Special note to GMan: Nice attention to detail. But in this Ranmaverse Jusenkyo's balance has been upset by the bust-up at Jusendo and is now prone to drought and flooding, instead of being a static valley of pools. This becomes more important later on… Trust me…
Ki Cutters: 11
The Progression III
Ryoga felt the soft pressure of a bed beneath him. It was almost an uncomfortable sensation compared to his bedroll on rocky ground or even his bed at home It was too soft. He didn't open his eyes yet. He felt terrible and opening his eyes meant he'd have to start dealing with the world again and he wasn't ready for that.
"Awoo, awoo, awoo!" (Clatter!)
"Dammit!" a feminine voice cried out.
Ryoga froze. What the hell was that? It didn't quite sound like Shirokuro. He cracked open an eye. A big blunt human face looked back at him. At his slight movement, the man's visage lit up with happiness. His tongue extended and he panted. He looked very familiar.
"Awoo-woo-woo!" he suddenly barked.
"Down, Wonton!"
Another face swam into view. It, too, looked familiar, but not so much so as the first. Wonton? That was a soup. Who would name a dog… a man? Ryoga suddenly knew where he had to be. He tried to sit up.
"How the hell did I get to Togenkyo?" he groaned in a modification of his normal outburst. He managed to sit, though it was not nearly as easy as it should have been. "I am on Togenkyo, aren't I?"
"That is correct, Ryoga. You are on Togenkyo," came the girl's voice.
Ryoga looked at her in her rich silks and noticed the scimitar hanging behind. "You look familiar. Have we met?" inquired Ryoga, as he lifted a hand to his throbbing head.
"I am Prince Toma… or princess," Toma added uncomfortably. "I haven't really decided how to deal with this situation."
Ryoga frowned, and then his face cleared somewhat. "Oh yeah, Ranma said something about your tree-spring getting mixed up by his Mouko Takabisha." He looked at Toma's still mostly-flat chest and grinned. "A little young, yet?"
Toma scowled. "I will never get used to how you martial artists don't seem to have a scrap of respect for royalty." She sighed. "I told the doctors to alert me when you were near to waking. How do you feel?"
Ryoga assessed himself and then remembered why he was here. He sagged back onto the bed. "Not so good. Maybe in a few days…"
Toma frowned even more darkly. "Curse those physicians! They said you would be physically returned to normal today. I should have them whipped!"
Ryoga was suddenly on his feet beside the bed. "I'm fine, fine, really!" He had forgotten how tyrannical the young prince could be.
"Are you certain?" Toma asked pensively. "They did promise, after all, and I hold people to their promises."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Ummm… What do I need to be fine for?" Now that he was standing, he found that Toma's girl form was actually several inches taller than the prince he remembered from a few months ago. "Have you grown?" he asked tentatively.
"No, this form is simply taller than my natural one." Toma's face lightened. "Only good thing about it, really," he added. "As to what I need… I need someone well versed in ki to look at the spring and try to determine if the change is permanent or not, and how it will affect our curses if it reverts back suddenly."
Ryoga sighed. "I suppose I can look at it. I always did want to do some field work on this stuff." He shrugged and met Toma's eyes. "Lead me to it."
oOo
The cavern, for lack of a better word, was cold and dark, deep within the bowls of the island. Ryoga had a description of the place from Ranma, but this had been the first he had ever seen it, himself. He looked at the calm waters, then up at the patch of dim, silvery sky far above.
"Not much light from there, today," Toma commented. "We're in the middle of a fog bank. You have no idea how difficult it is to steer ships around us when we blunder into sea lanes."
"I'm sure," Ryoga replied. He looked down at the dark waters and then resorted to ki-vision. "Whew!" he whistled. The pool was alive with ki. There was an awareness, too - warry and fleeting.
"Have you found something?"
"Not really," Ryoga admitted. "But it confirmed something we postulated from Jusenkyo and cursed pools in general. There is a conscious spirit here, right?" He remembered Ranma's mother mentioning something like that concerning a lake in that ugly park the Americans had made at the end of World War II. It was currently being returned to its original appearance. "It must be very powerful."
"The pool is the heart of the tree," Toma answered. "The tree is our guardian and our life. Everything we have comes from it."
Ryoga looked sharply at him, alert for the signs of religious fanaticism her statement seemed to imply. "Everything?"
"It is a very special tree." Toma seemed reluctant to say more.
Distantly, there was a flash and boom of thunder and lightning.
"I wonder if your family might have made records that would help me understand it." Ryoga broke off as he felt the sudden presence of falling objects. "Look out!" he said grabbing Toma and wheeling her aside. The objects hit the surface of the water with a resounding splash that completely soaked Ryoga. He hunched tensely, waiting for the fatal shrinking as he went pig.
He waited some more.
He straightened a little as Toma came to her feet, irritated with him. "Why did you throw me aside? I'm already cursed!" she said, brushing at the dirt on her clothes.
Cursed? Ryoga looked down at himself… uh, herself. She patted two soft globes of flesh that now strained her shirtfront. Her hand gingerly felt between her legs to discover that something was missing. Wide eyed she stared at Toma. "Hot water?" she squeaked.
"Yes," Toma nodded. "Hot water returns us to normal. Unless you can tell me differently, I fear the curse will be with us the rest of our lives."
Ryoga stared at the ruler of Togenkyo and began to snicker. The snicker developed into laughter.
Then spluttering made him look into the lake again. A red-haired form surfaced and gasped in the cold water, dragging another behind her. Two girls struggled to shore. The redhead, shivering from the cold waters, looked up at Ryoga's involuntary exclamation and boggled. "Ryoga?"
Ryoga boggled back. "Ranma?"
oOo
"Damn! No sign of him, anywhere!" Taro sat on a bench in Miroto in the Koku Prefecture of the island of Shikoku and grumbled about his life. They couldn't find Happosai, anywhere—not even any recent word of him. No one had seen him, no one had had panties stolen, no newspaper reports. They'd spent a week here with zero for results.
