Author's Note: Okay, this chapter was a surprise for me. I initially just wanted to find a Ranma-esque filler thing for the kids to do right after Sekigahara, but I never expected the largest chapter thus far (three to four times normal length) to flow like this. It and its characters have taken several different directions over the course of writing, much of the thing has been re-written a few times, and the chapter will have its own long-term impact. I'm hoping it all flows together well rather than having any clunkiness since it kept being re-written. You'll find some Japanese names mixed or interchangeable with the English ones here and there, which some may consider bad form, but it's a bit late to retcon 'Neko-ken' into 'Cat-fist'. I also like the Neko-ken and Bakusai Tengetsu names better, so they want to flow out of my fingers on the keyboard.
The Keeper of Worlds: Yep, Ranma couldn't hope to contain everything forever. In fact, he couldn't contain his plan for even an hour or so before it started to unravel on him!
LoveLifeForever: Thank you very much! Ranma has a lot of messed up things to deal with, but also an exceptional number of opportunities. Also, we see little of the world outside of Nerima except for China and the occasional story set in some random place in the wilderness. Expanding Ranma's world past the blinders his father set on him is important, and how better to do that than to explore a little more of Japan along the way? Some research on Google Maps on what they'd encounter en-route and some effort on seeing what stuff was around in March 1977 (I can't promise 100% accuracy, but I try) gives me lots of options to start with, not that everything they run into has to have a real-life counterpart. The shrine and mountain it is on in this chapter, for example, do not. A big hill simply exists there in real life.
Mr. Haziq: Having the Daikoku Family appear was too good to pass up, especially in a story where Genma's engagement tricks are made known sooner. Regarding the parkour with a bike, it helps that Ranma needn't use his feet to power the bike itself and can use them for controlled jumps. Bike parkour is a canon, if implied, Ranma 1/2 Martial Art thanks to Shampoo's demonstrated proficiency with it on rooftops and fences.
I'm not sure about the context of the last part of your statement, but if you mean 'change' as in between Kaori's skills in 1987 and Mr. Daikoku's own in 1977, Ranma meant more along the lines of the master possibly showing greater proficiency and more skill than his daughter's future self.
Tribun: You're picking up on a lot of the subtleties involved! Yes, this particular period of time is formative for just about everyone in the story. "Ten years ago" is a dumping ground for many past events in the story, whether they are interconnected or not, making it an opportunity-heavy area for exploring in fanfiction. Everyone having a shot at growing up in different circumstances will definitely impact them as characters, including Ranma. Nodoka is also less 'far gone' here than in canon if only because of the passage of time being less. As for if the ki space between Ran and Ranma is shared or copied, that is a good question that I intend to lampshade next chapter. I won't spoil it quite yet.
I should clarify that Genma mentioned that the Neko-ken training happened in "the spring of Ranma's sixth year" in canon. Also stated is that the Gambling King showed up in Nerima 3653 days (10 years and 3 days) after Ranma and Ukyo beat him during their brief time together as children before Ukyo's dowry was stolen. Since we know Ranma is 16 at the start of the manga and Ukyo is in the same grade/age group, this confirms that Ranma must be six years old when he and Ukyo defeated the Gambling King shortly before the Neko-ken training, and they both must be school age at the same time since Ukyo and Ranma are in the same grade later. That means it's the spring of Ukyo's sixth year as well. Good of you to notice the start of the Japanese school year looming though. That's another thing I had to look up and it will be relevant.
The problem I ran into when reasoning this all out is that every school-age character in Ranma 1/2 is one year older than their position in school should allow. 10th grade should normally start at 15, 11th grade at 16, and 12th grade at 17. While some of this could be explained by people having birthdays before Ranma transferred in partway through the school year, it can't be the case for absolutely everyone (and definitely not for Ukyo for reasons stated above), nor does the concept of kazoedoshi (an obsolete and alternative method of calculating age where a person might be a year older than they truly are and increase in age on New Year's) fully resolve the contradiction either. I debated if the school age calculation might be different in 1987 from how it is now, but nope. Kimagure Orange Road, a manga which started in 1984, has the ages/school grade relationship as correct. Either Principal Kuno screwed up the school system particularly royally and put everyone a year behind, or this is ultimately an oversight on the part of the writer of Ranma 1/2. It's likely the latter, but the former would be amusing and an in character incident.
Firelordeg: Thanks again for the praise and for continuing to read!
Chapter 11: The Legend of Nekoyama Castle
"Sekigahara? Are you certain, Nakamura?" Soun requested confirmation on the phone in an urgent tone. Kimiko watched her husband as he gave animated and excited responses. Quickly writing down some information on a pad of paper by the phone, the man was nodding to himself as if the other party could see him. "I'll call Nodoka - oh? Another detective has conveyed the news? Okay, then. I don't understand why they'd run away again, but at least you have a general area. Thank you for telling me, Nakamura. Keep in touch."
When Soun hung up the phone, Kimiko saw the urgency on his face. He was warring with himself over something. The wife, understanding her husband's motives, spoke. "Soun, what did the detective want? Was it about Ranma?"
Soun glanced to his wife and nodded to the affirmative. "He was just seen fighting off a fiancee's father in Sekigahara by hundreds of people. Apparently, Ranma defeated a school's master by learning and improving their own techniques to use against them. Then he took Ukyo Kuonji and left before the police realized what was happening. They're starting a search now, and Nodoka is on her way there from Sapporo. The strange thing is that no one seemed to be with the children when they left. If there was a kidnapper, it's suspected that Ranma and Ukyo might have escaped their grasp." Soun was pleased with this information at least. It seemed that Genma had been sufficient in teaching Ranma evasion and survival. The downside was that it was proving as difficult for the police to find the children as it was for everyone else. The woman studied the expression on Soun's face before electing to break the tension.
"Or maybe the two eloped," Kimiko said sweetly, making Soun stammer and stare.
"D-don't say such things, Kimiko! You'll tear out this man's hopes and dreams!" The man responded weakly. His wife started to laugh gently, a rare sound in this house since the start of her illness. Soon enough, Soun's expression of stunned horror softened into affection for his wife.
"You want to go." The blue-haired woman observed after finishing her laughter. It was a statement of fact, not a question.
Soun hesitated to answer for a brief moment as if to ponder if he could deny it, but he knew better upon studying the expression of his wife. "I am worried, I will admit. But I am not one to abandon my family. I am not Saotome."
Kimiko knew this well. Even though her husband had faults and sometimes needed guidance to get back on track, he was fundamentally a family man seeking to restore his honor and secure his daughters' futures. They had been planning a family trip that was coming up very shortly. The children had been looking forward to it, and Soun leaving might upset them if it meant he wouldn't be there or had to delay the trip. 1977 was to be 'the year of family trips', where Kimiko willed herself to make as many memories as she could with her family before the end of her life. She and the kids couldn't go alone, given her condition, and she pondered who would be available from the extended family to assist. Upon considering her family, the woman got an idea.
