Guest Ki: Chapter 25
Making the Call
"Akane…"
She opened her eyes. A callused, muscular yet delicate hand was inches from her face. At the other end of the arm a face, framed by red hair with a humorous, resigned look, smiled back at her and rolled its eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I'm not going to hit you, you know."
"I know that," Akane said a bit defensively.
"You should have seen your face." Barry scrunched up her face, as if dreading a coming blow. It might have been comical except for the serious expression.
"Barry, don't go there. I'm nervous, okay?
They were kneeling, knees almost touching, in the center of the dojo. Barry had returned to Ranma's girl-type in the hope that Akane would be less defensive toward her this way. Barry would also have access to a living blueprint to compare what Akane was doing to achieve the ki-vision. But even given the concessions, Akane was not comfortable.
"Okay, Akane. Just understand I'm not going to do much more than observe. I'll only interfere or help you if you ask me to. There is no need to get it all tonight." The redhead waited until Akane nodded again and closed her eyes.
"Now, center yourself, Akane. Feel for that sense of being that separates you from everything else." Barry deliberately made her voice low and melodious. Kuno would have loved it. "Breathe… That's it, let everything become distant." To Akane, Barry's voice did seem far away. "Feel for your center and focus, then let the focus flow out again, like waves chasing up the sands of a beach. The waves don't care how high they reach yet strive anyway; without care, tranquil and eternal." The occasional murmur of Barry's voice began to work with the flow of her disassociated state.
Akane had suggested Barry's verbal images. Despite her ineptness at swimming, she loved the sea and found it very relaxing. She felt the beat of her heart, sensed the flow of blood through her limbs and body. She let the beat of her heart match the ebb and flow of the tides of her awareness, breathing and existing, floating… "Good, Akane," came the whisper, rippling her harmony before fading again.
"Hands, Akane, let it flow and surge, call out the spark like we've done before." Again came that slight ripple, quickly dispersed. She felt very comfortable like this. Yet the words left a resonant curiosity and she strove to direct the flow of her awareness to dance and whisper in a corner of her being. "Good now, center again." She drifted to her center, a feather on the waves. "Become more aware of the waves. Feel how the waves expand from the center, actually, from several centers. Check them out, Akane. Drift from one to another, to another…"
"Careful of that one, Akane," Barry's voice came in more firmly. "You don't strike me as that kind of girl."
"Hmmm?" Akane had gotten used to Barry's voice, letting the ripples of the disturbance be absorbed by her larger consciousness. "What is it?"
"Sexual energy, pleasure centers, some other things, too."
"Oh." No, she thought distantly, she didn't want to go there. She wondered briefly how Barry knew what they were though.
"If you can, look for the tighter, brighter realities and try to see them as pieces of a puzzle. Don't touch anything at this point just observe."
"Barry, what am I looking at or for?" The turmoil of her uncertainty threatened to disturb the regular even beat of her perception.
"Hard to say. You're the one doing the looking. Getting the basics to the ki-sight aren't difficult – it's partly a matter of perspective and maybe partly luck. Try to look or feel for something that's active and fairly dense or tight. That should be your heart; then orient yourself from there."
Akane shifted and searched, seeking for that familiar starting point. She'd had it at the start. She could not orient. She felt her floating sensation begin to recede in frustration.
"Just relax, Akane, I'm going to try something."
"Barry, no. I…"
"Relax. I'm not going to do anything with the aura and I won't invade your space. I can tell you're close." Akane relaxed again at the thought that she was at least on the right track. "Just relax and I'll be right back."
Faint tremors, like distant earthquakes disturbed this new reality, but they faded. Akane worked to relax the tension and anxiety that so often plagued her. The imagery of water didn't seem like such a good idea now. Water and floating carried an undercurrent of failure. She sought within her memories of some moment when she felt utterly at peace. Her thoughts turned to her mother, and the warmth and love they shared. Her heart rate dropped and her breathing became deeper, fuller. The safety of her mother's loving arms. It had been so long, though.
Her awareness spread out like a soft silky blanket. She skirted the edges of consciousness resting in the memory of those arms. But that memory suggested a closer more recent memory. Resting in the strong arms of a certain young man, knowing that he would let no force that walked the earth harm her…
She drifted, savoring the memory. It was only with difficulty that she kept on the right side of consciousness. The tremors returned, and something cool disturbed her perception. Faintly she distinguished a pattern of sensations that flared near to the center of the new awareness. Cool…
"Akane, let's see what this feels like to you."
The coolness became stronger, more defined, then flared, along with a new sensation that swept like a sudden storm and awakened other sensations down into her center. The silken blanket of her reverie snapped like a flag in a gale its motion directing her-! "Relax… breathe… That was a little taste of ice cream, by the way. Try to bring into focus the sensation and the memory of the sensation. Let it orient you. Distinguish where your center is, relate it to the taste that began at your lips…"
Akane suddenly gasped and shook herself, almost jerking to her feet.
"You okay, there?" Akane blinked and looked toward the voice. She sank back down to her knees and groaned as her joints protested. "Next time," Barry promised, "we'll try a prone position. Provided you can stay awake, it might be easier to orient…"
"I saw it." Her voice was awed. "Up till you gave me the ice cream, it was like… I was spread out, not really aware of where I was – just being. I don't really know how to describe it. I could tell when I was further away from my center, but not really what anything was. Then you had me taste the ice cream. Yes!" She pumped her arms skyward then looked at Barry. She smiled grimly and held out her hand. "You better not have eaten it all."
"Who? Me?" Barry laughed then and held out a bowl of slightly soupy chocolate ice cream. "There's more in the kitchen."
Akane looked at her critically but quickly spooned the ice cream away. "It's not that I don't trust you, you understand," she said, shaking the spoon at her. "It's just that I'm used to Ranma's stomach getting the better of him."
Barry nodded and suddenly yawned. "I think sleep deprivation is getting the better of me. Let's call it a night."
