as he witnessed his child change without hot water.
Kasumi's gasp went according to plan, and though he still hated Akane's tears, at least Nerima wouldn't explode. Kissing the Face of Life, re-enacting transcendent epiphany, Ranma shared his perfect peace, his satori, with his family.
--
Twenty minutes later Ranma entered Nabiki's room and approached her sleeping form in the near perfect darkness. With his eyes closed, he pulled back her blanket and reached between her legs. A hard pinch on her inner thigh woke the girl in a hurry.
He could have chosen another way, but Nabiki needed this. She shrieked and sat up on her bed, fully and furiously awake.
"Kasumi! How could you?" Yelled the girl while wrapping the discarded bedding around her like a defensive armor. Looking at the figure standing in front of her bed, Nabiki realized it wasn't her older sister. She rubbed her crotch area under the blankets, wincing at her intimate bruise.
Slipping ice into her voice, she demanded, "Who are you, and what gave you the right to hurt me?"
Silence greeted her, and she heard a decidedly male laugh from in front of her. Slowly, keeping her eyes on the intruder, Nabiki reached for the light switch on her reading lamp. When her hand found only absence, she involuntarily looked away and discovered the familiar dark outline of her light was missing.
Darting her eyes forward, the dark shape was gone. A breeze caressed her cheek and flowed down her body, putting her more off balance. A nervous sweat formed under her armpits. Her rage disappeared as Nabiki thought 'This man. . . isn't Ranma.'
Deciding this was a rape nightmare, Nabiki felt a disturbance moving behind her back on her own bed, and sucked in a breath to scream with while imagining herself waking up with all her mental might.
A hand covered her mouth, muffling the scream. Ranma massaged Nabiki's head with memory points, fulfilling a promise he made in a day that wasn't real. One moment of terror in exchange for his forgiveness of past actions, Nabiki herself considered it a bargain.
He left her 'to do' list in an unexpected place.
The girl blinked stupidly as Ranma Nanban teleported away, and almost went back to sleep.
The sore area on her right thigh kept her awake, and grumpily Nabiki started to dress after turning her ceiling light on. She couldn't remember why she'd moved her reading lamp onto her desk. A crumpled piece of paper fell out of her underwear as she pulled them off, and she followed the strong compulsion to read it. Her orders, which she had no thought of questioning, didn't start until after nine.
The spectacle downstairs startled her. "Ewww. . . . Mr. And Mrs. Saotome, go to your room if you're going to do that."
Unconcerned, the adults continued having sex on the Tendo sofa.
"Daddy, what happened?" She asked, stepping past them to the breakfast table.
"Ranma agreed to accept Kasumi and Akane as disciples Nabiki. Using only the powers of his heart, that dear boy walked over the waters of our koi. Never have a felt such a loving, serene aura. He promised to marry Akane in two years--"
"Only if I still want to!" Akane interruped her father's proclamation of joy.
"Indeed, this morning has held many revelations." Finished Soun with dignity, ignoring Nodoka's nearby moaning.
--
After the Nikkei Index closed, Ranma left mentally exhausted. He had made 3.75 billion yen, and knew it would triple in eight months. When he viewed the possibility in Miyo's divining crystal, Ranma hadn't understood the required focus behind hundreds of commands on a dynamic schedule. The tedium behind hours of error free typing taxed his powers of concentration to exhaustion.
He Nanban-flashed over to Furinkan's soccer field, and lay in the soothing grass while his head stopped spinning from two teleports. Standing, he released the limiter on his sex drive, channel the emotions in a yin-starbust. Happosai appeared, and Ranma earned his grandmastership in a grueling fight he'd fought a thousand times before.
An hour later, he healed Hinako-sensei and told her to marry Soun.
--
"I challenge you for the right to decide Shampoo's fate Cologne!" Hiding his depleted mental and physical state, Ranma relied on his ki for projecting overwhelming confidence.
"Ah, son-in-law, I cannot speak for the entire Amazon nation. I must refuse the challenge as stated." The ancient woman smiled and continued stirring a pot of noodles in the Nekohaten's kitchen.