"Soun...Kasumi is overdue to go see my brothers, is she not? Her cold prevented her from going on her winter break this year." Soun grumbled almost imperceptibly at the reminder. Having Kasumi work at a shrine with men who disliked him to varying degrees was hardly something he wanted. It was a concession to Kimiko's late father, however. His wife continued speaking. "If you could take her there to visit for a day or two before we all meet at the festival, I would be grateful. Perhaps you could even stay in the general area during that time and tend to other matters on behalf of the family? The Ono family is also going to the festival and has offered to assist us in the past, so we wouldn't be by ourselves."
Realization dawning, Soun looked to his serenely smiling wife. He recalled that Sekigahara and the shrine run by Kimiko's family in Yaotsu were both near the Chukyo Metropolitan Area. He was hesitant and worried, but this was her way of giving him an honorable way to support Nodoka and help find Ranma without disappointing his family. His hands went to his wife's, and he gave a nod. "Kimiko...I don't deserve a wife like you."
Kimiko stared into her husband's eyes, glad that she had granted him this concession. "I believe that I decided otherwise at the altar, Soun. Now, I believe our most diligent daughter has already packed for the vacation and can leave promptly. Ready yourself and go with haste. I don't know when the next flight to Nagoya leaves, and the train will not do."
After sharing a kiss, Kimiko watched Soun depart upstairs. She watched him go with a smile on her face but inwardly wondered if she could talk Nodoka into divorcing Genma and marrying Soun after she was gone. A pang of sorrow filled her heart at thinking of such a morbid thing, but it was clear. Soun would need a strong wife, Nodoka was a fine young woman and friend who needed a family, and the children all needed a complete set of parents. She was convinced that, in time, Nodoka and Soun could even grow to love one another in this situation. But could she get the two to agree to her final wishes?
While the sickly wife mused over the shape of a future of which she did not expect to be a part, Soun knocked gently on Kasumi's door upstairs. "Kasumi, can we speak for a moment? Your mother wishes something important of us."
The door opened promptly, the gentle face of his eldest making itself known. "Of course, Daddy! Come in!"
The father entered and noted the cleanliness of the room. Several pictures adorned the walls of Kasumi's limited martial arts and spiritualist training. The latter was something he was not pleased with, but a necessity to placate his in-laws. Clearing his throat, he looked to Kasumi. "We are still all going on the vacation as planned, Kasumi, but your mother wishes me to take you to see your uncles at the shrine for a day or two before that. I will also be going to Sekigahara to help Nodoka. Her son was seen there but is still missing, so I'll be helping her there at your mother's behest."
Kasumi listened quietly until he was done speaking, even though her expression didn't hold the natural serenity it usually employed. "Daddy, are you sure I can't go with you and Auntie Nodoka to Sekigahara? I was hoping to meet this Ranma boy, and...well..." Soun already knew that Kasumi didn't really want to be left alone with her Uncle Jiro. He wasn't a truly bad man in her opinion, few people were, but he was a bit petty and insistent upon imposing his will on her life. Soun inwardly shared her sentiment wholeheartedly but also understood Kimiko's motives.
"I know, Kasumi. They're desperate for an heir and Jiro is the worst of the group. But your mother still loves her brothers and wants to maintain a relationship. She also wants her daughters to know where they come from, and you're the only one who is old enough to go for now. So please, for your mother's sake, try to be kind to them. Just don't let them manipulate you, okay?" Soun conveyed that he understood and agreed with her reasons, but that Kimiko's feelings were important too. Kasumi pondered on her mother's perspective, thinking for a moment and weighing the various variables, before smiling.
"Okay, Daddy. I'll be good for them." Kasumi obediently complied with a smile, letting Soun breathe a slight sigh of relief. He smiled and patted his child's shoulder.
"I'm glad to hear it, Kasumi. I'll gather up the luggage while you say goodbye to your mother and sisters. We have to go to the airport as soon as possible." The man stated, and Kasumi blinked a bit.
"As soon as possible...does that mean I can have a piggyback ride?" She smiled hopefully while looking up to her father and gave a small cheer when he gave a nod of acquiescence. Within twenty minutes, Kasumi Tendo was laughing and enjoying a piggyback ride as her father carried her and their luggage across the rooftops of Nerima toward Haneda Airport.
Already in the air after having just left Chitose Airport, Nodoka Saotome felt a compulsion to groan at the colossal disaster that had been the attempt to arrest Genma at Sapporo. The fight against Seto Tachibana had continued out of the brewery and Genma had encountered the police outside. The resultant fight revealed that beanbag-loaded shotguns were of minimal effectiveness against Genma, and he'd even managed to move and weave enough to where a few rookie police officers caused instances of friendly fire. Several police cars were damaged beyond repair, a brewery tank was broken, and sake had poured out into the streets before the man had finally taken to the rooftops.
A Japan Air Self Defense Force helicopter had been sortied upon the request of the local government, attempting to use cameras and thermal imaging to pinpoint Genma's escape route. While the forces involved learned that his stealth did not defeat any form of camera, it came at a heavy price. Genma had managed to throw a rock at the craft so hard that he disabled the tail rotor and caused the craft to enter a spin.
It had been a hard landing which totaled the helicopter's frame, but everyone was thankfully alright. Genma had made an enemy of the JASDF that day though. It was also realized that several previous break-ins at various Japan Self Defense Force bases across Japan in the Ground, Maritime, and Air sectors were explained by this little trick of Genma's.
The police weren't happy, the politicians weren't happy, and the military wasn't happy. This displeasure was such that when Ranma was reported as being seen in Sekigahara, the man seated to Nodoka's right was granted the authority to pursue the Genma Saotome and Ranma Saotome cases in all of Japan's prefectures and sent with her in case Genma learned of his son's general location. Those were Detective Hideki Nogura's sole two cases for the moment, and the man had accepted eagerly. Nodoka could tell from his movements and build that Detective Nogura was a man who had clearly practiced some relatively advanced martial arts for the purposes of police use, though he was by no means Master level. He had dark brown eyes that looked nearly black, black hair that was cut short, a square jaw, and tanned skin.
"...I apologize again for my husband, Detective," Nodoka said, as she'd said to many who were present in the aftermath of the mess. While lamenting what sort of man he'd become, she'd made no excuses for her husband and wished them good hunting. If she got to him first, she'd spare him the dishonor of a prison sentence with the Saotome Honor Blade. Otherwise, he had best hope to stay in prison or out of Japan for a good while.
"Don't worry about it. Though if you don't mind some advice from a guy who's seen at least a pale approximation of this sort of thing, I'd recommend a divorce or even an outright purging of the man from the family if possible. The lawsuits are going to start coming in hard and fast now, and you have ample cause to avoid being caught up in them. You should also pursue getting complete custody of your son. I've tangled with Genma in the past before this, I've seen him interact with his son, and I'd be more than willing to take the stand for you." The man looked to Nodoka with a firm expression, though there was a component of kindness to it. "Your husband may have broken my arm back then, but the kid was nice. Though he seemed pretty ignorant thanks to his father. He honestly didn't know back then that his father was doing anything wrong until he heard the crack. Seems he's wising up now, though."