"I'd like to spar one more time, Barry." Akane requested, putting aside the empty bowl. She looked at him hopefully and the redhead groaned and sighed.
"You are a glutton for punishment, girl." Barry yawned again and took up a position near the center of the dojo. "Win, lose or draw, no more tonight."
Akane began the attack with a punch and spin kick combo that Barry dodged, then ducked, retaliating with a leaping crescent that Akane passed with delicate precision over her head. They traded blows with little consequence for about thirty seconds. Then, as Barry was stifling a yawn that broke through, despite the flow and heat of combat, it happened.
Akane slid past a blow but ignored it, attempting to gain a lock on Barry's forward leg in preparation of an anchored blow of her own. She had found this to be a particularly effective way of reducing Ranma's mobility, when it worked. But this time, the out-stretched arm curled around her head in a headlock and strong fingers suddenly dug into her chin. She and Barry realized at the same moment what the next move would logically be. She immediately aborted her attack, throwing everything she had into an effort to turn with the jerk of that hand which, if successful, would snap her neck like a twig. Barry strove desperately to open those gripping fingers and interrupt the flow of response that had brought them to this instant.
Akane hit the floor with a limp, heavy sound that brought Barry's heart to her throat. "Akane! Akane? Please be all right! Akane?"
She probed with ki-vision at the other girl's neck, perceiving the bruised muscle instantly but not finding evidence of damage to bone or nerve. The flow of ki seemed to continue uninterrupted through and about her body. After a moment, Barry decided not to run for the ambulance but kept up the probing and repeated verbal inquiries, praying for a response.
"That one hurt," suddenly came a hesitant reply. "What did you do that for?"
Barry knelt there beside her and burst into tears of relief. Akane slowly pushed herself up and felt her bruised neck and watched the redhead for a while. Barry tried to tell her how sorry she was, tried to apologize, but the thought of how close she had come to killing Ranma's fiancée kept giving her the horrors. Akane finally brought a hand back and slapped. (CRACK!) Barry rocked sideways and the delicate pink skin reddened. She gulped and subsided.
"I… know it sounds silly, but thanks, I needed that."
"Ri-i-ight," Akane said quietly. "What happened, Barry?"
"Um… Okay… Akane, it's like I tried to tell you," Barry said in gulping tones as she tried to keep her newly regained control. "I am not Ranma. I haven't lived martial arts all my life. I'm like an inexperienced rider on a superbly trained horse. Unless I pay two hundred percent of my attention to what is happening, the horse will do what it was trained to do, what it has to do to win in any given situation. That is why Ranma spent all that time in the woods. He was training me how not to use his body." Barry took a deep breath, held it and then continued. "Ranma was afraid that you'd get aggressive and I'd react to how you act and hurt or even killyou without meaning to. But no one can, in the time we had, gain the experience and especially the discretion that Ranma developed for himself."
Akane looked stormy for a moment, then considered. If a stranger were treated the way she treated Ranma… She shook her head sadly. 'What a waste.'
"There are lots of paths to chose from; but since I've only rarely traveled some of those pathways, I often don't know what's at the end of them. I don't know, until just before I strike or grip or… whatever, that this move can do X, Y and Z, killing my opponent. When that happens and I hesitate while I look for a different path, you clobber me. If I didn't look, though, or if I'm not paying attention…" She waved the offending hand and gulped back a sob, shuddering. "I shouldn't have let you talk me into sparring with you when I was this tired. I didn't pay enough attention and…and…" Barry curled into a ball and banged her head on the floor in an agony of remorse and relief.
"Stop that!" Akane grabbed the pigtail and hauled the smaller girl upright. "I left myself open, dammit! If a sore neck is what it takes to make me take sparring more seriously, then it was worth it."
"Akane, I nearly…"
"…Broke my neck. I know!" She forced Barry to look her in the eye. "And if it was a serious fight against Shampoo or someone of her skill, I'd be dead. So now I'm better informed and more prepared from my experience." Barry nodded, but miserably. "Barry, at the level in the Art Ranma or even I have achieved, there is always a certain amount of danger. I accept that for my Art. I can see you wouldn't deliberately hurt me. In a way, I'm glad it happened. I just didn't understand what you meant before, about how you used Ranma's skills. We'll just have to make adjustments. From now on, whenever we spar and I go for a move you could counter dangerously, call a break. We'll go over it nice and slow, so I know how to counter it. Then we'll test it faster, and move on to full speed."
"But, Akane…"
"Barry, I don't want a gap like this in my education. I don't want to put Ranma through another Jusendo because I wasn't good enough. You will help me with this."
"Yes, Akane," Barry sighed resignedly. Jusendo and the flames that roared in Ranma's memories. Never that.
"But we also won't push you past where you're comfortable again." She rubbed her neck thoughtfully. Barry sighed and stared at the floor feeling empty. "And stop moping around like that, for kami's sake! If Aunt Nodoka saw you, you know what she'd do."
The next morning, Soun noticed the bruised and stiff neck of his youngest daughter. The demon head was predictable, but the snarling defense Akane put up was not. Soun quickly retreated behind his paper and left them alone.
"How is your neck?" Barry asked Akane quietly.
"Stiff," she admitted. "Would have been worse if Ranma hadn't shown me his quick healing trick at the lake. How are you feeling?"
"Dead. I kept dreaming about that…" He leaned over for more privacy and whispered in her ear. "Except I didn't stop in time. And when I rolled you over, you had Gwen's face." Akane shuddered and winced, putting a hand back to her neck.
"Here is your breakfast," Kasumi said brightly.
"Thanks, Kasumi."
"Thank you, oneechan."
"Oh, Ranma?" Kasumi nodded to him from her place at the table. "I forgot yesterday when you came in so late. Ryoga called. He said he and Akari found something of interest, but he wouldn't say anything more. I hope it wasn't important."
"Nothing we can't take care of today, Kasumi, I'm sure," Barry replied smiling. "It's just a project we've undertaken cooperatively in studying ki techniques."