Kodachi watched the cloudy sky with some trepidation. True, he was using waterproof soap. True, he had on significant amounts of rain gear. But the few times he had changed recently, he felt the drag of past madness like a huge black hole sucking him in. Cold water had become a thing of nightmare even greater, in his opinion, than Ranma had ever experienced.
Taro frowned. Why were they on the island of Shikoku, anyway? He had been planning to stick around the Tendo dojo again and hopefully intercept Happosai when he came through on one of his inevitable passes to irritate the hell out of Ranma. Instead, he was here chasing shadows because that idiot Jiro had said he'd heard Happosai was over here, somewhere. He'd accepted that, because like himself, Jiro was a former student of Happosai…
Taro rubbed his head. What proof did they really have that Jiro was a former student? If he were a present student, then Happosai would have the perfect spy, right in the Tendo dojo. Kodachi briefly glanced at Taro as his aura kicked up a flare. In the cursed girl's opinion, he was beginning to act far too much like Ryoga on a really bad day. He blinked as monster-boy surged to his feet.
"We're leaving," Taro said bluntly.
"Any particular reason?" Kodachi asked nervously. He watched the gathering clouds with concern.
"Jiro lied."
Kodachi blinked again. Taro tended to be abrupt, but this was a bit much even for him. "Lied?"
"This whole stupid expedition! Happosai hasn't been here in months, if ever!" Taro snarled.
"Maybe you misunderstood him," Kodachi said, looking at the clouds. It was going to rain soon. He didn't want to be outside when it happened.
"Come on!" Taro growled, grabbing the other by the arm. As he moved he dipped his arm through a water fountain, threw Kodachi on his back and took flight. His transformation caused a minor panic in the immediate vicinity.
"Taro!" Kodachi was frightened and enraged. "Stupid, stupid monster-boy!" he yelled in exasperation. "It's going to rain! I don't have hot water."
Taro let his aura flare up, hot and sudden. Kodachi almost let go.
"Ow! Dammit! What did you do that for?"
Taro huffed and rolled his eyes. Their path took them out over the sea. Kodachi paled and hung on tighter. Taro suddenly threw a ki-blast at the sea ahead of them. There was an explosion as the hot ki hit the cold water, then a cloud of steam hung in the air. Kodachi frowned as they passed it. Taro was, in his presently limited way, trying to tell him something.
"Oh!" Kodachi smacked the side of his head. "I can use my aura to heat the water before it reaches my skin!" It was something of an epiphany. "Thank you, Taro," he said, leaning close to the body of the beast. "I wish we had thought of it before." Taro's answer was a brief shrug.
They were soon above the cloud layer and Kodachi felt much safer. He took out the GPS unit and began tracking their location. Taro flew at about 120 kilometers per hour. They were nearly 800 kilometers from Nerima. In calm air and without interruptions, Taro could fly about three and a half hours before resting. It would take them most of a day to make it back to Nerima.
"Ground, this is Mary-Mary-Alpha- seven-two fowar. I have the unidentified on radar."
The F-16 Civil Defense pilot watched his instruments and homed in on the transponder-less, apparently radio-silent object. He was an old hand at this, even if the jet was new. The object was traveling across the wind at around 100 kph near heavy air traffic lanes. Obviously, it was under power. It might be some backyard flight enthusiast with an ultra-light or it might be a yakuza in a light plane. The low clouds had driven it high enough for ground radar to pick up. He wasn't certain what to expect, but like many fighter jocks, had also experienced UFO's while in flight. He had reservations about what UFOs were, but none about his ability to handle whatever he encountered. His first pass was at two kilometers and just under 1000 kph.
"Shit!" Kodachi heard and saw the military jet sweep by. He felt Taro begin a controlled dive toward the cloud layer.
The military pilot saw the dot that was his target descending and picking up speed. It was in the small private plane region of speed and size, so he turned and came back for a slower, closer pass. Say 50 meters and about 250 kph. He noted, as it dropped toward the cloud layer, that it's heat signature suddenly increased. It was almost hot enough to lock on with a missile. Not that he could at this point, he still hadn't identified it. He would have a good look at it, then, at its present rate of descent. Then he could, if he received authorization, take a couple of shots by instruments. He came in fast and flared, shedding speed and dropping almost into a stall.
Just over 60 meters away, a flying minotaur with weird writhing octopus tentacles turned its head to watch him. On its back, sitting with hands up as if about to throw something, sat a young man with black hair. The pilot dropped with them, actually stalling out the jet as he tried to cope with the sight before him. His instincts cut in as his alarms went off and he threw in the afterburners.
His turbulence rocked the pair, but fortunately his wake didn't cross too close. Taro strove to drop lower. He had no desire to experience lookdown radar targeting again. He wasn't sure how low he would have to go to drop into the 'ground clutter', as articles he had read described it. They passed through the cloud layer.
Kodachi gritted his teeth as hot water sizzled against his skin. Quickly, he reduced the amount of ki he was putting out. It was drizzling down there, but as they were traveling in excess of 150 kph, each drop was a stinging slap. He heard Taro bellow, then through his near blinded vision saw the circling motion of his hand that asked for navigation. Kodachi fumbled with the GPS unit.
"We're thirty kilometers off shore," he yelled. They listened for the jet. Faintly they could hear it out there, circling. "We can't see anything in this cloud. Maybe it's enough!" Kodachi added, "We should be okay till we hit Shirahama!"
Taro signaled he had heard and looked to the front again. Branches loomed out of the mist.
He tried, but there is only so much he could do even with ki-enhanced wings to stop 1000 kilos of hairy beast. Kodachi saw the branches as Taro bellowed in alarm and, keyed up as he was from the jet, pulled off a massive Mouko Takabisha to try to remove the obstacle the good old-fashioned way. As they crashed through the treetop, it went off in their faces, jarring them with the concussion and enveloping them in a cloud of hot steam. Taro, semiconscious, regained human form. They fell.
Kodachi angled his body and managed to catch the disoriented Taro's hand. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" he yelled as they fell past the trees into a dark silence. Taro didn't notice.
