Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XXX

His watch was set to go off at a quarter to four, but Ron was awake by then anyway, his body becoming used to the early hour. He certainly made a better impression on the other students when he was already up and dressed when the morning gong was rung. He slipped into his gi and started stretching while mentally preparing for the long hike to and from the nearby village. His body, save the need for stretching, could handle the grueling climb, but it was still a rather boring walk. Both of them could probably run the entire distance, but it just wouldn't do to show up wringing wet in the freezing November air.

"Stoppable-san?" came a whisper right outside his door. "Ron-san." She repeated, even lower.

"Come in." He said quietly. "How are you on this beautiful crisp autumn morning?" He flashed her his brightest grin.

She shut the shoji and bowed slightly toward him. "I am prepared for our task, why are you not?"

"Um, sorry? I'm dressed and stretched up and ready to hoof it to the village with you, just like you wanted. I wonder if they've got a Bueno Nacho there."

"Ah, I see with your American style misunderstanding of proper attire. We may not go to the village wearing our training clothes, we must dress as if we are students at a private school."

He arched an eyebrow in confusion, then realized she was wearing her short-skirted school-girl outfit. "Oh, you mean I need to wear my regular clothes. Just testing you." He covered, knowing it was less than effective. "I'll just be a minute."

"Of course." She said, kneeling near the entrance. Ron had his hands on the knot of his white belt when it became clear that Yori was not about to move. She was not looking directly at him but she was not shielding her eyes either.

"Um, Yori, how about a little American style privacy?" he said, hesitating.

"I am sorry, Stop…Ron-san. I thought it would be quicker if you went ahead. I will, of course, wait outside for you." She frowned just slightly but got up to leave, taking a seat right outside his door and sliding the panel shut.

Ron shook his head as he shrugged into a sweat-shirt and a pair of cargos. Back home he would have likely put on his blue ski-coat in temperatures like this but somehow here it seemed too much. Then again he would likely overheat just a little, especially since the climb down the trail was actually more strenuous than the climb up save for the fact it went quicker (especially if you happen to lose your footing and roll part way down!)

Even though his clothing was loose and baggy, compared to the gi he had been wearing for nearly two weeks it felt oddly restrictive. His big black g-shock style watch felt like a lead weight strapped to his arm. Not that having weights strapped to him would slow him down any longer, it was just that he was keenly aware that it was there.

He found himself really wishing there was a mini-Kimmunicator built into his timepiece but unless Wade was seeding Smarty Mart with his technology just to get it into his hands or had swiped it during the night to make his changes it was just a plain thirty dollar sports watch.

The moment he stepped out of his room a pair of slim muscular arms wrapped around his shoulders from behind. He very nearly threw Yori over his head but realized in time she was simply "glomping" him, a sort of friendly hug. It was completely uncharacteristic of the normally hyper-traditional young woman and it was clear they were quite alone. The morning gong was not going to ring for another ten minutes and hardly anyone would emerge from their cells until they had to.

Ron suspected quite strongly that Yori had an ulterior motive for getting him away from the school. Without other prying eyes around she would be free to speak her mind or to try other things. He was certainly hoping that all she wanted to do was talk and if so, that would be perfect. They could clear the air finally and hopefully come away still friends.

That he never in his life expected to be the one to have to gently reject such a beautiful lady was foremost in his mind. He always assumed he would be on the receiving end of the rejections.

"The sunset last night was most lovely. It foretold of a beautiful day today." She said quietly as they walked through the gates.

"Yeah, I saw that, all those red clouds. We've got an old saying…"

"Red skies at night, sailor's delight." She chuckled softly.

"Oh, so you've heard it. Sure that wasn't 'Sailor-Moon's' delight?"

Yori giggled a little more heartily. "Ron-san, did you not know that is the name of a dirty magazine?"

"Dirty…oh, gotcha." He looked sidelong at her. "I just can't picture you looking at stuff like that."

"In our culture we view such things more freely. We have a much more mature attitude toward such things and we are not ashamed to seek an outlet through art. We are not so puritanical as you might think. We have learned how to put these things were they belong, in a healthy place instead of keeping them inside and letting them cause us ill."

"I, uh, think I get it."

Ron frowned. "Did you see that?"

"See what, Stoppable-san." She switched back to his formal name the moment she though they might not be alone.

"I could swear I just saw somebody following us."

Yori smiled at him. "That is just your imagination, Ron-san. If anyone were following us I would know it." She grasped his arm gently and gave it a squeeze, a gesture very reminiscent of something Kim would do just prior to taking his arm. In fact, he found it would be quite natural to be walking down the trail holding hands with her.

Ron was both amazed and troubled by the fact he physically attracted to her so strongly. He felt this way about her before, but only mildly, never enough that he had to make a conscious decision that it simply was not what he wanted. He desired Yori. He desired Kim. It was entirely likely that given some time around other women he would desire them too.