"Really?" Soun lowered his paper cautiously and regarded them. "Whose school will benefit from this?"
"Uh, both, I guess." He looked puzzled as Soun frowned.
"This is not exactly a wise course of action, Ranma," the Tendo patriarch suggested. "What you're creating here, are new techniques that should be sealed to our school. It's dangerous to let someone as unstable as the Hibiki boy have access to this information." Akane and Barry exchanged glances.
"Father Tendo," Barry said with great formality. "Ryoga is a master linguist. Without his help we wouldn't have access to certain kinds of information. It would not be honorable to use his abilities then deny him the opportunity to benefit from the results."
"You mean… you can't read Chinese." Soun retorted.
"Partly," Barry admitted. "But he's a martial artist and knows what I'm looking for. He's a friend, also, and no matter how pissed off at him I was over Akane, I want him in on this."
Soun seemed to ignore him. "Kasumi can read Chinese."
Barry nodded. "That's not a bad idea, Tendo. Kasumi?"
"Yes, Ranma?" That individual put down her bowl and folded her hands in her lap.
"Do ya have time to visit any of the local shrines or bookstores where they might have old texts on work with auras and ki?"
Kasumi looked thoughtful. "I could check with old Mr. Sakitanaga. Tofu bought most of his old books from him."
"That would be great. Do you know any other languages besides Chinese?" Barry hadn't previously considered the old bookstores. They might need to work up some cash, though, so that Kasumi could actually buy the books.
"Not really. Most of Tofu's outside texts were written in Chinese, so there was no need. Would it help you if I learned another language?"
"Kasumi…" Both Akane and Barry sighed at the offer.
"Kasumi," Akane said, "I don't really think you need to do that, at least not unless you wanted to."
"You are really special, 'Sumi," added Barry. Her smile reminded Barry of someone else, though. "You know, I think I know someone you ought to meet."
Kasumi's eyes twinkled and her smile deepened. "Are you trying to play matchmaker, Ranma?" Barry coughed. That was not what he meant. Akane grinned. She knew what Barry intended.
"Kasumi! He means you should meet Mrs. Morisato, the new history teacher. We think you'd like her."
"She's… she's not anything like Miss Hinako, is she?" quavered Soun.
"She's happily married, for one thing," Barry chuckled as Soun sighed in relief. "Akane overheard some girls talking to her about that." Barry caught the faint discontent that flickered on Kasumi's face. "I really think you should talk to her, Kasumi. Who knows, maybe she can help you." Kasumi's startled look was missed when Soun decided to probe what was for him an important, never-to-be-put-off question.
"You two seem to be getting along so well…"
Akane glanced at her watch and grimaced. "Ranma, you're late again." Wind seemed to gust as Barry took to his heels. "Bye, Daddy, I'm stopping by the Nekohanten. Shampoo worked out a math problem that I was stuck on, and I want to see how she did it." She stopped at the kitchen counter and sighed. "And he forgot his lunch again, too."
Barry felt a sense of déjà vu as he dropped from the rooftops to the mezzanine in front of the gates of the high school. At least three-dozen boys faced off against Shampoo, Akane and Ryoga. Behind them, Akari looked ready to send in Katsunishiki as backup. Barry wandered in annoyed. It was almost a shame to help these idiots avoid the natural extinction such stupidity should deserve.
"All right! Cool it, everybody," he yelled as Ryoga, a hard look on his face, began to move forward aggressively. "Just hold it!" He watched the martial artists' faces then turned toward the male students who stood in their block before the gates. "Are you guys doin' what I think yer doin'?"
"It's not fair, Saotome," several shouted together. They argued briefly among themselves before sending out a spokesman.
"Ranma Saotome, it is not fair that you keep the four cutest girls in Furinkan to yourself!" Barry looked quizzically at the Kuno-wannabe that stood before him. After a moment, he recalled the name — Kogara Daibunmasatsu. Appropriate.
"Blah, blah… Like I make 'em hang around, Kogara."
"Well we've heard about Amazons, Ranma, so we'll take Shampoo from you!" There was a chorus of growls from the rest of the pack.
"Are you planning on fightin' me? Or Shampoo?"
"She said it herself; if she loses to an outsider male, she must date him!"
"That's not what she meant, you dorks!" Barry growled. "Ya don't know anything about the Joketsuzoku."
"We know enough."
"Do you?" He turned back to look at Shampoo. "Hey, Amazon, Kogara here finds you fascinatin'. If he wanted to win your hand, as an outsider, what must he do?"
Shampoo stood tall and proud. "If Shampoo challenge stick-boy, and stick-boy win, Shampoo his if he also beat Airen. If Shampoo not challenge, then stick-boy must beat Airen first, then Shampoo." Crossing her arms, she raised her head as if the issue was not worth considering. "
"Well, Kogara, are ya up to it?" Barry smirked and examined the bokken he held for line and quality. "I mean, martial arts is my life, so no matter what I feel, I can't and won't throw it." His eyes narrowed and he smiled nastily. "Can you take me, Kogara?"
The young man reached to his belt and suddenly became aware of where Ranma had gotten the bokken. He blanched and backed away nervously. New captain of the Kendo Club he might be, but he was nowhere near as dense as Tatewaki Kuno. "It's not fair!" he complained, but with less enthusiasm.
"Why doncha losers try askin' 'em if they'd like a date? Give them flowers and candy or somethin'? Do ya idiots hafta make advances that give girls the idea yer more interested in gang rape than romance?" Suddenly a totally evil look flashed across Ranma's face. Akane and Ryoga who knew who was behind that face blanched in turn. There were whole volumes of Barry Barlowe they didn't understand or know about. This could get interesting.
"Tell ya what. Maybe ya need to learn a little more about the girls' side of things." He rubbed his hands together. "Now I'm not Kuno, but maybe it's time someone lays some new ground rules." He laughed nastily again, and the assembled young men all quickly found reasons to be elsewhere. He heard mutters of Nyanniichuan and chuckled to think they might believe he would consider cursing them the way he was.