To Kodachi it was unreal. It was as if life itself was turned off, and all he could do was watch the glistening surface of some unknown pool come up to greet them. He spread his shields to protect Taro. Internally he was psyching himself up to resist the physiological imbalances that ruled Kodachi's natural body. He. Would. Not. Fail! Taro needed her… him… whatever.
(SPLOOSH!) Water geysered up. They dove deep.
Kodachi felt the change. She was definitely female once more. She strove to focus on one thing, getting Taro to the surface. She would not fail herself as she had before. Taro's hand was still firmly grasped in her own. She drove for the surface, swimming strongly. As she burst into the air she heard a young, female voice drawling in irritation, "…the curse is permanent. I'm afraid you, too, will be a girl a significant portion of the rest of your life." Mad laughter followed.
She shook the water out of her eyes and glanced toward the voices. What was that about curses? Two women one older and taller than the other, stood at the water's edge. The taller had a bandana that was amazingly similar to… "Ryoga?"
The tall girl turned toward the sound of her voice. Her voice didn't sound quite right. Her voice sounded an awful lot like…
"Ranma?"
Kodachi felt herself over. She was subtly different. She struggled to shore with a coughing Taro and then turned to gaze into the dark waters as the ripples stilled. Ranma's girl-type gazed back. She stroked fingers across the pale face then looked at Taro. He was coming around, the cold waters of the spring…
Cold water? Cold water and Taro was still…
"(Cough!) Goddammit! Who put that tree there?" Taro snarled. "Kodachi! Where the hell are you?" Taro's voice was deep, resonant even… for a woman's.
"Oh, Taro!" Kodachi felt tears begin to trickle down her face. She knew what his monster form meant to him. And it was all her fault!
"Jeez! It's the prick-chick! What are you doing here, Saotome?" Taro literally hadn't noticed yet. "Watcha cryin' for? Didja lose…" Taro frowned. Ranma might cry in pain with his leg nearly removed by the Taochinpang, but this redhead didn't seem to be in physical pain. And his voice… And he was cold, the water was cold and… "Oh, shit - where are we?" Her hands came up, shaking, to touch her chest, then down to explore the juncture of her legs. "Oh, shit!"
"A belated welcome to the Island of Togenkyo," came a light dry voice. "Hello, Ranma. Who is your friend? Or is she a friend?" Taro, eyes glazed, turned to look at Toma, ruler of Togenkyo. "Well?"
oOo
"Hi! Ranma, Akane! Over here!" Atsuko Natsume or, as everyone was calling her, Nuku-Nuku danced up and down to get their attention. Her actions got almost everyone else's attention as well, as the guys drooled and fantasized about dropping into bed with Nuku-Nuku, and the girls growled and fantasized about dropping Nuku-Nuku off a cliff. Nuku-Nuku's problem was that she was simply too affectionate. She treated everyone as a friend, felt she could hug (and cat-like, rub against) her friends and had even less sense of feminine modesty than Ranma. However, unlike Ranma, she was fairly casual about squeezes or pinches. It wasn't that she was unaware of them, but to Nuku-Nuku, they fell into the general category of petting, and most cats enjoy petting.
Besides, if Papa-san ever considered putting anti-pervert programming into his mechanical daughter, all he had to do was replay the last time she played with mecha. The idea of that power being turned on some hapless idiot was enough to make him grumble and return to his drawing board.
Akane and Ranma made their way over to the table that Nuku-Nuku had 'reserved' for lunch. They briefly endured her greeting and then sat down to eat. Here was another oddity from their point of view: Nuku-Nuku ate food. Not only that, but Nuku-Nuku ate very, very much like Ranma, if Ranma were on a sugar high.
They had asked her about that. She shrugged. She didn't gain anything by it; it was simply part of the programming. Strictly speaking, she didn't even taste the food. "Papa-san set up a pleasure stimulus to simulate taste sensations. As food goes in my mouth, it tastes good if the chemical balances are good."
"How do you get rid of it?" Ranma asked. "The food you eat?"
"I am completely anatomically correct, Ranma," she had said easily.
"Well, yeah, I figured that. I mean ya gotta change in the girl's locker room…"
"Baka!" Akane retorted. "She means everything passes out of her body the way it does in a flesh and blood person!" She refrained, barely, from laughing as he blushed.
"That's right, Akane-chan!" Nuku-Nuku nodded. "I even have a filtration and distillation process so that the food and drink come out closely resembling…"
"I don't wanna know!" interrupted Ranma.
"But…"
"Please, Nuku," he replied. "Too much information. I really don't wanna know."
Nuku-Nuku blink-blinked. She actually stopped and considered his statement for some moments. "Wow! I've never had a human do that before," she said with a puzzled frown.
"What?" asked Akane, curiously.
"Run out of memory space. How do you organic people clean and defrag your hard drives, anyway?"
Akane burst out laughing. Nuku-Nuku seemed perfectly serious. As Ranma gaped, trying to work out how to explain that this information was a matter of choice, not lack of capacity, Shampoo skipped over with her bento and joined them. Nuku-Nuku immediately glomped her.
"Nuku-Nuku!" squeaked Shampoo as the air left her lungs. She held her bento out at arms length to keep it from being crushed. Her ears burned as she imagined she overheard snippets of speculation about her orientation.
"Ha-ha!" Ranma remarked unkindly. "Now ya know how I felt, cat-girl."
Nuku-Nuku rubbed her cheek against Shampoo's in greeting, much to her embarrassment. "How who felt and why?" she inquired of Ranma.
Now, Ranma had to explore his feelings and explain why he had been upset to be hugged by Shampoo. Despite the recent past, it was a battle Ranma was still unqualified to fight. He stammered and tried to work out an explanation that wouldn't shoot himself in the foot.
Miss Hinako approached the forming group, watching the girl who called herself Nuku-Nuku.
Atsuko Natsume had proven a good if not brilliant student. She always got high scores where reciting information was concerned, but she often failed to grasp how to extrapolate on that information. She acted with the affectionate enthusiasm of a preschooler. She hugged practically anyone when she was happy or excited. She seemed to have less sense of feminine modesty than Ranma. This hadn't caused trouble, yet, but Hinako was keeping an eye on Hiroshi and Daisuke, in case they tried to talk her into something really inappropriate.