The wonderful difference, the one that made his heart sing with joy and longing was that it was Kim he loved. Those other desires were just the male animal within him. It was the love that made him a man, his choice that he would seek to quench those desires with one person in the whole wide world.

They were about two miles from the school by that point. It was still completely dark outside but there was just enough light to see by since the moon was up late. He had every confidence that Yori would be able to guide them down the trail if it were overcast and the moon was gone, though that would likely mean walking holding hands. Practicality aside, that's something he really didn't want to do, no matter how nice it might have felt.

"Yori, you didn't need me to go with you down there to the village, did you?"

"You are learning wisdom, Ron-san. Yes, I wanted to speak to you about things that…I cannot go on unless I make myself clear."

He looked at her, waiting for her to go on.

"Not unlike the saying your sailors have about the weather, you also have a saying about love at first sight. Do you believe in such a thing?"

He smiled at her. "Yes, though I didn't at first until I realized it actually happened to me."

"Really? I though you had known Possible-san since you were small children. Is there another that you love?" She looked at him with an expression that might have been longing, though he couldn't be sure in the low light.

"I didn't know it happened to me until I knew how much I was in love with her. Then I realized that, even back when I was four years old I loved her the moment I laid eyes on her. She made me do things I never thought possible…until I knew a Possible."

"Go on."

"Well, she was being bothered by a bunch of bullies and she was on the verge of crying. Normally if those bigger kids even looked at me I'd run away screaming, but something about her made me stand up to them."

"You saved her from the bullies? Even then you were a hero."

"Welllllllll, It didn't really work out that way. Sure I stood up to them, but they proceeded to beat me up. Then something amazing happened. Kim stopped crying and beat them up instead, all three of them."

Yori looked at him with confusion. "You did not save her then, she saved you."

"No, Yori. We saved each other and we've been doing it ever since. We've always been two halves of a whole, it was only just last spring, just a few weeks since we last met you that we realized just how deep that went."

She nodded sadly. "I understand, Ron-san. I only brought up love at first sight because it has happened to me too. Now I see that the very things I saw in you that make me love you are the very things that make you Possible-san's and not mine."

"Yori…I…you love me? I just thought you had a crush on me."

"Ron." She said, sobs creeping into her voice. It was also the first time he could remember her saying just his name without the honorary. "I do no know what I feel. I do not love any of the other boys at the school, I never have. Everyone seems to think I would be such a good match for Hirotaka, and perhaps they are right, that he would one day make a good companion for me, but that is not love. I didn't even know what that was until the day I first met you."

Ron stammered. "Yori, I don't get it. I was just a fifteen year old clumsy loser when I got here. I couldn't do half the exercises you tried to teach me, I tore down the shoji wall three or four times, I even destroyed a building that had been standing for a thousand years. What was there to love, I'm not even good looking?"

She responded by wrapping her arms around him and kissing him. He tried to resist but found he couldn't do so without hurting her one way or another. By the time she broke away he had already resolved there was definitely one ambush kiss he would have to report to Kim.

"I do not care about those things." She said as she resumed the hike. "I have a lain awake at nights thinking about you. I do not pretend to understand it, all I know is that I do love you and now that I have kissed you, that is all that will pass between us."

"It is?"

"Yes, Ron. Because I love you I will also honor you and respect you. You have been nothing but honest with me and I can clearly see how much your Possible-san means to you. I cannot in good conscience try to break a bond that is so true. Sensei told me there might be a chance that you might only be play-acting through a first love, but now I know he was wrong."

"Wait a second. Sensei told you that?"

"Yes, right before you arrived."

"Why that two-faced snake in the…FUJI!" He cursed, balling his fist.

"Ron-san, what is wrong."

"I'll tell you what's wrong. Sensei has been going on and on with me about how my soul is merged with Kim's and how we're meant to be and all sorts of prophecy mumbo-jumbo and stuff and here he's telling you that it's fine to make a play for me? I can take all that serious mystical crap since it's obviously real, but that's just low. He wasn't just playing me, he was playing you too."

Yori stopped and put a hand to his mouth, obviously shocked. Finally she said, "Sensei knows a great many things and he must know what he was doing. Perhaps he saw the need to test your devotion to Possible-san."

"That doesn't give him the right to screw around with you like that. I may not be in love with you, but I really, really like you and I consider you a friend and I don't like seeing that kind of crap happen to any of my friends. Period!" He turned on he heel and started back up the trail toward the school.

"Stoppable-san! Ron! What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" He asked angrily as he briskly climbed. "I'm going back there to give him a piece of my mind, then I'm going to pack my things and start heading for home. If this is the kind of crap I've got to deal with, then I'm done with all this mystical monkey stuff anyway. Monkey's ain't the only ones flinging their poop around."