"What are you up to, Ranma?" Ryoga growled suspiciously.
"Yes, what are you planning, Ranma?" Akane chimed in.
"I'm not plannin' anything! I was just thinkin'; last night, we talked about how those idiots was houndin' ya that year?It's too bad I can't pull a Kuno and declare it was 'Amazon Culture Month'?" Shampoo immediately laughed in glee, while Akane and Ryoga looked mystified. "I bet Granny would let us have a copy of Amazon rules ta use. Huh, Shampoo?"The violettressed Amazonnodded enthusiastically.
Akane groaned, while Ryoga still looked uncertain about the concept. She moved closer to Barry to hear what he was saying to Shampoo, now.
"Remember, Amazon," Barry was saying. "No killin'. This won't stop some of the losers from tryin' anyway, but they ain't worth the trouble. No maimin' either, unless ya wanna be deported faster than a bullet train."
"What then?" Shampoo complained. "They no expect Amazon let stupid boys play that game!"
"No, no, Shampoo. No killin', no maimin', but painful and embarrassin' leaves a wide field to exploit. The more embarrassin' it is, the less likely they'll be to try again."
Shampoo's face became a study in amused and anticipatory mayhem.
During lunch, Ryoga showed them his notes on a three-scroll set he and Akari found at a shrine in west Tokyo.
A woman had been injured and spoke in a foreign language for many years, acting as if she were another person. The presiding physician had also been a mystic and had detailed differences and similarities between the two individuals in terms of ki, as well as recording a phonetic account of her story in what was reputed to be her native language. The language was not one with which Ryoga was familiar, at least not in the form it was presented.
The mystic claimed that two women had apparently undergone very similar traumas and that somehow their entire beings from the astral through the spiritual plane had been switched.
"And?" Barry asked excitedly. It felt right. Maybe…
"The scroll didn't say," Ryoga replied. "They certainly didn't get the original woman back in what I read." He shrugged. "Maybe there's another story somewhere that tells what happened."
"Arrgh!" Barry rubbed his temples and tried to contain his frustration. He saw that Akane was feeling similarly. "Thanks, Ryoga. Keep on pluggin'. Are you up to tryin' some new ki techniques?"
Ryoga swallowed. "Can we do it long distance? It really creeps me out, what you tried at the lake."
"Akane's been havin' some success with ki-vision. I didn't have to do anything like that." Ryoga turned to Akane for confirmation.
"The only thing he did to me was feed me some ice cream."
Ryoga got a very odd expression on his face. "Ice cream? Does ice cream has an effect on ki?" He asked turning to Barry. Akane blinked uncertainly.
"Chocolate ice cream," added Barry biting his lip and nodding. "We haven't tried vanilla, yet, but you know how yin and yang work, ...P-chan."
Ryoga nodded in agreement before frowning. "What does chocolate or vanilla ice cream have to do with yin or yang?" he asked, trying to imagine the relationship. Hmmm. Dark and light.The subtle difference in taste.
Ryoga looked very disturbed yet excited. Ice cream affected ki! Akane was starting to lose it, so Barry anticipated her. Mysteriously he leaned forward, as if to drop pearls of hidden lore into Ryoga's eagerly awaiting waiting ears. "Nothing. They're just good flavors, that and fudge ripple which I like in particular."
"Nothing? Good flavors?" Ryoga's face went red realizing he'd been conned. "And don't call me 'P-chan'!"
As a result, that evening there were three martial artists for the late night workout. Barry cautioned Akari not to let Katsunishiki visit the koi pond. Soun would have a fit if he even knew they were there. Akane faced off against Ryoga for the first time since the lake.
"This is really difficult for me, you know," Ryoga said, circling.
"Tough Ryoga," said Akane smugly. "You better fight back, too."
"At least yer neck is better," commented Barry from the sidelines. Akari knelt politely, curious as to why Ryoga would be sparring with Akane instead of Ranma.
Ryoga started off. Using near-Amiguriken speed, the sudden opening of the ki-laden umbrella generated a shockwave that cracked like thunder. Akane was already moving over it in a soaring leap. The pattern of strikes she selected rained down on Ryoga like a hailstorm. Startled, he swept his umbrella in a crossing blow that drove her back.
She flipped to her feet and darted in, ducking the umbrella and coming up in a punishing open-hand strike that rocked his head back. He began to block with more vigor as the strikes began to annoy him and he began to view Akane more as an opponent and not a girl he was fond of. He got a sly look and suddenly seemed to drop away, curling into a back flip that spun Akane into a wall with the backlash of his right leg. The solid boom made Akari gasp, but Akane bounced off and laughed, roaring back in without a pause. She managed to disarm him, breaking his hold on his umbrella, and curled in to strike at his diaphragm with her elbow.
'It's like hitting a rock,' she thought, slipping the arms that tried to close on her. She rolled between his legs and struck out with both feet, flipping off her hands and rolling sideways when that didn't connect. The impact of his foot vibrated like a drum through the floor as he struck at where he had expected her to be. She swept and caught him off-balance. He turned his fall into a roll and leaped ricocheting off a support beam and picked up the pace.
"Don't worry, Akari," Barry told the surprised girl. "She nearly threw me through the floor the other day, and Ryoga is as close as it comes to indestructible."
"But Akane isn't, is she?" Akari returned with concern.
"No, but she's gotten much faster. What's funny is that she and Ryoga have very similar styles of fighting in terms of the basic philosophy." Ryoga then went airborne as if to disprove his words. "Uh-oh! He's gonna pay for that."
(BAM!)
Ryoga seemed to vanish and dust, bits of broken tile and a few loose boards fell down from the ceiling. They all ran over and peered up at the hole in the dojo roof.
"Are you all right, Ryoga?" Akane called up.
"I can't believe you put me through the roof!" came back the aggrieved tones. "Ranma, yes! But me?"