But that wasn't the real problem on Hinako's mind. Atsuko had followed Ranma, Akane and Shampoo in through an open window of their classroom that morning, trying to beat the late bell. Miss Hinako had unfortunately, just opened the window with the idea of locating her truant students. They in turn, had unintentionally dog-piled her — even martial arts reflexes couldn't prevent the incident — and had suffered the punishment of draining. While the others collapsed to the floor, Atsuko had gotten a blank zombie-look on her face, walked over to her desk and sat down. Her responses to inquiries about her health had been… mechanical. Hinako momentarily in little girl form and emotional responses had been so surprised and upset, that she hadn't even lectured any of the delinquents about their tardiness. (See Guest Ki Chapter 52 for the reversal of her condition)
While it had faded, even as the others had regained their strength, Hinako wondered if Atsuko might be overly sensitive to her 'talent'. She was mortally afraid that she might hurt the girl if she drained her again and wondered if her vampirism, which she had long considered relatively harmless, might actually be hurting her victims in subtle ways. She didn't want to hurt anyone!
It didn't help that the normally affectionate Atsuko would shut down emotionally whenever Hinako approached her. She had to try, though. Clearing her throat, she walked over to the group.
"Is everyone having a nice lunch?" There were several affirmative answers and a single loud 'no!' from Ranma who seemed determined to get punted by Akane again. She nodded and focused in on her concern. "Good afternoon, Atsuko. Are you feeling all right?"
"I am fine, Miss Hinako," Nuku-Nuku replied. She kept her eyes down and remained very still, a sharp contrast to her normal vivacious self.
Hinako winced, then tried to recover. "That was excellent work you did in class, today," she offered.
"Thank you, Miss Hinako."
Ninomiya Hinako sighed. "I'm… I'm very sorry if I hurt you earlier. Are you certain you're all right?" she inquired.
"I am fine, Miss Hinako. I shouldn't have come in late." She maintained the quiet uncharacteristic meek body language.
Hinako flinched. She flinched worse when Akane spoke up.
"Miss Hinako? I was wondering if you could talk to my father…"
Hinako shuddered. Soun had been so important to her dreams for so long, and then had shown his true colors. "I don't think that's a good idea, Akane-chan," she said gently, firmly and with finality. Akane sat back down. The discussion effectively killed, Hinako said her good-byes and left to patrol the schoolyard.
Nuku-Nuku sighed. "I think the teacher is sad about draining us," she offered.
Ranma shrugged. "She's never regretted doing it in the past."
"I think Nuku's right, Ranma," Akane said. "I think the weird way Atsuko reacted when Hinako drained her, scared her."
"It scared me!" admitted Shampoo. "Shampoo think maybe vampire teacher kill little Nuku-chan."
"I really am fine," Nuku-Nuku insisted. "It was interesting, really." She looked at her own lunch. "No mice, darn it!
"With Ukyo off looking for Ryoga, lunch choices are a bit limited," Akane admitted with a curious look at their friend. They all wondered if she was serious about the mouse comment.
"Yeah," Ranma agreed, looking at his own bento, "I sure hope Ucchan gets back soon. Her okonomiyaki 's great." He flinched as Akane leveled her gaze on him. "Hey! I wasn't cuttin' down yer cookin', okay?"
"I'm worried about Ukyo," Akane replied.
"Well, so am I," Ranma snapped back. "I mean it's been what, eight or nine days now and we haven't heard from her?"
"Maybe one of us should have gone with her?" suggested Shampoo thoughtfully. "If she get depressed she still might get lost like Lost-boy."
"Crap!" muttered Ranma, "I hadn't thought of that!" He glanced at Akane and they sighed in unison. "You think you can find her, tomboy?"
"A friend of yours is missing?" Ryunosuke walked up and Nuku-Nuku jumped to her feet to give him a hug. "Jeez!" He flushed in embarrassment. "Maybe we can help?" He strained fruitlessly to get out of the glomp and eventually Nuku-Nuku released him.
"How, Ryu?" Akane asked, interested.
"Mishima Heavy Industries is a very diverse and powerful company. My mom is… well… If my mom didn't keep most of Japan under surveillance, I'd be surprised."
"A little overprotective, is she?" Akane grinned. "We'll keep that in mind." She stood up, closed her eyes and slowly turned around. Soon she was pointing in a south-southeast direction.
"Mishima have resources for this?" Shampoo asked.
"I think so. The problem will be coordinating the search. If we know the time and place to look, we might be able to track her down." He gazed at Akane. "Uh… What is she pointing at?"
"Ukyo. Unless I'm doing the technique wrong," Akane answered him.
"I can help! I can help!" squealed Nuku-Nuku. "I have the fastest processors in existence and I have a complete atlas as part of my programming." She circled around Akane to gauge the direction she was pointing in.
"You have faster processors than a Cray?" Shampoo boggled. "That what you just imply, yes?"
Nuku-Nuku nodded. "It's a slight down angle…" she determined. "Either she is fairly close in a subway, or she is around the curve of the earth. Probably about 1000 kilometers away." Nuku looked interested. "Allowing for error they should be about 150 to 170 kilometers off the east coast of Kyushu."
Ranma grimaced. "Trust Ryoga to end up in the biggest puddle of cold water on the planet."
Ryunosuke thoughtfully gazed at Akane. "Are you certain about your ability?" he asked. "Being able to locate your friend that way, I mean?"
"Oh, yes! It's quite reliable. The Nerima police are starting to use me to help them locate missing persons," Akane assured him.
"That's my Akane!" Ranma and Shampoo chorused. Akane blushed, but looked pleased. Ranma and Shampoo looked embarrassed.
"Interesting." Ryu glanced at his sister then back at the martial artists. "I know we can link up to some surveillance satellites. How about we use one to track down your friend for sure?"
"Can you really do that?" Shampoo asked.