Nodoka looked mortified. It was one thing to know that Genma used violence against the police to get away when confronted, and she'd even heard that he'd done something like that to an officer in Sapporo before, but it was another to meet a man who he had willfully injured. "W-what? That was you? I am so sorry for that, Detective!" The man raised his hand in a gesture to ease her.
"Again, don't worry about it. It's not your place to apologize. He's responsible for it, and he'll be held accountable. If we blamed everyone for the sins of their family members, there wouldn't be an innocent person breathing in this world. You don't see me holding it against your son, after all." The man didn't subscribe to Nodoka's concept of family honor to the absolutes that the woman did. His last comment made her flinch imperceptibly, but she gave a nod of acquiescence.
They made small talk on the way to Nagoya Airport, though the woman's distraction was notable. She really wished she could calm herself by holding the Saotome Honor Blade right now, regardless of the airline's rules on the matter.
"Hello, Kasumi! Soun!" Ichiro greeted as he stepped forward. The bespectacled man with graying hair wore his shrine keeper's white kosode top and light blue hakama trousers as he approached the father and daughter. The father-daughter pair were walking onto the shrine's lands under the tori arch when he greeted them. The eldest of Kimiko's three brothers was pleasant enough, and the one who was most tolerant of Kimiko and Soun's union. Of course, this had come over the span of some years and there were a few sticking points remaining between them. Soun was confident that full acceptance would happen in time, though.
"Ichiro, how are you? I see you've put in the telephone line! I'll have to get your number so Kimiko can talk with you all regularly." Soun observed this in hopes of making polite conversation. Ichiro nodded to the younger man as they regarded the newly made poles.
"Yes, they were just completed a few weeks ago after a wandering martial artist helped us dig the holes in exchange for some meals. Once Kimiko got sick, we decided it would be best to receive service out here. We've also strung up electrical lines on the poles, but we rarely use it. Jiro is thinking of having a water wheel put in to help us make power to feed into the grid though. Maybe we can earn some extra money to offset the telephone bill." Ichiro explained, even as he approached Kasumi and gave her a hug which she returned in kind. Soun noticed new wards on the tori arch while the uncle and niece greeted each other.
"New wards? Did something happen?" Soun inquired, which made Ichiro's mood shift slightly.
"Well, that same wandering martial artist turned out to be a vagrant thief but has already moved on to another part of the country. We've increased the strength of the kekkai to compensate, just in case." Ichiro was a bit brief about the matter, which concerned Soun a bit.
"I see...well, if you want me to file a report with the police, I'll be headed to a police station regarding a friend's missing child. Do you want me to deliver them a written statement or anything?" Soun attempted to be helpful, at least.
"That won't be necessary, Soun. The man involved is long gone and isn't the type the police could hope to catch anyway. Besides, it was a direct result of Jiro's greed. What happened was richly deserved. Publicizing the matter would merely do more harm." Ichiro didn't want to speak further on the matter and Soun obliged him. As long as the thief wasn't a threat to Kasumi, they could punish Jiro internally all they wished.
"Very well. I have to go greet that family friend at the airport, so I can't take up any more of your time. Kasumi, hug your daddy goodbye~" With a smile, Kasumi complied with her father's wishes. "I'll see you in a couple of days, Kasumi. Be good for your uncles, and call your mother. She'll be pleased to hear from you." The doting father embraced his dutiful child. The fact that Kasumi could call home and talk to her mother and sisters was a small blessing. Once the embrace was broken, Kasumi waved and stood beside Ichiro as her father departed.
"Hmm, it seems that you've grown a bit, Kasumi. We may have to get another of your mother's old outfits ready for you before too much longer. Remember that your mother wore them when she was your age, and your sisters may yet one day do the same, so treat them well." Ichiro smiled at the girl as he guided her to the shrine's living area. Thankfully, she was staying in a room in the main residence rather than Uncle Jiro's small house. The girl hoped not to have to deal with him more than necessary.
Smile and be kind. That was how best to live.
After Nodoka left the aircraft and recovered her luggage, she embraced her cloth-covered bundle with a small sigh of relief. Detective Nogura knew what was inside that bundle, but wasn't sure why she'd been so antsy without it. Was she fearful of meeting her husband or proceeding in this case without the weapon? He idly pondered seeing if the woman would speak with a counselor about what happened in Kyoto. Just because she managed to help handle a gunman with that sword didn't mean she'd escaped without some frayed nerves. As he pondered the matter, the woman's eyes honed in on someone she recognized.
"Soun? I'm surprised to see you here!" Detective Nogura took note both of Nodoka's words and of an approaching man in a brown gi with straight, black hair and a tan much like his own. He was confused by this development. Mrs. Saotome had no time to call anyone between the time she'd heard her son was seen at Sekigahara and when she boarded the plane. "Ah, Detective? This is Soun Tendo. A family friend as well as another of Genma's victims. It puts him in a strange situation, admittedly. Soun, this is Detective Hideki Nogura from Sapporo. He's been assigned to Genma and Ranma's cases." The two men bowed to each other as the Detective realized what was happening. This man had connections with his local Police and City Council, and likely had been informed by those connections of this matter once he was deemed not to be suspect.
"Mr. Tendo. I've read your file. Thank you for assisting in keeping Nerima less crazy than it otherwise might be. Not many police officers or soldiers are equipped to deal with high-level martial artists." Rather than being closed-minded or disrespectful of Soun's participation in consulting with the police, he seemed accepting. That and his observation told Soun that this man had likely run into martial artists violating the law before.
"And thank you for assisting in the case. As much as it pains me to say it, my old friend Saotome has exceeded himself by levels I'd not dared consider. My dear wife, in spite of her illness, has insisted that I make the time to assist over the next day or two. That is, if you'll have me." Nodoka gave a nod of gratitude, and the men rose from their bows.
"Of course, Soun. We were on our way to the police station to see a video recording and some photographs of Ranma that were taken today. I also hear that we will meet someone related to those events." Nodoka was in a hopeful mood as they went to Soun's rental car and departed for Sekigahara. Unlike the plane ride over, Nodoka felt more hopeful after seeing a familiar face.
About fifty minutes later, they arrived at Tarui Police Station, Sekigahara Police Box. The parking lot was half filled with vehicles, a few of which were military in nature. Upon entry and having their identities confirmed, the confused pair were led by the Detective into a small meeting room where some sort of planning session was due to be conducted. The room was clearly not meant to hold even a third of this many people. Detective Nogura stepped forward to the front of the room and wheeled a television from the corner of the room into position. The nineteen-inch television had added buttons and a strange door on the top that neither Soun nor Nodoka would recognize.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Detective Hideki Nogura of the Sapporo Police Department. I've been assigned in a nationwide capacity to the two Saotome cases. I'm sure a lot of you have heard about the humbling we just received today in Sapporo and the one before that in Kagoshima, though not for lack of trying. Some of you may have heard that the man used supernatural abilities." There was some muted laughter in the room from a few of the uninitiated, though Soun and Nodoka weren't among those laughing. "Well, that much isn't accurate. It's not magic, but a little secret the martial arts community kept remembering well after the rest of the world forgot. Some of those stories of martial artists with what we'd normally consider superhuman abilities actually have a basis in fact. Proof of it was recorded here in Sekigahara today."