"Then let me clarify: if Shampoo agrees to leave the Amazons and become my lover for the rest of her life, you'll not stand in the way."
Cologne added a bit too much salt in her surprise. "Why son-in-law, provided you visit occasionally and the children spend summers, I've no objections!"
"Xian Pu, you accept?" Ranma called out, making sure he was heard in the serving area. A duck quacked loudly in protest, flinging itself madly against the bars of its cage.
Shampoo stormed joyously into the kitchen, carrying a stack of dishes. "Yes my love, I will obey your instructions implicitly for the next year, and only if I agree afterwards." Scraping the plates and putting then by the sink, she smiled at her great-grandmother. "Bear witness, elder. Two more orders of house special noodles, and one large order of spring rolls."
Cologne cackled loudly. They had spoken in flawless Chinese, and not even she could drum sense into her great-grand daughter. What hope did Ranma have?
--
Dragging his new responsibility outside with him after the restaurant closed, Ranma told her, "Hold on tight, then support me in silence." He hugged her, and Nanban-teleported them to Kyoto University, Deans Office.
They appeared in a well-appointed office, with a large oaken desk showing a night view behind it. The stars shone brightly through opened white Venetian blinds. An older Japanese man hunched over the neatly ordered space in despair.
"Hayashibara-san, is your son here?" Asked Ranma, badly startling the man dressed in a black business suit, while heavily leaning on Shampoo. He could not teleport again for days, he'd paid too much blood.
"Yes, he is Saotome-san. I didn't believe you at first, but we'll try anything now."
Gesturing to a cot overshadowed by a bookcase filled with bright promotional college materials, the Dean of Admissions pointed to a sleeping, sickly child.
Approaching the twelve year old boy, Ranma began glowing a greenish white with serene, healing ki. By midnight, the child's cancer and hemophilia had been completely cured. The boy had sat up like a bear shaking off a long hibernation, delighted and full of energy, cutting himself and watching the blood clot for the first time in his life.
"It is sufficiently clear that all things are changed, and nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains absolutely the same." Quoting Francis Bacon's De Natura Rerum, Ranma slashed a small silvery line in the air.
"Xian Pu, fill out the paperwork." Ranma collapsed, exhausted.
"Hiyashibara-san?" Prompted Shampoo, as she lowered her sleeping husband to rest on the plush brown office carpet.
Nodding, the man who had final authority in Kyoto University's admission process made Shampoo sign dozens of papers. Herself and her airen had full scholarships to Kyoto U claimable with any high school diploma or equivalence.
-----
Ranma woke two days later, with Shampoo watching over him. He sat up rapidly, a conditioning to avoid drowning. Getting over the shock of not being in the middle of the Tendo's koi pond took thirty seconds as Ranma noticed he was a man and couldn't understand why.
His first action after reorientating his sense of reality was to reach deep inside himself and realign the Nanban Mirror with his own personality, a task that had proven impossible while it was constantly active during repeating time.
A spike of perversion energized the air, before dissipating with unintended results.
Affected by his efforts, Ranma threw off his blankets and used the bathroom, drinking directly from the faucet for rehydration. He noted they were in an upscale hotel room, presumably in Kyoto.
Shampoo followed him and watched.
Cupping Shampoo's breasts with his hands, Ranma whispered in her ear, "We can make love for three hours, then much needs to be done."
Shampoo started crying, finally believing her Airen told the truth as they fell onto the rumpled sheets.
---
When they finished, Ranma told her: "Xian Pu, get used to the idea of sleeping with other women, and remember you will always a have a place in my heart and share my side."
"What do you mean, love?" She asked in Chinese.
"You'll find out after we give Mousse a happy life without you."
"But. . . . ." Shampoo started to protest until Ranma silenced her with a finger and a kiss.
"The Love-Me-Most technique must remain sealed, and my plan treats only symptoms."
--
They stopped at a homeless shelter, and Shampoo hustled a scrawny stoned girl outside. Her eyes lifelessly reflected the skyscrapers on the horizon. Her arms hung limply, full of bruises and needle tracks. She had dried vomit on her skirt, smelled bad, and didn't struggle.