"You'll see," he assured her.
oOo
Later, after school, Ranma, Akane and Shampoo gathered in a sterile looking room with bank after bank of instruments. Ranma in particular had been warned to keep his hands to himself and not damage anything. Nuku sat down and took a lead with hundreds of tiny thread-like pins in it.
"Dad had an inspiration two years ago and designed a special program language and processor that would allow for RAM memory in the neighborhood of 1.2 thousand gigs of information per second," Ryunosuke explained. "It's the only way you develop A.I. with emotional responses. Most of Nuku-Nuku's speed is taken up in processing emotional and sensory information, but she can, if she needs too, switch it all over to data processing."
"Wow!" Shampoo looked at Nuku-Nuku with wide eyes. Computers were becoming a serious threat to her martial arts. "You could almost make me want to become an android, myself."
Nuku-Nuku looked smug, then sad. "It is still not the same as when I had a real body, Shampoo," she said. "Nothing feels, smells or tastes quite right, and I can never have babies." She sighed, and then was suddenly smiling again. "It is much, much better than being dead, though." She wagged the cable at them. "I'm going into processing mode now, so don't worry if I look like a zombie again."
She placed the cable in her mouth. "Jus' li' suh'hing onna st'aw," she said. Then she seemed to shut down.
"Brrr!" Any thought of being an android fled Shampoo's mind. Nuku-Nuku looked dead. She gingerly touched the android's shoulder. It was still warm, but the muscle tone felt like clay in a plastic sack. "She will be alright?" Shampoo asked Ryunosuke.
"Sure! She's just using her processor speed for something other than 'emoting'. He shrugged. "My dad says that what we call 'body language' is so important on the biological level that our bodies spend nearly eighty percent of their resources on identifying and duplicating proper responses. It's one of the reasons we use so little of our brains to think." He shrugged. "Nuku-Nuku uses nearly thirty percent of her processing power in sensory processing and sixty-five percent more in 'emoting'."
"Leaving five percent for her brain. Is that why she's a little ditzy at times?" asked Ranma.
Ryu grinned but shook his head. "That five percent acts as memory augmentation to Nuku-Nuku's cat brain. Her personality is all her own." He continued grinning. "And she can still hear you, even if she isn't reacting to it."
"Eeep! Sorry, Nuku-Nuku! I didn't mean anything bad by it. I mean look at Shampoo here. She used to act ditzier than ya ever have and…"
"Ranma!" Shampoo and Akane glared at him. He wisely shut up.
"Maybe you should have told him not to say anything, Ryu," Akane grumbled. "Honestly!"
Ranma looked curiously at the big monitor above the console. "What's goin' on up here?" Images flashed over the screen.
"She's searching for a satellite that was over that spot at the right time," Ryunosuke explained.
"Location identified. Processing imagery," sang an emotionless version of Nuku's voice. "Island at location is not on my maps. Searching… Island is unidentified. Land area of twenty point three-seven-seven square kilometers. Heavily forested. Appears to have a typical volcanic cone, just over one hundred meters in height with no sign of activity. There are signs of human habitation integrated with the island topology."
The teenagers looked at the images of the island. "Not identified or on the maps?" Ryunosuke smiled. "Maybe we can call it Nuku-Nuku Land?"
Ranma stiffened then pointed to a clearing among the trees. "Can we get a better picture here?" Immediately the picture went through a series of magnifications and enhancements. At the edge of the trees was a man in light body armor with a yari. The accouterments were very familiar.
"Togenkyo?" Akane voiced in astonishment.
"Yep, Togenkyo," confirmed Ranma. "The floating island. Ukyo will be thrilled."
"Overjoyed," Shampoo affirmed. She had some bad memories of that place herself.
oOo
Ukyo stepped off the small boat and looked up from the narrow beach at the imposing cliff of roots and branches above her. It had taken an entire night of travel but Ryoga was somewhere on this island. This place looked awfully familiar, yet at the same time, mysterious and foreboding.
"Miss?" She turned to her boatman. "Where the hell are we? This isn't on any of my maps." He sounded nervous and she didn't really blame him. His boat, an eight-meter fishing vessel, was lightly aground about fifteen meters from shore. She shrugged.
"How's the boat, Mr. Anago?" she inquired.
"It's okay. I built her tough," he assured her. Anago eyed the cliff before them. "There are a lot of roots to climb up," he suggested. "You want me to come along?" He froze then, boggling at something over her shoulder. She turned, the hairs at the nape of her neck bristling. She should have been using her ki-sense to watch…
"AWOOO!" A big dog-like man stared at her from behind some foliage. "Awoo! Awoo!" Happily, he surged forward. As he did so, the heavy chain attached to the collar around his throat snapped taut and yanked a gangly neatly dressed man after him.
Ukyo groaned and hid her face. Mysterious and foreboding would have been preferable to this. "Hello, Wonton. Hello, Sarotoru," she mumbled as the dog man raced about her in a mad circle, his overseer dragged behind, one hand caught in the loop of the chain.
"My…! (spluf!) What a… (sumph!) …Pleasant surprise… (oof!) Miss Kuonji!" Sarotoru did his level best to be suave and charming as he was dragged through the sand. Wonton skidded to a stop and crouched before her suddenly, leaving Sarotoru eating dirt for a moment. Ukyo sighed and patted the head with its simulated dog-ear cap. Wonton wriggled and panted in joy.
"You know these people?" asked her ride.
"Yes. This island is Togenkyo. It's not on the charts because it floats around. It is really a big vegetation mat or something I've been told." She shook her head. "Believe it or not, these two are chief advisors to the Prince who rules this place."
"Let me greet you properly," Sarotoru interrupted, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. Ukyo looked at her hand afterward, and wiped it on her trousers. "This is like a homecoming! Hibiki joined us just a few days ago and now you are here."
"Ryoga's here?" Ukyo demanded, grabbing Sarotoru's hand back. "I've been looking for him!"
The monkey man sighed. "Oh, my… I think my heart is breaking!" he sobbed. "And here I thought my sweet okonomiyaki chef had returned to grace my bower…" As he covered his face with one hand, the other was brushing sand from his tailored suit.