"Quit being such a baby. Oh, and Ryoga, since you broke it…"
"Well, that's not quite fair, Akane," Barry chimed in. "Ya didn't tell him what the rules were in advance, after all." They heard footsteps cross the dojo roof and the light thump of Ryoga's landing outside.
"What rules?" Akari asked.
"Since ya didn't warn him," Barry continued, "ya can't really make him fix it."
"You mean I have to fix it?" Akane was now the aggrieved one.
"Ya didn't warn him, Akane."
"What's the deal?" asked Ryoga as he stepped back in, none the worse for wear except for some dirt acquired in his passage.
"That's really unfair!" grumbled Akane.
"We have a policy we use when sparring. Under our rules, if the impact of yer body against some part of the dojo breaks the dojo, yer responsible ta fix the dojo. But she didn't warn ya."
Ryoga considered that. Then he smiled perkily at Akane, who glowered and muttered. "I guess I lucked out," he chuckled. Akane ground her teeth.
"Not quite, pork chop," Barry rejoined. "There is a project we need ta do this weekend. Though it doesn't have anything to do with the dojo." Ryoga looked blank. Akari, no slouch, remembered his earlier warning about not letting Katsunishiki near the koi pond and became nervous.
"It's supposed to stay dry over the weekend and I was wonderin' if you and Akari could help me do a little landscaping?"
"Uh, I guess. But I thought we were all going to hit the shrines and temples this weekend?"
"I am so sorry for not having controlled…" Akari broke in, face flaming from embarrassment and chagrin. She had a very good idea of what must have happened without even looking. Barry cut her off easily.
"Akari, it's not really a big deal. Really! This kinda stuff follows me around all the time. People and animals don't act normal around me. With anyone else, 'Shiki woulda left it alone." Ryoga nodded in easy agreement. Apparently, the pig had damaged something when they were here last. He didn't have any idea how badly damaged the sumo pig had left it.
"Let's get down to business with the ki thing." Barry brought out some large cushions and plopped them down. "Experience is a wonderful thing, doncha know." Akane nodded and rubbed her legs.
"I think we should try the lotus position," Ryoga suggested. "It was designed for meditation, after all."
Ryoga and Akane settled down, each moving swiftly into the centering exercises of breathing to stabilize their metabolisms. Barry noted that Ryoga reached his center very quickly, while Akane took quite a bit longer.
"Could I try as well?" asked Akari. Barry shrugged.
"No reason why not." He went and got another cushion. Soon Akari was seated in the lotus position on the other side of Ryoga. Her centering was much, much slower in coming, as she had only a sketchy idea of what was needed.
Once Akane was centered and oriented, she rapidly began identifying the controlling areas of her ki, tracing and lightly touching lines and identifying reactions in her body. When she realized that she was dealing with purely physical reactions, she began to hunt around for others she knew had to be there. She began assigning colors to different influences and her world opened up further. Finally, she could clearly see how her aura and her body lined up.
She decided to experiment and recalled the procedure to call up the ki spark in her hands. Observing, she slowly relaxed the way she had before and saw golden threads seem to spin into being. Once she identified those, she had little difficulty in observing similar strands, unconnected to the work she was doing, but with a similar nature. She tried to make them brighter and smiled to herself at how easily this could be done.
"Akane, very carefully refocus yourself," came Barry's droning voice. "Look for your ki. Don't experiment yet. By the way, in case you didn't know, you're accessing what should be your astral levels which are the core of projective ki techniques."
Regretfully, she reduced the power she was calling out and refocused on finding and mapping her ki structure.
Outside her awareness, Ryoga finished slapping out a fire on his pants leg. He was wide-eyed, alarmed and holding his complaints only because Barry had clamped a hand over his mouth when he had been jolted out of his meditation by pain. Akari also jumped to her feet, eyes round. Akane, in calling up her ki and channeling it through her hands, had formed a ball of energy that scorched the floor and caught Ryoga's cushion and pants leg on fire. A meter or two away, Barry finished stamping out the cushion. Satisfied that all fires were under control for now, he tossed the pillow back to Ryoga and indicated the spooked martial artist should take a seat a little further way from the dark-haired girl.
"What did she…?" Ryoga stuttered in a whisper.
"I'm not sure, but you notice she instinctively protected herself from it. Soun is gonna kill me for scorching the floor, though." Barry, looking back at his student in ki, at first missed the look Ryoga gave him. Turning back, he frowned at the lost-boy's look of disbelief and chuckled. "What?"
"Was she getting ready to Mouko Takabisha or something? You didn't tell me…"
"Nah, nothin' like that! She wasn't trying to do anything but explore how far she could push her 'handlight'."
"Her what?"
"Hey, I don't have formal training, piggy. When you meditate and simply call your ki into your hands, I call it a 'handlight'."
"That was… that was a fireball three freaking meters across, dammit!"
"I have no idea how she did that and I was watching! That's why I grabbed you and made you shut up. I didn't want to inhibit her style." Barry grinned lopsidedly and looked back at the girl who sat unaware in a circle of smoking floorboards. "She may be a natural at this. I'll investigate that again when we have less combustible surroundings." Absently, they nodded as Akari excused herself and went out to check on her pig.
"Why don't you try again? Think about the Bakusai Tenketsu; you identify some point in a rock that you want to shatter as the breaking point. I think it might be related somehow to identifying resonant frequencies in a glass. Have you heard of how a singer can break a glass with their voice?"
"Yeah. I don't know. It doesn't feel that way, somehow."
"That's only an analogy. What if a rock has a resonant ki frequency? When I do that ribbon trick, I 'convince' my target's ki to accept my ribbon. The ribbon has to be also a part of the object; otherwise, it either ignores it or interferes with it."
Ryoga looked doubtful but settled down with several nervous glances at Akane. Resuming the lotus position, he slowly eased back toward a trance state. Barry went to check on Akane again.
"Hey, Akane, how is it going?" Barry kept his voice soft, slurring the hard sounds to minimize the distraction.