The man pulled out a case that was about the size of a small, thickly bound book. Opening it revealed a strange plastic slab with a large viewing port exposing a spool on the left side and a label on the right. "This is known as a Betamax Cassette. It's a little something that the guys over at Sony cooked up a couple of years ago. Think of it as a pair of self-contained movie reels that can be easily played on some television sets with the right equipment. Some of your departments might use an incompatible version called a Video Home System Cassette that came out last year, but we have to just deal with it until the industry picks one and sticks with it. Military installations and police departments across the country will be getting sent a copy of each type for reference along with a traditional film copy of better quality."
He pressed a button that opened the upward-flipping door on the strange television and then put the cassette inside. "While you watch, I want you to keep in mind that this child is Ranma Saotome. Pay close attention to his face and voice in case you see him while on duty." With that, the man closed the door and pressed another button. The cassette started to play.
Nodoka and Soun paid extremely close attention, though perhaps not for the same reasons as the police and military personnel did. The video showed Ranma and another man fighting in a ring outdoors that was surrounded by many people. The boy was initially at a disadvantage, and Nodoka felt that he looked so small and defenseless out there. People were stunned when Ranma's opponent used fish cakes as a projectile weapon, and jaws went open as he used the noodles in his ramen bowl to capture and ensnare the child. The ability of such foodstuffs to take damage was revealed when one of Ranma's friends threw metal spatulas to interfere.
It looked like Ranma had lost at first, but the boy was made of sterner stuff. He freed himself, commandeered some of the noodles, intercepted another fishcake attack, and battled noodle versus noodle until he used the noodles to deploy his own multi-vector fishcake attack with the intercepted munitions from before. Victory achieved, he parted from his assailant on reasonable terms. The tape soon ended. Nodoka was stunned at what she saw her young son accomplish, and also the manner by which he conducted himself on victory. Soun took note of the amount of ki control and adaptation the boy had. Soun's daughters were all skilled to varying degrees for their ages, but Genma's son was clearly a prodigy.
Upon stopping the recording, Detective Nogura continued to speak. "The force used to guide those noodles and fishcakes was a form of life energy called 'ki'. There are also reports that the child demonstrated his ability to use ki by using a wooden sword borrowed from a curious observer to cut cleanly through a solid stone tile four centimeters thick. A similar technique was used with a metal sword by his mother yesterday inside Kyoto Police Headquarters to deflect a bullet fired by a Yakuza gunman meant for one of their detectives. It was directly witnessed by experienced personnel, is openly acknowledged, and is real. The woman is standing right there." A few heads turned toward the embarrassed woman. The news that Genma's wife had prevented a death that her husband had almost unwittingly caused was not something unknown, but the way it was done hadn't been described in such detail to those assembled.
"Any time you think that Genma Saotome's abilities are overrated or lies, remember this video. Remember the things you've seen in it. Remember that we know the man the boy is fighting in this video and he can reproduce everything seen here upon demand save the finishing move Ranma employed, and he will be training to learn that one too. And then remember that this boy is not Genma Saotome, but his six-year-old child." That caused a few men to visibly snap back into focus and stand a bit straighter. "Anything the kid can do, you should assume that Genma Saotome can exceed."
Inwardly, Soun wondered if this was true.
Afterward, those present were permitted to analyze a few things. These included one half of a stone slab with a polish-worthy cut that had come from a wooden sword and Ukyo's small metal spatula which had failed to cut those noodles. The other half of the stone slab had been sent off to the JSDF. Assorted photographs taken of the action were displayed, not only passed out by hand but also presented on slides via overhead projector. Images of Genma from his various escapades were also shown, including of the damage he'd caused.
"Mrs. Saotome, I realize it is a bit of an imposition, but could you possibly demonstrate your skill with the blade so the men can see what your son did with their own eyes? Input from Mr. Tendo, who is the Master of the sister style to Genma Saotome's own and knows some of his skills, would also be greatly appreciated." When the Detective asked this, the pair were surprised and looked at each other. After sharing a nod, they looked back to the Detective.
Soun would speak for them both. "Very well. These things are hardly something you can achieve right away unless you have prerequisite training and a lot of potential already, but we can certainly prove to you the truth of the Art." The two unlikely travel partners began to systematically tear apart any lingering doubts those assembled had left regarding the higher levels of martial arts.
"Ran-chan," Ukyo spoke as she followed Ranma through the forest at night, "y-you seem scared by something to keep going through the night like this." The girl was scared of their night time travel, even though Ranma had consistently reminded her that they were strong enough to deal with any wild animals they might run into in this area. His earlier statement that "it's not like this is Mount Hourai" implied that there were animals out there somewhere that were a threat even at Ranma's level, and hadn't helped her confidence. Unfortunately for Ukyo, Ranma was of the opinion that the best way to deal with one's less reasonable fears was to face them.
"It ain't about fear, Ucchan. Pop can sense my ki from a good ways off. We needed to get as far from Sekigahara or the main train lines as possible in case he or any of the other girls' fathers found about our bein' there. Goin' north to head east was also meant to throw him off." Of course, they often had to stop riding the Hitensha and move on foot when they got close enough to civilization for those with magic or ki-senses to pick up on it. This slowed down their travel to where going about seventy kilometers had consumed the rest of the afternoon, the whole evening, and into the night.
"'Sides, there's a place we've gotta visit. They might hate my guts or they might be happy to see me. I've got no idea just yet since I never met 'em myself. We're almost there, though. Besides, this has been great for trainin' your ki-sense! You've made lots of progress tonight!"
Ukyo was initially scared at how swiftly they'd moved through the forest, even at this reduced pace, but Ranma was getting used to the movement of the Hitensha and had turned it into training. Ki wasn't solely in people and animals but in all forms of life including plants. Without large concentrations of humans nearby, Ranma started to hone the detail of his ki-senses to the fine levels needed to navigate with a precision that pure sight alone might not allow. To 'see' around trees and feel where rocks broke the surface of the soil or grass was a great boon for planning his movements of the vehicle. He wasn't confident enough to move around without supplementing his sensations with general eyesight, but he was confident he could get there and the growing dark was forcing him to gradually rely on this sense more. He'd bidden Ukyo try the same in an effort to expand her awareness, not being one to let a good training opportunity go to waste. She was now able to perceive various animals in the night.
This was what a training journey was supposed to be. Finding opportunities to advance one's knowledge of the Art and sharing them with those who joined in that journey.