Evaluating their captive, Shampoo took in her reddened eyes and dirty fuku with Oda-ku's colors, and made a disgusted face.
"No Shampoo, we aren't sleeping with Yomiko Iwata. She is a genius and a heroin addict, and she'll suicide shortly without help. Now we're going to give her a bath and dye her hair."
--
Mousse was shocked when Shampoo walked into the Nekohaten and kissed him full on the lips. He never noticed Ranma massaging his head; his love had arrived!
Blinking as the kiss finished, he saw Shampoo lying on a booth halfway across the restaurant. He must go to her.
"Saotome! Get out of my way!"
"Wait, Mousse." Said the fiend. "Shampoo isn't herself; she got hooked on heroin, it's your job to feed her and make love to her until she's better. If you can do this, she's yours forever."
Mousse nodded; he knew Saotome would abandon his Shampoo after using her and breaking her heart.
"Msu-Tsu, you fucking moron, that's a potted plant." Said a strange girl in his native language. Putting on his glasses, Mousse found his love.
Ranma glared at the real Shampoo; he'd told her not to talk until the procedure had an hour to cement itself.
"Son-in-law?" Inquired Cologne, noting her great-grand daughter looked like she'd had sex earlier.
"Cologne, you need to help them. It's duck-boy's only chance to break off of Love-Me-Most and help this girl live."
"How?" Asked the elder, watching Mousse fawning over the sickly teenager with a bad hair dye job.
"Xi Fang Gao Shiatsu revised and careful planning. The girl's name is now Shampoo Yomiko Iwata, but call her Shampoo for reinforcement. Hire the help Akane and Kasumi start sending, they have rescued people too."
"Who are those people, Ranma?" Cologne staff-hopped over to where Mousse was fondling Yomiko through her clothes.
"I was given a great gift, the power of infinite choice for a single day. I learned to see into the spill of time, and found better worlds than this. I have a month before the future moves beyond my abilities. Wonderful people shouldn't die. I can't save them all, but this difference is mine to make, and I am not alone."
"Very noble, Ranma, guess I won't see you much for a bit," said the Matriarch upon her staff. She sighed, whacking Mousse before he undressed the girl in the middle of her restaurant. He had work waiting.
--
"Jump as I jump." Ranma instructed Shampoo.
Expertly, they navigated the layout of the Kuno grounds, breaking through Kodachi's window into her room.
Tatewaki Kuno swiftly investigated, and Ranma again used his memory techniques. Kuno went to court Mariko; they'd be together two months before their egos killed the relationship. The procedure would leave both better and clearer headed people.
"Damn, guess she's in the greenhouse." Pausing to kiss Shampoo, Ranma bellowed "Sasuke!"
The diminutive ninja appeared, and Ranma sent him to fetch his mistress after apologizing about the window.
"Xian Pu, when she comes in, knock her out."
Shampoo watched the exorcism in stoic terror.
-
"I would do anything for my savior twice over." Devil Hunter Kodachi cried silent tears, truly free.
"First, understand we have curses." Explained Ranma, activating Jusenkyo in himself and Shampoo with cold ki.
Kodachi nodded.
Applying hot ki, Ranma returned them into their normal bodies.
Shampoo looked at Ranma, shocked on multiple levels. She had been a cat and he wasn't afraid.
"I'll teach you later," he whispered. Looking straight into the eyes and hearts of both girls Ranma said, "Take off your clothing."
Kodachi blushed, but complied, while Shampoo grimaced in distaste, though she was already less than dressed from her Jusenkyo toggle.
"You promised Xian Pu." He reminded.
As they faced each other, naked, Ranma told them, "We are lovers for the next nineteen months. Jealousy will not be tolerated."
"I don't like other women that way," objected Kodachi. Attending an all girls school had given her ample opportunity to discover that.
"Dachi-chan, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Don't worry, I'll be here the whole time."
--
Hours later, they lay together on the black satin sheets of Kodachi's bed. Nestled between her two girls, Ranma muttered: "Tomorrow we overthrow an African dictatorship; rest well."
