Ranma Aqua-Isekai'd, by Chaos Orchid
Chapter 7: The Door to a Fiancee
The one called 'Elder Cologne' was a young woman, and a beautiful one at that. Chinese in appearance with long, silky, black hair down to her waist. Ranma knew it was hourglass because because her green dress with red trim was, though loose, tailored to her figure. The yellow symbol on the above-the-knee dress was spoiled from being a true cross inside a circle by her respectable bust. But making her stand tall-taller than Ranma-were her mǎtí xié, embroidered shoes on a single, thick stilt. They were a sort of Chinese geta.
"Catch!" And Elder Cologne tossed something from her long, wide sleeves.
Ranma knew instantly what it was: a shuriken. But he recognized it as a practice throwing throwing-star.
"Catch!" Another was thrown at Eyeshadow. She didn't know it wasn't deadly sharp!
Nobody in their right mind should try to catch one. That meant, Ranma's pop had trained him to do just that! Using peak skills to avoid the dull blades, he met the challenge. And caught it.
A couple of seconds later, Eyeshadow did the same-She had caught hers!
"I did it!" the redhead was amazed with herself. She looked the small, metal weapon her fingers were holding by its center hole, away from her palm. Ranma was also impressed. Few martial artists could do that without being nicked, cut-or sliced.
"I see my reading of the portends may well be correct," Elder Cologne said, coming out from behind her study's desk. (Her green dress was above-the-knee and Ranma's eye glanced at the beautiful, young woman's legs.) "Some more tests will be required. And training, of course."
"Come. It's time to talk of you two's future." She swiftly threw their weapons back into her sleeves. Then her soft, warm and female hands took one each of Ranma and Eyeshadow and led them.
Ranma saw that she was leading them to what some called a love seat. He didn't want to disrespect her, but she was trying to fix him up, to matchmake him up with this redhead who could become-
Ranma pressed a shiatsu point that should cause her to lose her grip on him. But it didn't! And Eyeshadow's attempt failed as well. Cologne chuckled. A twist of her wrists and twin tugs, and the two teens found themselves falling onto their butts on the sofa only big enough for two. Especially two keeping themselves as far apart as they could.
"Listen you-"
"Have a pork bun!' And that was what now came out of her sleeve. It flew straight into Ranma's mouth. Even if he weren't starving, he would have reflexively eaten it! Was it poisoned? Had some drug in it? If it did, it didn't effect the taste. Delicious! "Have a bean bun! Have a curry bun! And you, too, Eyeshadow. Have a pizza bun!"
While they were eating them, Elder Cologne sat on an upholstered chair cross from the couple. "Ranma, is it?"
"Saotome!" the frowning boy said with his mouth still full.
"Ranma, your way here from the onsen of Jusenkyo has shown you sights you did not see on your trip to the springs of Jusenkyo. Can you accept you are now in another world?"
"Prune called it This-side. And there's a That-side."
"Good! The first hurtle is overcome. Jusenkyo has two sides, as any door has. But its magic also makes whoever is immersed in it doors themselves. You, like Eyeshadow, like me, have two sides now. And as one side of a door cannot see its other side, neither can we."
"I guess." Ranma could at last understand the imagery.
"You, we, cannot cannot return to the world we were once familiar with, the world of our births. We are doomed to live our lives here, on This-side."
"If we take the door off its hinges and flip it around…," Eyeshadow said, concentration on her face.
"If I haven't found a way to back, you are unlikely to, youngster. Besides, we would trap our other side, our other half, in this world in our place in our place. Or one of us would have to die."
"The other me is already dead, I'm told." Eyeshadow tried not to think too long on that.
"Your father was a fool for taking his family on such a dangerous trip." Cologne told her.
And Ranma could see Eyeshadow still felt the loss of her father. Ranma, though, would not feel that much grief if his own Old Man were gone. Probably. "My pop is a fool!"
"But what is done is done. We must live the lives we have. And life must go on, to say another cliche. As you can easily imagine, when women and men are together, children are born, even here in this world. But how many do you think can be born in the three-thousand years Jusenkyo has existed? Not just be born, but survive? And in a wilderness. What I am telling you, Ranma, is: This world is not the same as the world we left. This-side is mostly empty of people, even of people who can become animals. I took Eyeshadow and her sisters to Japan on one of my ingredient expeditions. Did I not, Tsukiko?" The redhead nodded. "And you did not choose to stay there, did you?" Again she nodded. Neither was enthusiastic.
"Ranma, I will take you to Japan when you ask. But believe me, it is better that you stay here and make your new life here, among us." Ranma did not nod.