Night had long since fallen by the time they arrived at a distant Shinto shrine that was not easily accessible by road. Even so, the shrine was visible from a distance in the thankfully bright moonlight. The top of its tori arch and the shrine's rooftop broke the forest canopy and a telephone line seemed to have recently been installed, complete with new poles that also rose above the trees. From a certain angle, one could tell that the complex sat atop a cliff at least seven meters high. Those who actively sought it out could find it, though the number of people who did so had likely plummeted in the post-war era. It was a shame for such places to fade from interest, in Ranma's opinion. Regardless of religious denomination, they often held ancient secrets of some type. Secrets that his father often regrettably plundered.
"Hop off and follow me, Ucchan. Pop wronged these people, so don't expect them to start out friendly. If they tell us to get out, we get out. No fuss from us." Ranma's expression was serious, much like one worn by her father when warning her about something dangerous. Ukyo gave a nod of obedience to her friend and de facto Master of the Art, dismounting from the Hitensha before Ranma sent it away into his ki-space.
The moment they crossed under the wooden arch, Ukyo felt as if she was stepping through a wall of static electricity. Her ki senses flickered in a subtle way, not unlike when she rode the Hitensha but different. She appeared confused and paused momentarily. "R-Ran-chan, what did I just feel? It was tingly. Not bad, just...weird."
Ranma was about to answer when a man stepped forward from further inside the grounds, wearing a traditional shrine keeper's white kosode top and blue hakama trousers. He had gray hair and a kind face with glasses that seemed to carry a serene smile as its natural state. In this regard, Ranma was reminded of Kasumi. "You've just walked through a magic barrier meant to ward off evil. The kekkai may be attributed by some to Buddhism, but it is useful and found in some form in various religions. For you to perceive it is impressive, child. Many train for years and find themselves unable to notice." The man praised Ukyo, who blushed a bit in response.
"Maybe havin' magic around you while learnin' ki sensin' lead to you pickin' up on magic sensin' too!" Ranma excitedly concluded. During his and Ukyo's ki sense training, both had become aware of the feel of the Kinjakan even though they were at different stages of development. The power of the artifact was obvious even if they weren't initially trying to see magic, much like how a person with shut eyes could still perceive the sun if they faced it directly. It wasn't surprising that the two were each aware of magic's presence in some form. Indeed, it was the approach of the Hitensha which had attracted this man's curiosity.
The man gave a bow after this comment. "I am Ichiro Nekoyama, the head priest of the Nekoyama Cat Shrine. Who might you two be?"
"Ah, I'm Ukyo Kuonji, one of Genma's victims...and this is his son Ranma, who got away from him," Ukyo stated. The priest's face shifted into a bit of a frown on remembering Genma and realizing the identity of the boy before him. The words 'got away' rang in his mind though, giving him pause from any overreaction he might have made.
"Yeah...sorry 'bout that...guess the kekkai wasn't strong enough if Pop got through the first time." Even though Ranma was trying to do better, he was still prone to some foot-in-mouth disease from time to time. This was particularly so when the boy was nervous or otherwise not thinking things through.
"We've since strengthened the field in response to your father's actions. While we have little that is worth taking now that the manual is gone, that does not forgive our laxity. So, Ranma, why have you graced us with your presence?" Of course, Ranma could read between the lines. The man was being civil but was not pleased.
"Well, I stole the manual from Pop and came to give it back. The name and address of the shrine were on a sticker on the back of the manual. That and I found the engagement contract Jiro and Pop wrote up to marry me to his niece. Figured I'd come and let you guys out of that contract too since Pop did it in bad faith." Ranma pulled out the Neko-ken manual and handed the tome over. After a moment of inspecting the condition of the ancient reference, the man's expression returned to a more pleased and relieved version of his normal smile. "Thank you, Ranma. It could not have been easy to act against your father, even to do that which is just. Please come inside, children. I'm most curious about your tale, and the cold of the night will only get more unforgiving."
After leading the children up a series of steps into the complex of small buildings that served as the shrine and its lodgings, he'd notice Ukyo's eyes widen and hear a gasp of happiness from the girl. Her reaction was expected, given the large number of cats that were seen across the shrine. They were atop railings and roof tiles, in nearby trees and on rocks, under the buildings themselves, and simply roaming the area in general. She couldn't help but exclaim, "So many kitties!" A yellow tabby approached Ukyo curiously, and the girl responded by squatting down a bit and petting the kitty. The feline seemed to enjoy it.
Another approached Ranma, this one a solid brownish-red. It too enjoyed being petted, the felines seeming to perceive no danger from the children. Ranma was amazed that he wasn't feeling any discomfort or disdain toward the cats. It was truly as if his phobia had never existed. In a sense, of course, he supposed that this was true. Mr. Nekoyama smiled slightly wider. "I and the cats welcome you to the Nekoyama Cat Shrine. Ranma, I apologize for any earlier hesitation. It is clear to the cats that you are innocent of your father's sin."
"Ah, that's fine. Pop has a way of makin' people have to look at us funny." Ukyo giggled in response to Ranma's words as the man guided them to the shrine. After seeing Mr. Nekoyama place the book back in its rightful place in the shrine under lock and key, and paying their respects properly, the pair were led inside one of the other buildings by the priest.
The children were led to a table where those of the shrine ate their meals. It was occupied by two men dressed like Mr. Nekoyama and a young girl of nine who nodded her head and smiled to the newcomers. The girl, who had long, loose brown hair and the same serene face as most of her family, wore the red hakama pants of a shrine maiden along with her white kosode top. One of the men, who had short brown hair in the process of going gray and greedy looking eyes, looked to Ranma and tilted his head. "We have guests at this late an hour?"
With this, Ichiro gave a smile. "Oh, not just any guests, Jiro. This boy is the child you tried to bind to Kasumi in marriage. He realized his father's sin and returned the manual to the shrine. It's also his intention to let us out of the marriage arrangement in recognition of his father's bad faith. The girl with him is another who his father has wronged."
Kasumi looked stunned at the mention of such an engagement and lacked understanding, Jiro seemed to swear under his breath, and Ukyo looked curious. "Ran-chan, I don't understand...what's the story with this manual?"
Ranma looked to the nine-year-old again once her name was mentioned, now recognizing the face of the eldest Tendo sister in spite of the hairstyle change and shrine maiden robes. What was she doing here? He was distracted from his confusion when Ukyo inquired. "Oh. W-well, Ucchan, I've never met any of these people so I'm guessin' who's who. That guy with the sneer has to be Mr. Nekoyama's little brother Jiro. The girl, Kasumi, has to be the niece Pop is tryin' to trick into marryin' me. The third guy with brown hair and glasses might be the youngest brother...Saburo? Anyway, Jiro did to Kasumi what your pop did to you, 'cept for the throwin' out part. Best I can figure from the contract I found later, the plan was for Pop to steal the Neko-ken manual for this Jiro guy. I'd marry his niece to inherit this shrine in exchange. Saburo was supposed to get disinherited somehow. I'm not sure of any details not in the contract, but I'm guessin' that Pop double-crossed him somehow if he had the book at the end of it all." Jiro gave a grumble, while the girl sitting next to him looked ashamed.