----
Kodachi and Shampoo woke in each other's arms as the sun streamed into Kodachi's bedroom though her shattered window. A note taped on each girl's left breast instructed her not to seriously wound during combat.
"To hell with that!" Spat the Amazon as she attacked, not interested in sharing.
--
"How did the rescue efforts go?" Asked Ranma, stepping over a sleeping ten-year-old girl Akane had saved from a burning building. She'd imprinted on Kasumi, and refused any sort of bed, falling asleep on the kitchen floor.
"Ninety-five percent, Ranma-sensei. We followed your suggestions and made Father and Genma help." Kasumi whispered her success with satisfaction as she covered the sleeping child with an extra green blanket.
"Nabiki helped too," added Akane as she entered, leading a dazed salary man she had prevented from jumping off Tokyo tower.
Noting her sister's voice level, Kasumi gestured to the girl asleep at her feet and gently held a finger up to her lips. Akane mouthed 'sorry.'
Pulling out a dossier of orders, Ranma spoke in a soft voice. "These are for the next two weeks, I'm counting on you."
Kasumi and Akane bowed deeply, whispering "Yes Sensei." in harmony.
----
Across dimensions of space, time, and love a strange female entity felt an energy echo. Nearly two decades of searching culminated.
With a burst of power the March Hare appeared in an empty hotel room, and sniffed. Under the fresh disinfectant, she smelled her liege with another woman.
Feeling a stirring of power seventy miles east, she willed herself away.
"Oh baby, give me some sugar," drooled Happosai into the breasts of a startled shrine Miko as he stole her undergarments mid-grope.
Suddenly the girl stopped trying to brain him with the sacred sand garden rake. She paused, wincing at the uncomfortably feelings coming from her chest, and let out her spiritual aura. What she sensed frightened her more than the troll pinching her nipples. She fled, fearing violation.
Happosai allowed her escape; he too sensed gathering power. His kind of power. An overwhelmingly feminine aura slowly channeling itself into a physical body, much like a cobra will hiss before it strikes. Very close it was. The old man closed his eyes and located the source as she materialized.
When Happosai entered the March Hare's personal space, he found heaven. His shock was great when he felt hands expertly teasing him back.
"Your essence is like my Queen, but I do not understand the means."
---
Shuddering from a last brush of the Chilling Lips of Death, the strange reverse succubus gazed at her small lover. Panting in exhaustion, tears of joy flowed down Happosai's face like a parade of supermodels, intermingling with sweat and other fluids.
"If you are my Queen's teacher, then I need not reach her." The Hare smiled down at the old man. Her Queen would want her master's last years filled with bosom companionship and loving understanding; he assured her this was so.
Stuffing Happosai against herself, the March Hare vanished from the universe, appearing in a girl's locker room in another space-time. Their frightened shrieks only excited her and her companion.
She would not return for centuries.
"Hotcha!" Happosai was reinvigorated with fresh prey.
"Jupiter Star Power, Make-Up!" Came from behind the beige curtain of a shower stall.
"I think I like this universe," mused the March Hare as she groped the Senshi of Electricity, discovering a living, breathing vibrator.
----
"You!" Snarled Ukyo as she threw her entire bandoleer of spatula-shuriken within two heartbeats. The Ucchan's wasn't open; Ranma had picked the lock on her door.
Unconcerned as his body dodged the projectiles; Ranma located Konatsu's presence and entrapped it with a Buzzing Cage of tight ki-ropes.
With the greater danger neutralized, he caught his best friend's huge spatula an instant before she would have brained him. Clinically, he noted the strength behind the blow.
He immobilized her body with paralysis points with a two second speed burst. Ukyo wasn't playing around, and Ranma wanted this raw emotional experience finished.
Carrying her over to a booth as she snarled curses at him while spitting and biting at his hands, he dumped Ukyo on the red padded cushioning.
"Listen!" He commanded with a resonant, harmonic ki-voice.
Ukyo stopped hurling insults, speechless as the technique worked.
"You and me aren't as good together as you and Konatsu, Ukyo. The restaurant business isn't my destiny. Earlier this morning I took a trip to Honshu and spoke with your clan head. We are no longer engaged, instead our children will be. This way is better. You can start sleeping with Konatsu instead of what you've been doing. I'll leave the paperwork on the counter."