"Now I will return to the metaphor I began with. Jusenkyo is a not a solid door of one piece. There is something that separates the two sides. What, even I have difficulty understanding. But sometimes the smallest fraction of that mysterious something becomes stuck to an immigrant and stretched. I say 'stretched', because it is the one thing that still connects the two halves, the bridge. And you, Ranma,..." A dramatic pause.
"You, Ranma, are one of those immigrants. You have a Chaos Seed."
"The Chaos Seed." Eyeshadow's voice became even more haunted.
Cologne bent forward in her chair and patted the girl's knee, smiling. "It is not entirely bad news for you, Child. You did want to become a martial artist!"
"Yes, but I have no real talent," she said, hanging her head.
Cologne chuckled sympathetically. "Ranma, I believe you fell in the Spring of Drowned Girl."
"I don't know! I must've drowned before I could find out."
"Well, I know. You see, the last person to drown there was Tsukiko Keshōdai."
"Tsukiko…" Where had Ranma heard that name before…. He looked at Eyeshadow. "No. You're wrong. I don't turn into a girl! I'm a guy! A guy guy who always wanted to be a guy-A man among men!"
While Eyeshadow cringed as she felt his rant as an attack on her, Cologne waited, letting Ranma vent.
And when he had, she picked up where she had left off. "The change can only be triggered by your other half, living on That-side. There are cheats around the limitation. But I feel it's best if it the first change occurs naturally to you. I don't want you to think I am putting a spell on you. So, we wait. Sooner or later the other Ranma will have to come into contact with hot water and find out she can become a young man again. And you, then, will find out the reverse.
"Humor me, then. Let us say you have a Chaos Seed-"
"Wait! I can't be the only one with a Seed! You say it's what connects the two of the same person living in two worlds. Everybody like me, then, that changes-If I change-gotta have Chaos!"
"As I said, everybody who goes through the door of Jusenkyo becomes a door themselves. Their stretched bridges are threads. You have a cable as the Chaos Seed connects you through the inner core of Jusenkyo itself! That doesn't make you unique, but it does make you rare! You have power beyond most all!"
"Power? More 'n most people?" Suddenly having a Chaos Seed didn't seem so bad to Ranma.
"It's a power you share with Eyeshadow."
"You have a Chaos Seed, too, Eyeshadow?" Ranma asked, only slightly disappointed at it not being so rare he was unlikely to meet another with his power. But there she was, sitting centimeters from him.
"No. I don't." Eyeshadow said.
"Huh?"
Cologne stood up and approached the two. "In the Japan there are still those who are Onmyo researchers. They endeavor to bring magic, martial arts and science together into one system. There are similar researchers in China. That is how I know that the male has XY chromosomes, while the female has XX chromosomes. To become the other gender, one of the chromosomes has to be replaced by its opposite. XX must become XY and XY must become XX."
"Uh…if you say so."
"But where would an opposite come from?" She held up a hand, saying, "Humor me and hear me out.
"In the case of Spring of Drowned Girl, the X you don't have when you have XY comes from her, the Drowned Girl. That part of her still lives on and it lives in you, Ranma.
"And in Eyeshadow. That is the link that connects you! The link that is bridged by the power cable of your Chaos Seed, Ranma!"
"You mean…."
"Yes. Your power flows also to Eyeshadow! As time goes on, she will become a mirror of you, with your talents, abilities and even know the training stored in your body, in your brain stem."
"She becomes a thief! A lazy thief who doesn't have to bother goin' through the pain and hardship-the suffering!-I hada go through!" Ranma was genuinely angry.
"And she'll be draining your power! You won't be as powerful as you could be without her!"
"Cologne!" Eyeshadow pleaded for her not to infuriate the tall, strong guy any more!
"Unless! Hear me, Ranma: Unless you develop her talents, abilities and training! Then she doesn't have to depend on your power! With her own set of skills, she won't have to call on what's yours. She'll be her own person!
"And if she becomes powerful enough, the flow could be reversed. You could become the thief."
Ranma did hear. And he thought. "Prove it. Prove to me she can steal my martial arts techniques."
"If you remember, I did say more tests will be required. And training."
And Cologne tried not to look too pleased with herself. Yes, Ranma's pride, his need for prowess, his compulsion to meet all challenges would keep him by Eyeshadow's side. When a man and a woman are like that it can be called 'going steady' A little further nudging and he could accept her as a fiancee. And, then? As she had said, the world on This-side was mostly wilderness. It needed children to fill it.