She caught up to him and grabbed his arm, trying to slow him down. "Ron, you cannot do this. It is too important. You must learn to control your power."

"So what. All I've seen so far is him doing a bunch of stuff that I could learn in any dojo back home. In fact, he hasn't done anything that Kim wasn't already doing for me anyway and let me tell you, working out and getting all sweaty with a woman who looks hot in a jog-bra is a whole lot better than working out with an old dude in robes. From what I've seen I don't even think he knows the first thing about helping me with my power. The only thing that's happened so far I did, not him and now I find he's trying to play games with our hearts."

"Ron, stop!" She said, raising her voice for perhaps the first time since he had known her.

He turned and faced her, scowling.

"Sensei told you there are only two people who have gained the power of Tai Xing Pek Kwar. At the time he was unaware that Rufus-san had been exposed as well. He did not tell you that there are others who have that power as well, though it did not come from the statues."

"Oh, so what are you telling me?" He asked angrily. "That Sensei has been holding out on me, that he's got the power too?"

"He and one other are the last living ones who have the power naturally. I do not know who this other is, but if there is anyone in this world who knows about the power it is he. I too have read some of the prophecies and I know how important you are to him and to what he must one day do. If he does not know everything, then it is your duty, your honor to help him see his task through." She held out her hand. "Please, let us go down to the village as we had planned."

"Why? I thought this whole thing about going down there was just a chance to clear the air. We've done that, though I'm sorry it's turned out this way."

"Ron. I am still your friend and I would still like to spend the day with you as a friend since I cannot spend it as your lover. I would far rather do that than see you leave in anger and undo so much that has been accomplished."

He stopped, frowning, looking downhill. There was just enough light to see the tears streaming down her face.

"Please, Ron. As a friend I ask you to do this for me."

His scowl melted away and he walked down the trail to her. He let her embrace him, holding her tight as the tears fell. He let her stay that way for a long time. He knew it was okay and that it was what she needed.

It was amazing how women who appeared so strong could be so emotionally fragile. He thought of Kim's face, how she could smile, her head cocked slightly to the side letting her long red hair fall just so…

Beep-beep-de-beep

Ron's jaw dropped. That was the last sound he ever expected to hear. He looked around frantically but he knew that his communicator was sitting in his desk drawer back home in Middleton. Then he started hunting for a porcelain statue, something Wade could use a high resonance band to communicate with but there was nothing around but plants and stones.

Beep-beep-de-beep

His mouth dropped even further open when he realized just where the sound was coming from. Wade had actually done it. He still didn't know if it happened before he bought it or it had been switched out later. It was just like his original tracking chip, Wade moved in mysterious ways.

He looked at his watch, which continued beeping incessantly. Not knowing what else to do, he touched the night-light button. A ghostly holographic image sprung up over the watch.

"Ron! I was hoping you would be wearing your watch." Wade said, worry evident in his voice.

"You got lucky, this is the first time since I got here. Wade, what's going on?"

"Ron, I know this is a long shot, but I'm worried about Kim. I got an emergency damage alert from her Kimmunicator, then that went dead too. Right after that the backup mini-Kimmunicator I put in her cell-phone went dead."

He was instantly alert. "Wade, have you got a lock on her position?"

"That's just it, Ron. Something is blocking the signal. If you still had your old chips I might be able to pick up the active signal they broadcast, but these new stealth models don't work unless the signal from the satellite can reach them. I'm going to have to work on that. Look, the reason I called you is that we can't find her. I lost the signal somewhere in the warehouse district, but that's it. That's a whole lot of area to search if she's in trouble."

"And you called me why?"

"I was hoping you might be able to do that mystical communications thing and find out where she is, or maybe the school's master could. Look, I called her parents and they said Cary was taking her to the mall, but not I can't even pick up his car on satellite scans."

"WHAT! She went out with Cary?"

"Ron, it's not what you think. She was just going to the mall with a group of friends. I'm just assuming they somehow got diverted, maybe some emergency."

"I find it odd she would go out with the son of one of your enemies." Yori said offhandedly.

"What did you say?" Ron and Wade asked in unison.

"Did you not know this? Cary On is the son of the man Stoppable-san and Possible-san helped capture in Go City. This was in the file about your school."

"Oh my God, she's right! Why didn't I see that before?" Wade said. "If Kim doesn't know…"

"I knew that guy was five hundred miles of bad road. Wade, how fast can you get me transport?"

"Ron, I can probably have something there in an hour, but it'll still take hours to get back here. You're thousands of miles away."

He was breathing hard, alternately looking at the translucent image and at the ridge-top school above them.

"I think I have an idea." He said, resolutely turning toward the school.

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