Ukyo looked at him with something akin to primal despair; from towering righteousness at being wronged she had fallen into a pit of shame at an inadvertent betrayal. She had cheated first.
"In a few weeks, I'll be back. You're still my best friend, and we can talk about our futures and what we like during sex. See ya!"
Walking out, Ranma mentally released his ki-prison, leaving Konatsu to take care of the rest.
----
Everything was in place now, he had resolved his love life and ended much self-deception. Soun would marry Hinako in five months; his parents' unconscious distance from years of separation ended with an aura of love and serenity. Ryouga would wander into Akari's without help from him. He had even arranged for Yusaku and Lin to receive four hundred thousand yen.
The good deeds he assigned to the Tendo sisters would lead into Kasumi's acceptance at a decent college, and Nabiki's employment in a firm where she wouldn't hit a glass ceiling. It would teach Akane the world didn't care about her as much as she thought it did. The youngest Tendo's tasks bordered on sadistic; her strong will would tolerate nothing less as proper teaching experiences. With his social obligations discharged, both real and self-imposed, a final test remained.
In endless months of wandering possibilities, he reached out, wondering what he might accomplish for humanity? Facing down gods showed (aside from curbing his immense pride) we create our own purposes.
Ranma's ego wouldn't accept his long ordeal was merely to improve his own life. His suffering, his sweat at mastering thousands of techniques, meant more, so much more. He wouldn't find himself worthy of the power he gained, unless he proved he could use it well. His ego had another chance to be his undoing, for he had been warning about helping people against their will. This labor, this secret self-monument would allow Ranma to prove the power he'd earned wasn't useless.
After he understood his own happy ending, Ranma remained, searching.
He foresaw key people, now destined to die, revitalizing Japan years in the future. Ranma created a plan using his friends and family, to redeem both helper and helped. It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough because Ranma Saotome didn't use his amazing arsenal of mastered techniques to make it so. Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane, Soun, Hinako, Genma, and Nodoka were now completing this plan brilliantly.
'What can I do to create the most good?' He wanted scope, an idea larger than the sky and as ambitious as a newly born sun. With effort, he'd expanded his mind across time-space, seeing deeds that might help hundreds, then thousands, then millions. What was stopping one murderer compared to stopping their organization? What was toppling a syndicate compared to stopping all crime?
Ranma's lessons curbed his arrogance enough to prevent tampering with concepts left in the hands of gods. The best he could do, a task for his immense abilities, was indirect revolution. Izanagi's warning about helping people against their will filtered across endless possibilities came up as good advice. His revolution would affect the minds of less than fifty people, but be devastatingly effective.
Ending a brutal dictatorship in an oppressed country would help millions, and in the long run, all humanity. Shocked and astonished by the hidden universality of corruption, Ranma became rapidly aware of the global repercussions associated with China and the Middle East. He wanted to stop suffering, not restart a new vicious cycle.
The country of his choice was so unimportant politically the major powers of the world ignored its bloody affairs. Located in Africa, Sudan was singled out by a common practice Ranma believed long abolished from the world he lived in, one of telephones, airplanes, and computers. The practice of slavery.
He'd learned the local languages.
From a universe where skin color meant more, he adapted the Wavelength Technique to change his appearance to that of a native. A mixing of electricity and spirit, this delicate touch took time to control. Using a linkable ki-focus, he would camouflage his partners.
Hardest was accepting revolutions were bloody. Not wanting to kill the innocent, he learned the Soul Focus technique from a universe where undead hunted. The advanced aura technique identified evil in thoughts and intentions, and would make his life-and-death battlefield decisions.
Now, in a room originally intended for viewing private movies inside the Kuno mansion's basement, he briefed Shampoo and Kodachi.
The chairs were luxurious versions of standard movie seats, upholstered in expensive leather. Of the twenty-five seats in five rows, three were personalized and set as far from each other as the room allowed, a perfect triangle inside a larger rectangle. In the middle of the back row, Kodachi's had an embroidered rose, black on black, entwining her seat. The vines twisted around the armrests, covered by her elbows as she sat waiting, elegantly.