"Shove it, Sarotoru!" Ukyo growled. "You're a pest. The only thing you need is a neon sign attached to your shoulders flashing, 'LINE! LINE! LINE!' I do not intend to lose my virtue to a one night stand like you!"
"Ah! But I am experienced, little one," Sarotoru smirked, dropping his obvious acting ploy. "What better way to learn the joys of the body than through one such as I? Besides, perhaps you can change me…"
"Oh, please!" Ukyo turned exasperated to Wonton. "Could you lead me to Ryoga, Wonton? Please?" She fluttered her eyelashes.
"Awoo!" Wonton replied assertively. He turned and took off, heading for a break in the foliage. The loop of chain Sarotoru had dropped while attempting to make an impression on Ukyo, tangled about his leg and he was yanked off his feet and dragged behind the dog-man. "Awoo, awoo!"
"Stop! (glack! Sput!) Bad Wonton! Bad dog! (Spluff! Splutt!) Heel, dammit!" Sarotoru shouted without much effect. Ukyo looked at the sky, at the sea, anywhere but at the two loons who had welcomed her return to their island.
"Umm… Are you going to be all right with those two?" asked her ''taxi-driver'. "They're pretty weird."
"Yeah," she said as Wonton stopped and waited impatiently for her. "I know, but they're relatively harmless." She started to walk toward them. Wonton jumped up and down then took off again, before Sarotoru could disengage his ankle. "They're far more dangerous to each other than to me," she shouted back over her shoulder.
As they walked, it began to rain. Ukyo grimaced again. Sand in your shoes was nasty. Wet sand in your shoes was very nasty. She glanced back and saw the boat owner tying down his boat just in case this half-fog, half-rain turned into something worse. She looked ahead to where Sarotoru had finally gotten his leg back and was chewing out poor Wonton something fierce.
She heard the 'crack!' she associated with lightning bolts and flinched. She hadn't expected that from this type of cloud formation. She looked up, but saw nothing. She jogged after her guides, closing on them swiftly. "Hey guys! I hope we don't have to walk clear around the island!"
"Your path to comfort is right over here, little lady," Sarotoru gushed.
"If this leads to your place, I'll kill you," Ukyo told him flatly. Her eyes narrowed as Sarotoru broke into a sweat.
"Well, inasmuch as I live at the palace, it is, sort of. But you are going to the throne room," he clarified. "There you can relax from your arduous journey whilst I find your friend." He looked thoughtful. "I believe Prince Toma was taking him to examine the Togenkyo Spring today. It would be nice to know if the effect will be permanent or if the characteristics it bestows are permanent, regardless of it's eventual properties," he added thoughtfully.
Suddenly the ground shook. Birds left the branches above with cries of alarm. Then a fireball shot out of the top of the island. Ukyo glanced back to her ride and saw him frantically cutting the ropes. "Wait!" she yelled. She staggered two or three steps toward the safety offered before remembering why she had come. She turned back.
"Where are you going?" screamed Anago as he slashed at the lines anchoring his boat to the beach.
"Shove off! I came here for Ryoga! I'm not leaving without him!" she bellowed back. "Stay offshore till it quiets down!" she suggested.
The boatman put his back against the bow and shoved it deeper in the water. Jumping in he started the engine. "I'll wait for you!" he called back.
Another surging boom and pillar of flame drowned out Ukyo's reply. She ran for the entrance Sarotoru had indicated. The two native Togenkians had disappeared. There were steps built into the system of roots that made up the cliff. She used the access provided in space devouring leaps, extending and surging up the platforms as she would roofs in Nerima. She found an open door and ran inside.
The palace, properly speaking, was the innermost trunk of the Togenkyo Island-tree. Vast hollow cavities provided rooms for the enterprising people who lived there. Ukyo cheated a little. Using ki-sense, she searched for Ryoga, certain he would be at the center of this mess. But the living ki of the tree masked his presence.
She then sought out Wonton and Sarotoru. If Ryoga was with Toma, then Toma might be endangered. Whatever else they were, those two were completely loyal to their young charge and would protect him with their lives. She found them a level down and hurrying inward.
She got lucky and found the door down. She bounded after them, impressed by their speed. Then they dropped to a lower level. She saw the hidden door slide shut as she rounded a corner. "Damn!" She hated to do it, but… Her spatula was unlimbered and swung. The door fell apart in three clean sections. She hurried on.
The stairs spiraled and were trapped as well. She had no sense of awareness that either of the men ahead of her knew she was following them. The traps were easy to spot with her augmented senses, however, and she needed no guide. Soon she heard a second door boom open, and sounds of combat drifted up. Then a another boom cut off those sounds.
She arrived at a metal door. She cast her senses beyond it and confirmed that Ryoga was behind it. His ki flared in an odd manner as he struggled with a shorter figure that was the source of the tremendous ki-techniques that turned the island into a simulated volcano. Wonton and Sarotoru leaped to help him, but were sent flying by kicks and throws that were used to scrape Ryoga off his opponent. The lost-boy was tripped and sent flying. The figure raised its hands focusing ki into a deadly sphere.
"SOGU!" Ukyo screamed, igniting her own ultimate technique to break down the door. The resultant explosion caused everyone in the room to duck for cover. She staggered through, wishing she had an effective mid-energy strike she could use. The backlash to her ki was fierce. She gritted her teeth and brandishing her mega-spatula, entered the dark cavern. "Hold it right there, jackass!"
Her shout caused the aggressive ki-user to swing toward her. Her ki-sense shouted 'Taro' at her, but her eyes said this was a voluptuous female with a ball of heat-interacting ki in her hands. Then she noticed another signature within the dark cavern. 'Ranma?' The ball of ki raced at her.
Her reaction was instinctive. She shielded her weapon and swung, using it like a baseball bat. She slammed the energy ball right back at the hurler. (BOOM!) The ball exploded, rocking the cavern. Then Ranma slammed into the girl who seemed to be Taro and took her down with two quick strikes.
Silence followed like a wave, leaving only the hiss of steaming water in its wake. Ukyo staggered forward, glaring at everyone impartially. She got a better look at everyone involved.