Ukyo gave a sigh and started introductions. "Well, you've been introduced, and I guess you all know Ran-chan, so...hi, I'm Ukyo Kuonji!" Kasumi took immediate note of the name of Ranma's travel companion from the conversation her parents and Auntie Nodoka had about Ranma. "Ran-chan's father conned mine into engaging me to Ran-chan in exchange for his Okonomiyaki cart, even knowing Ran-chan was already spoken for. Just like with you, Ran-chan came back to set things right, but my father threw me out and refused to take the cart back. I've got nowhere to go, so Ran-chan's been taking me on a training journey. I'm just one of a lot of girls..." Ukyo didn't like admitting this, but it was true.
"...You mean there are other engagements?" Jiro growled in rage. This made the people present take immediate notice. They didn't know Ranma had more than one fiancee, with the exception of Kasumi.
Ranma shrugged. "It's Pop's favorite way of getting a free...anythin'. Promise me to some girl and steal the dowry. He's a thief and a fraud."
The eldest brother, Ichiro, cleared his throat and elected to speak. "To clarify the scheme, the complete idea was for Jiro to cause me to lose face by failing in my duty to protect the Neko-ken's secrets from abuse. He could then seek to seize the shrine and the family lands from me on those grounds rather than waiting for me to pass it to an heir of my choosing. Only then would Jiro 'find' the book once more. He would then use his newfound authority as the family head to disinherit Saburo. Thankfully, since you have chosen to return the tome to us and clarify the story, the damage has been contained."
"Contained? That sleazeball taught Ran-chan the Neko-ken! It almost made him go nuts!" Ukyo blurted out, angry that they acted like everything was just fine. The trio of men and the child all turned their heads to her at once, all assuming a look of horror. Kasumi didn't fully make the connection that Ranma was abused that badly until now.
Ichiro quickly knelt down and turned Ranma gently by the shoulders to face him. "Child, is this true? Did your father subject you to the training?" This was an urgent question, the smile the man was known for gone once more. This time, he wore a frown of concern.
Ranma looked a bit downcast but nodded. "He didn't even read the last page until after he'd finished my trainin' completely. He just did it step-by-step. It almost broke me. I felt myself beginnin' to snap. To lose myself, you know? But I made it through somehow. I've got complete control of it, even if it was almost the other way around. I've still lost somethin'...it's hard to explain."
After a moment, Ranma continued to speak. "When Pop got a look at what I could do afterward, he got greedy again. The last time I saw him, he'd anchored himself into the pit and was orderin' me to leave him alone to train. He never got just how much the trainin' changed my head. I wasn't blindly listenin' anymore. I lost somethin', but that somethin' bein' gone finally let me leave."
"You lost your innocence, and gained comprehension and independence in the process." Saburo clarified in understanding and regret.
Jiro shook his head. "No, it can't be true! If it were, the cats outside would have terrified him into the state! He has to be lying!" Ranma gave the man a glare sufficient to briefly silence Jiro, likely because of the yellow ki glow to his eyes. The boy went to all fours and bounded around the room like a cat with unrestrained agility. He left the building after the display of feline acrobatic skill, quickly returning with uncut firewood. Two perpendicular slashes of ki claws rectified this problem, and the fire was refueled. Ranma then rose to his feet and unflinchingly petted a cat on a windowsill nearby, who clearly felt neither threat nor malice in the power that was conveyed. The purring was deafening when compared to the silence that otherwise filled the room.
Ichiro was quiet for several tense seconds upon noting this before he dared speak his thoughts. "...Could it be...the Shin Neko-ken?" He regarded the child carefully, while Jiro and Saburo's eyes widened further. Kasumi was just as surprised, though more at the existence of this concept.
"Um...what's this 'True' Neko-ken you're talking about?" Ukyo inquired, curiously.
Ichiro regarded the question and elected to tell the story. They needed to know. "Four hundred years ago, during the Japanese Warring States era known as the Sengoku period, our ancestor was a Samurai in these lands. The shrine in which we sit was once a castle upon this mountain that controlled the shores of the Kiso River. It was called Nekoyama Castle. Massive stores of wealth were said to be stored in and under it. We may still own the land it was once on, but we are a faint echo of that which we once were. All because of the Neko-ken."
All three children paid rapt attention as story time continued. "One day, an enemy sent a ship to our shores on the Kiso River and released trained Bengal Tigers from India with a small ninja on each of their backs as a rider and handler. You could think of them as jockeys riding the tigers as cavalry." Ranma's expression turned a bit deadpan. He found himself questioning if this was historically accurate, but he'd heard less likely truths. "They sought to terrify us by using felines as if to insult the meaning of the Nekoyama name of 'Cat Mountain'. Of course, anyone who has owned a cat knows that they cannot be completely trained. The ninja were the first victims of their feline mounts. Many in the countryside came next. Eventually, our ancestor became the sole survivor of a hunting party that went out to deal with the tigers. Surrounded and with no options, but with a strength of will not found in lesser men, he awakened the Shin Neko-ken. He defeated the beasts with ease and marveled at his own power."
Ichiro's smile faded, knowing that this is where it took a turn. "However, he also knew that this power was fleeting if he could not convey it to future generations. He devised the training program in the manual and sought to pass it on to his heirs. Each, in turn, fell into a pit of cats to induce the state, but none achieved true mastery. The failures simply created a fear of cats in the new generation, an insult to their own name! While our ancestor tried to conceal this fact, it reached the enemy. Furthermore, said enemy managed to deploy ninja with a number of house cats inside the castle walls."
"The heirs, trained to the utmost in strength and speed, became madmen who tore apart their own home in fear of the cats! The castle and its walls were mere rubble in but three hours!" Ukyo shuddered at the tale.
"With generations of family wealth buried under tons of rock and our castle and main forces gone, the Nekoyama were finished as Samurai. We could scarcely defend our own lands, much less wage war. In regret for the loss of life and the infliction of suffering on his children, our ancestor built this shrine upon the remains and began the family tradition of tending to it as its priest. Its purpose was to keep the Neko-ken from spreading to the hands of others who would repeat our ancestor's sins, as well as to care for the descendants of the cats who were wrongly used as weapons against us as a result of our self-imposed weakness." Ichiro concluded his tale before regarding Ranma carefully.
"The Neko-ken is defined by fleeing into the form to escape a cat out of fear. The Shin Neko-ken is defined by mastering the form to fight them. 'Fight or flight' is the current terminology. Your father is a coward who lacks the fortitude required for the Shin Neko-ken. Furthermore, the weakness that the flawed form imposes would be a fitting punishment for his crimes. You, however, are one to whom we owe an apology. It is only by your own strength of will that you were able to achieve the Shin Neko-ken and stay whole after we failed in our duties. A failure that was, in Jiro's case, intentional." Ichiro's words made Jiro flinch. "Can you find it in yourself to forgive us?"