"Nice. I see so many things. Can you tell me what these are?" Though she didn't move, Barry clearly felt her indicate something.
"I'd have to be a little intrusive, Akane. Wouldn't you rather just investigate for yourself? You're doing great right now, you'll probably manage fine without me." He sighed with relief when she readily accepted the out he gave her. "Just don't try to project ki till we can work with your eyes open, okay?"
He wandered back over to Ryoga. "Feelin' smooth, P-chan?"
"Don't call me 'P-chan'," Ryoga muttered abstractedly. "I'm fine, but all I see is the inside of my eyelids." Barry gave him the once over and shook his head. He circled him, looking at him from several angles. "Do you have to do that?"
"Well, it worked with Shampoo…"
Ryoga's eyes snapped open and he looked at Barry suspiciously. Barry was somehow not surprised that Ryoga maintained his inner balance even with his eyes open. "What worked with Shampoo?"
Barry suddenly found himself in a mild case of conflict of interest.
"Nothing you need worry about, Ryoga," he began.
"I'm worrying. I strongly suggest you relieve my fears," Ryoga returned flatly. "If you mess up Ranma and Akane's lives for them…"
Barry felt a chill pass over him. He thought he could take Ryoga, but he'd have to open up a lot more than he liked and could actually injure him. Though he had started out with a serious case of distrust and dislike for the other man, it had become tempered over time to a weird acceptance and understanding. Ryoga was, in an odd way, noble in his acceptance of his loss of Akane and in his continued defense of her. He was beginning to understand why Ranma thought of him as a friend. Ryoga's words, however, gave him an easy out. "Why not ask Akane about it. She knows about this deal with Shampoo, she was there." He shrugged and raised his hands. "But we sorta can't talk about it. Like Ranma couldn't say anything about P-chan."
"Don't think I won't ask," the other man replied, closing his eyes again. "Why are you circling me, though?"
"Tryin' ta work out just what you're doing, and I swear it scares me."
Ryoga's eyes blinked open again. "Now what do you mean by that?"
Barry snickered. "Do you realize you meditate in an entirely different way from anyone else I've come across?" Barry paused a moment, trying to find some way of explaining the phenomenon. "I have to admit though, you're the one person who'd get lost this way."
Ryoga regarded Barry for several seconds and shook his head. "I will be damn glad when this is over. You can be so irritating. Tell me what you mean, right now, or I swear I'm going to forget myself and beat the crap out of you." There wasn't the heat behind his words this time, and it was obvious he was speaking a set formula to 'Ranma'.
"Most people relax their physical bodies," Barry began, "and balance the chemical and hormonal processes with a reasonably healthy diet, exercise, and careful control of their emotions. Then they find their astral levels and slowly open up from there till they are in touch with and utilizing all five known levels of ki: body, humors, astral, mental and spiritual." Barry rubbed his chin, noting absently that he needed to shave. "Understand, I only just learned the terminology, but it seems apt. That's how, uh… I do it, that's how Shampoo and Akane do it, and I'm pretty sure that's how Cologne does it."
Ryoga nodded and waited for the explanation to conclude.
"You, on the other hand, actually turn around and dive back into your humors, emotional and hormonal balances, linking back to them from your astral levels. Start working up a Shishi Houkudan for me. Um… that is, if you don't have to fire it off once you start it."
"I better go outside for this." Ryoga rose to his feet. "Where's Akari?
Barry looked around. The girl was nowhere in the dojo. "I dunno. Look outside for Katsunishiki."
Outside, the night air was cool and the sumo pig conspicuous by his absence. They circled together (Remember, this is Ryoga, he gets lost in his own house!) but the pair was not around the dojo, or this side of the house.
"Akari!" Ryoga's call cut through the night and set neighborhood dogs to barking, but there was no answering hail from the farm girl. They exchanged concerned glances. Barry used the ki-vision to augment his tracking in the dark. Plants trampled by the heavy animal gave off a whispery and garbled ki signature. Finally they found where girl and pig walked off behind the house.
They followed the trail around to the koi pond.
"Where are we, anyway?" Ryoga asked, looking around. He obviously didn't recognize where they were, which didn't really surprise Barry. "It looks like a construction site."
"Well, sorta." Barry now had a good idea what happened. Akari had, for whatever reason, decided to walk the grounds and immediately realized what the 'construction' was. "Oh, hell!"
"What?"
"This is Tendo's garden, Ryoga. That hole used to be Soun's koi pond." He watched Ryoga's face. It showed puzzled concern.
"Why did he do this? It used to look really nice…"
"Ryoga! You are sodense sometimes!" Barry snapped. "Sorry. To clarify, this is Soun's garden and koipond after Katsunishiki used it as a wallow."
Ryoga's face fell. "Katsunishiki did… Akari saw… Oh. No!" Ryoga's hands clenched. "Akari…! She's so sensitive. If she saw this… and now she's gone, wandering lost and alone out there, blaming herself." Barry observed Ryoga's ki paths, clinically, as the angst built up, sheathing Ryoga in greenish luminance. As he suspected, Ryoga fed his ki projection abilities back down through his emotions and began a weird feedback loop that built up power like a capacitor. "It's not fair," Ryoga whispered. "She's so sweet. It's just not…" He trailed off muttering. Barry flinched as he suddenly realized where he was all headed.
"No, Ryoga!" Barry physically grabbed Ryoga by the shoulders but the green luminance of his aura pinged and burned against him. "C'mon, she just probably stepped out to take a walk, for cryin' out loud - Get control of yerself…!" Barry sought desperately for some strategy to handle this. Ryoga's heavy ki would explode like a bomb then crash back down like a pile driver. He had to be stopped. How did Ranma… "Aw, nuts!"
Blanching, he splashed through the wetness in the remains of the pond and leaped back to the Lost Boy. Cringing internally, he glomped Ryoga ala Shampoo and, using as sultry a voice as possible, said, "Ryoga, honey if you break the Tendo's house I'll do something we both will regret."