Ranma stood panting over the unconscious woman in girl-type. Her hair looked strange — longer, as if she'd grown it out a year's worth in a few days. Had the dragon whisker been reactivated? Sarotoru came to his feet groaning. He seemed all right. Wonton was crouched before another young girl she didn't recognize but suspected was the cursed Prince Toma. She had heard about the switch in the Togenkyo pool and its results. Then it hit her. This was the legendary Pool of Togenkyo. That was why the stairs were hidden and trapped. If the Taro-like girl really was Taro, that implied…
She really looked at Ranma. "Omigod… Kodachi? Is that you?"
Kodachi smiled in a sickly fashion and nodded. "Hello again, Ukyo. It seems I've really done it this time."
"Omigod!" Ukyo looked around and spotted Ryoga getting to his feet. She hurried over, her mind a whirl from the odd circumstances found here. Wait… Ryoga was much taller than her, wasn't he?
"Heh, heh, heh…! Hi, Ukyo," came a throaty contralto. She stopped dead. Ryoga came into the light, an inch or two taller than her and with noticeable frontal development. "Umm… There's been a few changes since you saw me last."
Ukyo keeled over like a felled tree.
oOo
When she woke up she was lying in a bed with Ryoga sitting beside her. She jerked upright with a scream, alerting him to her recovery and bringing in a startled Ranma-girl-type from the hall. Ukyo stared fascinated by Kodachi's new form, then eyed Ryoga. "It's true then?"
Ryoga grimaced and gave her a sickly smile. "Yeah. No more menu item. P-chan's gone for good, I think."
"Kodachi is gone as well," added the redhead by the door. "I have my memories, but when I hit the cold waters of the spring, my female form was written out of existence." She took a deep breath. "You have no idea how wonderful it is to be female again."
Ukyo nodded. "What about Taro?"
Kodachi slumped a little. "They're keeping him sedated. There was some debate about trying him for attempting to assassinate Prince Toma, but it was only just a really, really big temper tantrum." She sighed. "Poor Taro. The one Jusenkyo-cursed man I know who was happy with his curse."
There was a knock on the door. "May I come in?" asked a suave voice. Sarotoru stuck his head around the frame. "How's Miss Kuonji doing?" he asked.
"I'm fine, thank you," Ukyo said from the bed. "Just a bit of a shock to find everyone changed so much."
"You certainly came at a good time," Toma's major domo said. "That Taro character is tough!" He looked uncomfortable. "As much as I'd like to have you stay and visit, Miss Kuonji, we need to find some way of getting Taro off Togenkyo before he wakes up. I understand you have a boat at your disposal?"
"Why do you need my…" Ukyo reconsidered. "Sorry, stupid question. Taro must have flown here, didn't he?"
"Right into the treetops above the pool," Kodachi confirmed. "We were trying to get away from a military jet. With the clouds, we just couldn't see the island in time." She sighed. "If it was just me, I would be ecstatic."
Sarotoru nodded understandingly, whether he understood or not. "It's interesting to see a double of Ranma Saotome who is girl-oriented. Several of the staff expressed interest in meeting you. Ranma made quite an impression when he was here." Kodachi's raised eyebrow spoke volumes. "Ummm… That's not to say anyone would attempt to take liberties!" he stammered. "We do try to be polite hosts." He bowed to her gracefully.
Kodachi was amused. "I'll leave with Taro, if you don't mind."
"Are you certain that's safe?" asked Ryoga frowning. "He didn't seem to be very reasonable, this morning." Ryoga glanced at Ukyo before returning his gaze to her. "What if he blames you?"
"I'm better able to deal with it than most people," Kodachi suggested. "Besides, he'd be right. If I hadn't tried to shoot off a ki-blast to clear the way, we might have gotten hung up in the branches. His monster form would have been tough enough to take it." She grimaced. "He would still have had his monster form, and I could still have gotten this." She drew her hands down the pretty form granted Ranma by the Nyanniichuan.
"I'm surprised you didn't just call Kuno Industries for a helicopter or something," Ukyo remarked.
"We were keeping a low profile because of dear Dr. Hashibara," Kodachi said bitterly. "Besides, Togenkyo only has a short-wave radio for external communications at the moment. That's not terribly secure."
Ukyo swung off the bed and stood up. "Let's go talk to my charter, then." She glanced up at Ryoga, and smiled. "I was looking for you," she said warmly.
"Huh?" Ryoga face-faulted. "Why? It's not like I don't get lost all the time." (Spang!) "Ow!" He rubbed his face where Ukyo's spatula had left its mark. "What was that for?"
"For being an insensitive jerk!" she snapped. She turned and stalked out of the room.
"Does anyone know what's going on?" Ryoga complained. Everyone strove to look elsewhere.
Ryoga continued to try to find out what was going on, down at the beach. Wonton, Sarotoru and a couple of guards had carried Taro out through the light surf to the boat and loaded him aboard. Ryoga, who had stayed out of the water as the operation proceeded, smiled as Kodachi took a few moments to splash through the water in the shallows. She had obviously missed that.
"So… Why were you looking for me?" he asked Ukyo.
She sniffed. "I thought that, having broken up with Akari and headed into the wild blue yonder, you'd need a friend," she said quietly. "Excuse me for being wrong."
Ryoga scratched his head. "I'm glad you're here," he said finally.
Ukyo glanced at him. "Oh, really? Somehow, I doubt that."
Ryoga frowned. He didn't need this. "Ukyo, I'm glad you're here! Okay?"
"Yeah, right," she muttered. "I might as well go back on the boat, too," she added. "Nothing to keep me here."
Ryoga started to get angry. What the hell did she want? Blood? Then he remembered another 'thank you' they had shared and he no longer had any honorable reason not to do it. He reached out and turned her toward him. "Ukyo. Thank you for coming to look for me. I really appreciate it." He saw her eyes go hard. She opened her mouth to give him another verbal barrage. He kissed her. He ignored several whoops from the people coming out of the surf.
After a moment he pulled back and looked her in the eyes. "I really appreciated it." He felt Ukyo trembling in his grip. "I was planning to stick around a little longer. W-would you like to s-s-s-stay?" His voice broke a little as he realized what he was asking her. Was that really his voice saying that?