Ranma blinked. Someone was asking him for forgiveness? That was rather novel. "Hey...look. You didn't fail as much as have to deal with betrayal, right? I mean, Pop and Jiro are the only ones to blame and I figure Jiro's already gettin' punished by you guys. You two and Kasumi are fine. So...yeah. As long as her uncle shapes up for her sake, I can forgive him. The rest of you haven't done anythin' for me to forgive."
"You...don't hate me for my family's sins?" A meek voice asked for the first time. Kasumi's brown eyes regarded Ranma in fear and confusion...and perhaps a small bit of hope.
Ranma knew he could never hate Kasumi. The woman had endured so much last time around and only responded with kindness. She was innocent, and he knew it. "Nah, I don't hate you. Do I look like the kind of guy to judge somebody by the sins of their family? After everything Pop did? Heck, he was the one helpin' your uncle mess things up to start with. If you were guilty of that, I'd be even worse with all the other junk mine's done, right?" Ranma's words eased the girl's mind.
"Thank you...though I apologize for my uncle's conduct just the same." Kasumi said with her serene smile back in full force. She rose from her seat and gave Ranma a bow.
Ranma nodded and gave a smile. "Kasumi, if there's anythin' Ucchan and I understand, it's what it's like to have greedy family. 'Sides, this helped me wake up to just what Pop is like. That's why I ditched him and am takin' Ucchan, whose Pop is the same way, on a trainin' journey." Hearing all of this made Kasumi wonder if revealing herself to Ranma was a very good idea. If he knew about the Tendo engagement like he knew about this one, he might run away before his mother could arrive. Against her initial impulses, the girl decided to bide her time and test the waters...
"A Martial Arts training journey of your own? Well, you seem strong enough. Why not stay the night though? There's no reason for you to avoid sleeping indoors once in a while." Ichiro didn't want these two out at night when they could rest here, no matter how capable they were. Besides, he still felt like he owed Ranma something for his suffering. Ranma desperately wanted to decline, but Ukyo answered for him before he could.
"Thanks! I'll help cook, though! Ran-chan, there's no reason they should have to burn extra wood for us. Get out the Kinjakan, alright?" When Ranma used ki-space to pull out an ornate staff and start to control the cooking flame, he blinked and looked to the stunned priests and miko-in-training. He'd done that at Ukyo's behest without even thinking.
"That is quite ornate. Magic?" Ichiro finally inquired. Jiro seemed to be silently eyeing up what it could be sold for. Ranma gave a nod.
"Y-yeah. Pop doesn't know about it. I don't want him stealin' it. I got it as a gift from a former enemy, so it's okay for me to use." Ranma explained, trying to avoid too many details.
"He seems quite nice for an enemy, Ran-chan." Kasumi asked in reasonable confusion while testing the name and honorific on her tongue to see if he would correct her. Ranma chose not to do so, instead being thankful for the apparent lack of recognition. It wasn't like he thought she knew about the Tendo-Saotome engagement at this stage, anyway.
"He was an enemy for doin' somethin' stupid. I stopped him from takin' a life over somethin' even more stupid. We found another way in the end. We aren't enemies anymore." Ranma gave an overly simplistic account of his conflict with Saffron.
"If only more conflicts resolved in such a manner." Saburo mused while Ichiro noted that the boy was rather young to have dealt with matters of life or death in battle. Just what nightmare had this child lived through to even have a chance at attaining the Shin Neko-ken? As the smell of food filled the room and Jiro calculated the risk-reward analysis of trying to enforce the engagement he brokered with Genma, the minds of the more honorable present were geared toward what this poor child had to endure.
"So, what do you think of the boy, Kasumi? Hmm? Kasumi?" Jiro was confused when he realized that Kasumi wasn't at the table, only to hear the ringing of the Shrine's bell outside. The trio of priests all saw Kasumi through the window as she bowed twice, clapped her hands twice, and held them together in silent prayer in front of the shrine.
The kind girl didn't know if Ranma was of the Shinto faith, but she knew that he would need all the help he could get.
March 25, 1977
The next morning, Nodoka found herself once more at the police station. And once more, she sat across from a man who had been a victim of Genma's dishonorable conduct. This time, however, she felt less sympathy for the man before her than she had for Mr. Kuonji.
"Mr. Kozuchi Daikoku," she started, her tone having just enough ice to convey her feelings without disposing of proper decorum, "would you please clarify to me why you felt it a good idea to assault my son yesterday?" Said man was by no means immune to the cool anger of the mother before him, a woman who he had no idea existed before last night. A woman who, if the rumor was to be believed, could deflect bullets with a ki-infused sword and likely tear through any defense he could hope to muster.
He looked to the man on Nodoka's left, a Detective Hideki Nogura who was on loan from Sapporo and had come with Nodoka to Sekigahara the previous evening. He'd faced Genma, gotten a broken arm for his trouble, gotten stronger from his failure, and come back for more. To Nodoka's right was one Soun Tendo, who had contacts in his home area's police and city council and was seemingly Genma's equal in martial arts. None of the trio before him were ones to be trifled with.
"Well...you see..." Mr. Daikoku pondered a response, debating briefly on whether or not to sugar-coat things, but he knew better. Not only was his battle with Ranma captured on camera, but it was even recorded on film with audio due to the nature of the venue. A copy had already been provided and played back for them all by the local police. Mr. Daikoku's words and crime had been immortalized, and now he had to own up to them.
"...It was as I said. I was frightened for my daughter's future and felt in the heat of the moment that I had the authority to discipline and compel the boy who I considered my son. He managed to beat that out of me, but I acknowledge that he shouldn't have had to. I gave him my apology, Mrs. Saotome, and I give it to you as well. I am sorry for my conduct against your son." He inclined his head toward the woman in the equivalent of a seated bow, unsure of what would happen. He wasn't quite as sorry as he claimed to be, but he was getting there after seeing the woman in front of him. After a lengthy silence, she gave a sigh.
"At the very least you acknowledge your error, and only ask that he not hold it against your child in the future. That is more honor than others have shown, but as my son stated...the bar is regrettably low. It is no small blessing that my son even has the wherewithal to realize that what is happening around him is wrong." The woman looked to the businessman slightly coldly, but the severity of her anger had dropped significantly with his words. "I will have you know, however, that my husband is not head of the Saotome clan. Any engagements Genma has made are invalid without approval from my side of the family." The man visibly flinched at the knowledge that the agreement he had with Genma was never valid to begin with, though he maintained the respectful position of his head. Soun also looked over to Nodoka and gawked, not being aware of this fact. Genma had neglected to inform him that only Nodoka's hesitance hitherto in choosing a position kept the Tendo-Saotome engagement alive. It was likely due to her personal interpretation of her arrangement with Genma rather than any true obligation. Soun also knew that arrangement to be long overdue for re-evaluation.