Ryoga's aura guttered out like a snuffed candle. Eyes met and locked.
"Ewww!" "Yuck!" They were suddenly at opposite sides of the former pond.
"What were you thinking?" Ryoga snapped.
Barry snarled right back, "I was trying to keep you from blowing up the house!"
"What happened to you two? What's going on?" broke in Akane, jogging over from the dojo. "Was that lightshow I saw Ryoga? What's going on? Where's Akari?"
"Akari…"
"Don't you start!" Barry huffed. "Pig boy here was losing control of himself…"
"Why are you a girl?" Akane asked frowning, apparently ignoring what he'd said.
"Well… I…" Barry crimsoned. Damn! How did Ranma pull this kind of thing off?
"He was gonna kiss me or something," accused Ryoga.
"Was not!" Barry shot back. "I was distracting you. And it worked! Hah!"
Akane looked peeved. "Why didn't you push him in the pond? Cursing him would have done as well."
Barry glanced startled at the muddy water. "Didn't think of that…"
Ranma hobbled out of the bathroom to dress for today's visit to one of the largest museums and libraries in the eastern U.S. He convinced Gwen that, even if she wouldn't let him go to work, he could manage a ride to the library for some research and reading material. A family outing was finally planned, as Brendan wanted to see the dinosaurs and both Brendan's and Barry's birthdays fell over the next week. Gwen still was not happy about it, and eyed him with a look reminiscent of one of Akane's just prior to a boost into the stratosphere.
"I'm driving," she said in a way that brooked no argument. "I'll take Brendan around and leave you to your… whatever it is you're doing."
"Thanks, Gwen," he said with real sincerity.
"I love you," she said, smiling suddenly and darting in for a quick kiss.
"I love you, t—!" He caught himself, but Gwen appeared not to notice. When she left the room, he walked over to a wall and slammed his head against it a few times.
"What are you pounding on?" came her distant voice.
"Nothing, dear," he answered, mentally kicking himself for the 'dear'.
'And I thought Barry was having a rough time trying to deal with my life,' thought Ranma. 'It's not enough that he can't do ki techniques, his body has… habits!' He shuddered. Slowly, he pulled out a T-shirt of red cotton, black jeans and tennis shoes. Barry had nothing resembling his silk shirts and apparently nothing similar to his fighting… Hold it! Jogging pants would do. The tennis shoes were old enough to be comfortable without being useless. After dressing, he bounced up and down a few times to judge his balance and conditioning.
He got another shock. Barry, from the response of his calf muscles, didn't know how to jump right, another drawback. He sure wasn't a martial artist! At least, not Ranma's kind. He had a lot of training to do to feel comfortable. He doubted Barry would mind much. Speaking of which…
He sat back down on the made-up bed and began to work toward centering himself. If he just had half an hour, he might be able to get the healing abilities boosted and get rid of some of this cursed stiffness. Of course, he'd have to continue to fake it, or find some other reason to avoid Gwen's amorous advances towards her husband. Slowly he dropped into the floating awareness…
"Watcha doing, Dad?" (BOUNCE!)
Brendan landed on the bed with a thump, almost sending Ranma off the other side on the rebound. Sucking in air in an effort to control the renewed pain, he rose to his feet and smiled tightly at the boy. "I was resting, Brendan." A few breaths and he managed to get his equanimity restored. "I'm hurt, remember?" He slowly sat back down on the bed.
"Where does it hurt?"
Ranma jerked upright quickly to put himself at a safe distance from probing fingers, but apparently Brendan had not been intent on probing for himself. He smiled again. Brendan reminded him more than a little of himself at that age. Tomorrow, the boy would be turning seven. At the same age, Ranma had already experienced the hell of Nekoken.
He reached out and tousled the boy's hair. At least Barry seemed to be trying his best to make a family of the three of them. This was a child who wouldn't have to worry about his father walking out, taking him from his mother to endure a decade of torture in pursuit of martial arts perfection.
Brendan grabbed the interloping arm and began to wrestle. "Hey! Watch it, I'm injured!" Ranma grinned though. 'Did all boys do this?' he wondered.
"Can I watch a tape? Can I, Dad?"
"Uh, which tape would that be?" he answered, hedging.
"Turtles!" Brendan bounced on the bed, went airborne and landed running. He was out into the living area in a flash and the sounds of plastic cassettes banging against one another drifted to the displaced martial artist.
'Turtles?' Ranma shook his head. 'Who the hell would want to watch a videotape of turtles? They were slow and, well… they were slow.' He hobbled out to see what was so fascinating about turtles. He wouldn't put it past Barry to have a son interested in National Geographic films, but…
Half an hour later, he was stretched out, wincing, in a recliner with a boy sitting in his lap giving a blow-by-blow description of the action on the TV. The wincing was due mostly to the fact that, in particularly active sections, Brendan's body would jerk in sympathetic response. Ranma found it quite a workout. The concept of… giant talking turtles doing martial arts, eating pizza, and generally having a good time while practicing ninjitsu in an entirely ludicrous manner, was unnerving. Americans must be even crazier than he thought.
"What are you two watching?" Gwen poked her head around the corner from the kitchen and called down to the basement where they were. "Never mind, I can hear it all the way up here. Brendan, are you being good?"
"Yes, Mom!"
"Remember! No playing Turtles in the house!"
"Yes, Mom!"
"Breakfast will be ready in just a few minutes, Barry. Can you make it up the steps all right? Or shall I bring it down?"
"I'll be up, just call when it's ready."
"Do you want any tea this morning?"
Ranma considered briefly. "Yes, but not so much and no sugar, please."
"Okay."
"I wanna watch Turtles," Brendan chimed in suddenly. Ranma looked down at the boy and tried to decide what Barry would say.
"Brendan," came Gwen's voice, "Dinosaurs at the museum, Turtles later."
"Turtles after breakfast, then dinosaurs?" Brendan countered.
"Dinosaurs after breakfast with Turtles after dinosaurs, or no Turtles at all. Take it or leave it."