Near the bottom a throne much like ancient daimyo favored occupied a corner by itself. A filled bokken rack was built into the side of the chair. In the other corner of the bottom row, raised on a higher platform than the throne, was a converted love seat that looked like a giant pineapple. Shampoo had chosen to lay inside it.
Ranma turned on the overhead projector and began.
--
He finished explaining the plan he developed with the Tokyo University War-gaming Club. The Southern Blue Nile Region was their first objective, having changed hands often in the years of warfare between the Sudanese Government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Strategically important because of its proximity to the Damazin hydroelectric scheme to the north and the Khor Adar Oilfields to the west, the area also held extensive gold deposits to make it potentially rich in other respects.
Next were the capital of Khartoum, the area of Bentiu, and then displacement of the corrupt multinationals from the oilfields. With surgical strikes to destroy the power-mad and corrupt in positions of authority, Ranma knew peace in Sudan could be achieved in two weeks by allowing the visionaries and the tired to meet in the Nuba Mountain region.
Ranma didn't want help from either the SPLA or the government, having identified key people on both sides. Part of his plan was heavy reliance on teleportation now that his link with the mirror wasn't corrupted by perversion and constantly on. The cost in blood could now be barely felt.
"Kodachi, a devil hunter is necessary to soothe restless spirits of genocide victims. This country has endured enough evil without another useless cycle of violence. You should sense the mass graves."
"What about her?" The gymnast frowned at the blank white movie screen, inwardly preparing herself for an unpleasant task.
"Shampoo is coming with us because she would never forgive me if I went off to battle without her. Right airen?"
"Is true," said Shampoo from inside her pineapple chair.
"Before I forget, you'll need these to keep up."
Ranma produced a tiara made of living ivy set with emeralds, a bent scimitar with a fractured hilt, and a robe made of perpetually flowing yet stationary water.
Shampoo left her nest and armed herself, though she handled the sword with skepticism and distaste.
"With Diana's Crown, the Sword of the Daun, and the Robe of Immaterialism you should be able to adequately support Kodachi. The relics will whisper into your mind, don't get too carried away and remember you are you. Practice tonight."
Kodachi nodded at her partner, implying they would be sparring soon. Shampoo looked back in disdain, the formerly possessed crazy girl never impressed her as a fighter, and she doubted the fun new toys Ranma produced would be necessary.
"As I deal with the conventional, it will be your job to destroy supernatural influences that feed on man's dark nature." Ranma nodded at Shampoo, as she took practice swings, finding the weapon's balance.
"Airen, I don't understand how this can be accomplished in only two weeks. Won't such a change take thousands of people?" Still fiddling with the Sword of Daun, Shampoo sat again.
Cocking his head to the side, Ranma transfixed the Amazon with the same gaze her great-grandmother used for a particularly ignorant supposition. "Remember your training in power structures, warrior. To control an obedient army, control the generals. To control a village, gain the high elder's mouth. For its millions of people, less than fifty truly run this country, this large village, we will bring peace to. Our task will be as much cutting away evil influences on such men as bringing them the peaceful path."
Shampoo nodded, understanding the concept of a large village with headstrong elders and wayward generals. That part wasn't up to her, but she now understood how it could be possible.
"Ranma Saotome, we would speak of this." Kodachi rose from her chair in a motion too smooth to be human. A circle of seven ethereal spikes appeared in a circle around the top of her black hair.
"Why do the Spokes object to this?" Ranma cautiously backed away, sensing great power.
The spikes grew into ethereal thorns around Kodachi's head, and her posture became rigid. "I am Justice," she said, "I object because these people have done nothing to you, so you owe them nothing."
The shimmering crown settled into one elongated spoke, a unicorn's horn growing from Kodachi's forehead, and she slumped, like a muppet with the strings cut. "I am Judgment," she said, "and you have no right to judge."
The horn of spokes shattered into a blur, shifting into a kaleidoscope of changing patterns, except for one fixed point that did not vary. Kodachi began pacing back and forth, her voice animated. "I am Reason," she said, "and this random act is illogical."