Her eyes were huge and moist as if she were about to cry. "Okay." Her voice was as soft as a breeze.
Suddenly Ryoga felt that all of the pain he had suffered before had come to an end. He let his arms slip around Ukyo to hug her very gently. Distantly, a helicopter made it's way across the sky.
"You two make a cute couple," Sarotoru remarked as he came back up on the beach. Ryoga grinned at him and tucked Ukyo beneath his arm. She didn't pull away. "By the way, you two are from Tokyo, right?"
"Nerima's a ward of Tokyo," Ukyo admitted. "Why?"
"Well, Tokyo's a big place, but we've got some visitors coming from there later today. You don't happen to know anyone named Keiichi Morisato, do you?"
Ukyo and Ryoga exchanged glances. "Actually, we do. What's he coming out here for?" Ryoga asked, puzzled.
"We're not certain, really," Sarotoru admitted. But Prince Toma gave the okay, so..."
"Is Baradandya Morisato coming with him?" asked Ukyo curiously.
"I don't know, actually," Sarotoru admitted. "I do know that Mr. Morisato is bringing friends and that Prince Toma has graciously invited them to visit the pool." He shaded his eyes and looked toward the sky. "That could be them arriving now."
"Oh, my god!" breathed Ryoga, eyes widening. Somehow he had made a cognitive leap to identify those guests. He turned and grabbed Ukyo firmly. "We've got to get off this island!"
Ukyo blinked at him. "Why the sudden panic?" She looked over as the helicopter swooped in and landed on its pontoons only 100 meters away. "I'd like to say hello to Mrs. Morisato, if I have a chance…" She flinched, as Ryoga seemed to dance in place in a combination of horror and dismay. "What's wrong with you?"
As the blades of the machine whirled to a stop, Keiichi Morisato looked over and recognized the martial artists. He waved. Suddenly, the passenger door burst open and several dozen small forms pelted across the sand.
"Hey, Ryoga!" yelled several, piping voices. "Look, it's Ranma!" shouted several others, pointing at Kodachi in the surf. "Hi, Ranma!"
They were about 15 centimeters tall. They were female. They were soon crawling all over Ryoga while some in the surf called to 'Ranma' to come in and be sociable.
Ryoga sweated big time and watched Ukyo out of the corner of his eye. "It's not my fault!" he mumbled.
Ukyo looked at the tiny doll-like ninja perched on her shoulder. Her cheek twitched. "Wha… What?" she stammered.
"Hi!" said the dark brunette with a blaze of white on her head. "I'm willing to bet you're Ukyo Kuonji. Am I correct?" Wordlessly, Ukyo nodded. "My name is Kodama. Over there," she pointed to Ukyo's other shoulder, "is Hikari, one of my chonin and my second in command."
Ukyo looked at the shorthaired doll that grinned and waved at her silently, then turned back to Kodama.
"I heard about Ryoga's breakup from Beldandy. I also heard you went after him. These others," she swept her arm at the elfin shapes that danced about Kodachi and Ryoga, "haven't figured out why you went all this way looking for him. We're here to try our luck at the Togenkyo Nyanniichuan. We don't have men our size and while I suppose I could do without," she glanced across at Hikari and smirked, "Some of us are a little man-hungry."
"Umm…" Ukyo said quietly. "Your point is?"
"You might want to consider what will happen if we have forty full-size human women swarming down here with the intent to make time with Ryoga."
"I… see," Ukyo remarked quietly. "Thank you for the warning."
"We're going to be setting up a security agency when we get back to Tokyo. Nabiki Tendo is helping us get the necessary background information. Once the girls have a chance to look around, they'll settle down, I'm sure." Kodama gave a high sign to Hikari and they jumped off Ukyo's shoulders. A shrill whistle broke through the noise at the beach. "All right! Line up, you slackers! Playtime is over! Kei's been nice enough to get us all here, let's show some respect for our hosts and stop acting like hormone crazed school-girls! Come on! Let's go…"
The little ninja trooped back to Keiichi who shrugged in embarrassment and waved to his wife's students. Sarotoru, eyes bugging out, motioned dazedly for them to follow him. The little figures easily kept pace with the full-sized humans but soon began hitching rides on Wonton, much to his delight. They disappeared around the side of the cliff.
"Ryoga?" Ukyo said calmly, not looking at him.
"Y-y-y-yes?"
"You've got three to four dozen girl ninja ready to jump in your bed, don't you?" Her voice was calm. She looked out over the sea.
"Ummm… It's not like I asked them to," he whined.
"You've got three to four dozen girl ninja ready to jump in your b-bed?" Ukyo's voice raised a notch and broke a little at the end.
"Ummm…" Ryoga started looking for running room.
"You've got three to four dozen girl ninja ready to jump in your bed!" She turned to him and he saw the fires of hell in her eyes. "Get in the boat!" she screamed.
"But…"
"GET. IN. THE. BOAT!" Matching words to deeds, she grabbed him, frog-marched him through the surf to the boat and threw him… her in. Ryoga landed on top of Taro who stirred.
"Damnitall," the former monster-boy mumbled. "I'llkill…"
"Shut up!" whispered Ryoga as Ukyo hands grasped the rail.
"Stupideffinggirlie…"
"Shut up, Taro!" Ryoga whined as Ukyo climbed over the side.
"Damnstupid…"
"Taro! Shut up! NOW!" Ukyo grabbed Taro by the throat and shook her. "I'm having a bad day and I don't need your crap!" She threw her back down into the bottom of the boat. No one said anything for a long while, as Mr. Anago started the engine and put out to sea.
About an hour later, Taro grumbled, "Can I finish my tantrum yet?"
"NO!"bellowed Ukyo, from her position beside Mr. Anago. Taro took the hint, as did everyone else, and nothing more was said the remainder of the journey. Under other circumstances, it might have been considered a calm day for the Pacific, pleasant weather with an unusually quick trip back to land.
Too bad they somehow ended up in Lake Biwa.