"Okay," Brendan sighed and hit the pause button he activated when his mother called down. 'Cowabunga!' cheered from the screen.
'Cowabunga?' Ranma shook his head in faint perplexity. 'What kind of battle cry was that?' And what about that negotiating? He wondered if Mrs. Tendo had ever done something similar with Nabiki. It wouldn't surprise him.
Breakfast was bacon, eggs and toast. The good thing was there was a lot of it. The bacon was greasier than Kasumi would have made it, but there were no pickles. The thought of pickles caused a faint gag reflex that Ranma was quick to conceal. He experimented again, with the same response. Apparently (and heretically), Barry didn't like pickles. Without the sugar, the tea was different but acceptable.
Gwen's mother sat in her chair at the end of the table. Terminally ill with kidney failure, too frail and old to be considered for a transplant, she had good days and bad days. Her breakfast was somewhat different from everyone else's due to a restricted diet. Ranma watched her nervously; almost afraid she might expire before his eyes.
Barry's memories were only intermittently accessible to him, but he suddenly had an image of a short and hefty woman, bubbling with energy and life, eyes twinkling with humor and wisdom, making everyone feel comfortable and welcome in her home. Uncomfortable with the image of looming death, his throat tightened as he looked across at her, only to meet, within the sunken folds of skin, the twinkling eyes that showed that even this drawn out agony was not enough to quell the strong, loving spirit within. She smiled faintly at his look and nodded. Her speech was no longer a certain thing these days, but sometimes a look said more than words.
The drive to the library was uneventful. Ranma looked out the window at the wide streets and wooded avenues. The city was pretty and spread pretty far out. Unlike Nerima, he would have a hard time justifying roof-hopping here, except as exercise. The streets were not quite as clean as Tokyo's or in as good repair, but it was evident that the population density was much lower.
The building that housed the library was enormous, covering several city blocks. Built and named for an entrepreneur from the turn of the century, it had the massive opulence Ranma was familiar with from government buildings back home. Gwen left him at the card catalogs and walked off with Brendan to 'see the dinosaurs'. He looked around him with some trepidation. How was he supposed to find what he was looking for in here? He looked around for a librarian.
An older woman behind a desk explained in bored, clipped tones how to use the card catalog. As she did so, Ranma realized Barry already knew and, after a bit of second-hand review, moved back to the stacks. As he sat down gingerly to read some of his selections, he realized he finally had the ideal moment to get that healing technique kicked in. He settled back and centered himself.
An hour later, he sighed in relief. He would probably have to do this periodically, if he were here for any length of time. Barry's body had developed its own balances and resisted the modification. Still, the stiffness was finally leaving and the throbbing pain in the small of his back was much reduced.
The first book he reviewed was total junk. It couched things in mystical and dramatic terms, but it was obvious the author was parroting a version of auras and ki that he modified for his own purposes and without personal experience. The second was similar. The third sounded right, but only went into basics. A check for other books by the author revealed no other titles under his name. A fourth…
It was frustrating. He went through over a dozen books, discovering, in many cases within the first chapter or so, evidence that the author was either misinformed or deliberately disingenuous. All of these works were contemporary, of course. Needing to think, he wandered over to a selection of atlases, remembering how Barry had checked one and claimed he was in a different universe.
But what if he had been wrong…
If Barry had been mistaken, Ranma could call home. He trembled. If he could call home and get hold of Akane and Barry, he'd also have backup to convince Gwen of what had happened. He could be safe…
He found an atlas for Japan and flipped to the page showing Tokyo and its surroundings. He looked in the index for Nerima. It was there. Hurriedly, he flipped to the page and ran his finger down the rows and columns. There it was… or was it?
Nerima Ward was not quite right in appearance. He tried to justify his memory of the ward's layout with the map. He soon determined the truth. It was different. His Nerima was closer to the sea, than the Nerima of this Tokyo, and had more canals. His finger wandered over the street designations. He found the street Furinkan should be on, but it was outside the ward. He traced back looking for the street that the Tendo dojo was on. He found what should be it, but the street name was different by a single symbol. He tried to decide where to go from here.
Barry refused to determine if he had a counterpart in Ranma's universe. He had not wanted to create repercussions that might harm his opposite. Ranma suspected he had not wanted the distraction that the existence of an alternate universe's Gwen would cause him. Of course, she would not have had any useful experience to alleviate the problem, but Ranma's case might be different. If he existed here, maybe he could help himself so to speak.
Checking with the librarian, he was directed to another desk to turn a twenty-dollar bill into quarters. Change jingling, he located a pay phone and dialed the Tendo home number. A recorded voice stated the required amount of money for five minutes of time. He deposited and waited for the overseas call to go through. A connection was made, and faintly a woman's voice came on the line. For a brief terrifying moment, he thought he had forgotten how to speak Japanese.
"Moshi, moshi, Tendo-san no-otaku desu-ka?"
"Iie, chigaimasu."
Hurriedly, he asked to check the number, only to have the phone number confirmed. In this universe at least, it was not assigned to the Tendo's. He called Tokyo area information and requested the number of the Tendo residence in the Nerima district. The operator could not locate the listing.
Remembering that the streets that seemed familiar were not in that district, he suggested a search of nearby wards for Tendo Soun or the School of Mutsabetsu Kakuto. After a long wait, the operator returned to inform him that these persons and businesses could not be located.
"Domo sumimasen," Ranma said, sick at heart.
"Iie, Do itashimashite."
He hung up. Damn! He hadn't really believed Barry, or at least had thought the man was mistaken in this regard. He turned with the remainder of the change, intending to return to the stacks. His stomach growled and he belatedly realized that it was nearing lunchtime. Normally this was a welcome event, but the butterflies in his stomach warred with his hunger. Then he stopped, truly alarmed by what he saw before him — Gwen, a puzzled look on her face and a quiet, curious Brendan in hand.
"Whom were you talking to, dear?"