The patterns melted into Kodachi's long black hair, and she stopped, her eyes glowing with a soft inner light. A white mote drifted across her pupils, and Ranma thought she never looked more beautiful than now. "I am Love," she said, "and I object because our servant is not your servant, she is your equal."
Before Ranma could form words, Kodachi's body appeared to gain in height, as the command presence of four spokes used her as a mouthpiece: "Answer our objections, or this venture is doomed." The statement reverberated through the movie theatre, and Shampoo, still sitting in the pineapple chair near the movie screen, absently tossed popcorn in her mouth, enthralled. Golden whips of energy materialized in both hands of the devil hunter's ridden form. 'Perhaps,' thought Xian Pu in her heart of hearts, 'Ranma wasn't kidding when he gave me these magic things.'
Silence stretched as Ranma considered. He had treated the people closest to him as pieces to be moved since he'd ended the repetitions. But he didn't want to screw everything up and let everybody down. In less than a month the terrible burden of prescience would lift from his mind, and only then could Ranma Saotome and the children that were his friends and family live again as human beings. This price he'd decided to pay, and part of it included asking everyone's (later) forgiveness for his actions.
The Servant of the Spokes made no move to attack, waiting with patience. Only four Spokes stated objections, this meant the others agreed or did not oppose. After looking deeper inside himself, Ranma gave his answer.
"The logic behind my actions is self-test of justification. I require a reason, a purpose behind the ordeal that elevated my abilities. I have every right to judge because I have used my volition to objectively weigh the available facts, a process covering every alternative. While I owe these people nothing, I wish to help them and myself. They only way to do this is if our wills are the same; I intend to remain mysterious and take no credit for my actions. Merely knowing I succeeded will be enough. And finally, you're right: I never asked Kodachi if she wanted to help, I only thought she would. I will ask for aid when she is herself again."
The twin golden ribbons faded away from Kodachi's grasp, and she sighed, returning mortal with an exhalation of air.
Ranma bowed. "I'm sorry Kodachi Kuno. I have never formally asked for your assistance in this matter. May I count on you?"
Returning the bow, the Black Rose formally gave her agreement. Her golden devil-hunting bracelet pulsed with light, sealing the arrangement, and Kodachi felt glee at finally being able to show her true power.
"I have the permission of The Spokes to go mystical on your sorry ass." Kodachi smiled demurely at Shampoo before laughing, filling the theater with acoustic echoes of her joy.
Long into the night they practiced and plotted, and the girls became comfortable with their roles. Tomorrow, it began.
---
"Akane, you've done well these past two weeks, and now it's time for your most important lesson. Promise me, you'll follow this instruction, no matter what."
Eyes shining, Akane proclaimed, "Sensei, I will not fail."
Nodding, Ranma evaluated her body language. "Please do not open this until I've been gone for an hour. Remember Akane, this is important because it has the potential to teach you about yourself."
Noting her instructor had left at a dead sprint, Akane thought waiting was silly. Why not go ahead and open the envelope now? The instructions surely would remain the same.
-
Wincing at the crackling aura of anger from three miles away, Ranma thanked the kami and carefully planning for his close escape. Overthrowing a government had nothing on the wrath he'd face on his return. In two weeks, Akane should be calmer. He hoped.
Returning to the Kuno mansion, Ranma spent hours charging the touchstones to change the outward appearances of his companions. He enjoyed an early lunch with two dark female African soldiers, pleased the disguises stabilized.
After dessert, they linked hands and teleported thousands of miles, into enemy territory. That he wasn't powerful enough for his self-appointed task never crossed Ranma's mind. He didn't know his true adversary, and still hadn't readjusted to normal time.
---
End "Moments End". . . . . . . . . Next is the Exegesis
---
AN: Chapter Five, "Illusion of the Abyss," describes how Ranma first masters serenity. If I did my job as an author, the first scene explained this. 9.2k4 Revised the 'why' of Sudan. If you believe this chapter has further flow problems, or out-of-character characters, please review and specifically tell me exactly why you think so. More detail in the review is better for me.