Not waiting for a response, Nodoka continued. "You attempted to lay claim to my son for a pittance from my husband, exploiting their need to survive in a dishonorable manner. Your bargain was void from its inception and violated with dishonor in response. My son repaid you that initial pittance even though it was his father's crime. At that point, the Saotome clan owed you nothing. Your assault on my son was, thus, a fresh trespass. Were you not so eager to repent, and if you did not have your own child that would suffer if I pressed the issue, this would be far more painful for you." Nodoka continued to stare at the confused man who was trying to understand what was happening.
"T-thank you, Mrs. Saotome." He said, raising his head. "What happens now, then? I do not expect to be completely forgiven so readily..." While he was hopeful, he was not a fool.
It was Detective Nogura who spoke next. "You'd be right. You have an alibi that keeps you from being anywhere near Kyoto for the kidnapping, but the court of public opinion isn't anywhere near so forgiving. You assaulted a child on camera in a video that is likely to be seen all over Japan one day. Even if we didn't arrest you, the eventual backlash would ruin you unless you cooperated with us."
Mr. Daikoku shuddered. "All...over Japan? What?"
"Genma did a lot of damage during each recent attempt to catch him. Various police forces have seen bizarre things, and the video with Ranma in it is already being sent around as a training aid for the Japan-wide Genma Saotome case." The Detective gave a grumble of irritation as he reclined in his chair. "Unfortunately, politicians pounced on it as proof of Genma's abilities and that what happened on their watch wasn't their fault. This means that it is likely to make the news cycle and be broadcast on television very soon, even with attempts to classify it. There are lots of witnesses to interview and verify that the footage is real, too. Martial arts instructors are already trying to get their hands on 'the first verified recording of ki use in martial arts history'."
The detective continued to speak. "It's about to be so serious and public that Mrs. Saotome couldn't keep us from pressing charges if we pushed for it. Luckily for you, Mrs. Saotome and the police have come to an agreement. If you help us, that and the public shaming that boy just put you through should be enough to make up for what you've done. It could even be spun as a misunderstanding. We need consultants familiar with ki who can help us make plans to bring down and contain Mr. Saotome. Help us do that, and we won't prosecute you for this one. It sounds like you've got a bone to pick with Genma anyway. Just about everyone does, myself included."
"I'll certainly cooperate," Mr. Daikoku responded promptly when there was a chance to speak, "and I strongly suspect that you'll find allies all over the place. Genma's activities are a pretty lively topic in martial arts circles as of late. I've heard something about letters, though not many specifics...just that it's causing a rekindling of anger at Genma."
Detective Nogura gave a nod. "There's a good reason for that. Letters were sent all over Japan to various dojos, each claiming to be from the one who seized Ranma Saotome and revealing the fraud that Genma committed. From what we can piece together, their intent is to lead Genma Saotome on a wild goose chase all over Japan and let every martial artist in the chain take out their aggression on him. It's a perfect loop, with the last one directing Genma back to the first. Thirty-seven sites across the length and breadth of Japan. Martial artists who aren't represented are making pilgrimages to the sites that did make the list in hopes of getting their pound of flesh. He's only just visited number two in the chain, and he's bull-headed enough to visit each and every one."
Nodoka's eyes shifted to the Detective. "I would also have visited every one, had I not been told the truth of the matter by the police. Am I 'bull-headed'?"
The detective chuckled and shook his head with a light smile. "No, you're worried about the well-being of your son and your actions are completely understandable. Genma Saotome is worried about his meal ticket, from what we can determine. There's little comparison, Mrs. Saotome." Nodoka wanted to refute this statement, but recent evidence gave her pause long enough for the Detective to continue. "We haven't shared this knowledge with Genma Saotome for various reasons, including that it presents opportunities for the police to confront him at known locations and in a known order. We actually think that this was intended for Genma alone. Had he not been coincidentally arrested at just the right time, none of us would even have known about this until and if people started reporting the letters being mailed to them. Even stranger is that Ranma Saotome and Ukyo Kuonji seem to have complete freedom of movement, indicating that they escaped their kidnapper. If there was ever a kidnapper at all."
Nodoka was confused. "What do you mean? I know the notes are somewhat labored in penmanship, but the kanji in those letters can't have been written by such young children."
"The notes, the kids' ages, and the vanishing safe are the only reasons we suspected a kidnapper to definitively exist. Given that some martial artists can make temporary clones of themselves and store things in ki-space, even Genma's alibi of being arrested at the time is potentially moot. Those clones can vanish when the deed is done and Genma's personal storage pocket made by warping space with life force energy isn't exactly something the police can search, even when he's unconscious. Because of that, the safe being stolen no longer rules out anything. It's one more reason we need consultants assisting the police in these matters." Detective Nogura's words were met by a sage nod of agreement from Soun.
"I'm afraid it's not normally possible to enter another person's ki-space, as far as I'm aware," Mr. Daikoku began. "The only exceptions I know of are cases where identical twins or clones borne of a technique happen to share access. Otherwise, you have to nearly kill the person or use very specific pressure points to disrupt the natural ki flow that sustains the pocket. Then the contents spill out into normal space."
"Making good on your duties already, I see. This is the kind of information we need to know. Those pressure points are going to be very important in keeping hold of Mr. Saotome if they can disrupt his powers." Nodoka looked away from the discussion as the Detective spoke, her eyes scanning over the photographs of her son that lay on the table. Police helicopters had been searching Sekigahara and the wilderness to the north of it for two kids and a 'potentially magical bicycle', but had yet to find anything except the occasional localized burn.
She barely managed to hold back the tears.
Ranma opened his eyes as daybreak filtered through the trees and into the window of the room. The boy noted that he'd been forced to go to sleep at the same time as the other kids. His young body did demand a bit more sleep than his previous one, but his ki reserves made the difference less extreme than it might otherwise be. The end result? The boy seemed to always wake up earlier than Ukyo.
His thoughts turned to last night. That had been embarrassing. Since running water wasn't available, they'd had to settle for bathing in an outdoor water drum over some firewood. Jiro had insisted on some skinship with Kasumi in hopes of fiancee bonding and also wanted to direct the powers of the Kinjakan to save fuel. Ukyo had misinterpreted this reference to fiancee skinship as being meant for her as well. The other two priests weren't obviously interested in Jiro's machinations for the engagement nor did they let him touch the Kinjakan, but the pair simply laughed and said 'you're all children, so it's fine' and 'don't dwell on it too much, this is just how it is when you have to hand-deliver water'. It didn't help that Ukyo had brought her camera.
Ranma would be embarrassed about it for years.
Broken out of his musings by the feeling of warmth on his sides, Ranma glanced over to the left and found Ukyo in his futon and clinging to him. Sliding his eyes to his right, he verified Kasumi in a similar embrace mirrored on the other side. Kasumi was someone he never expected to run into at this point. He knew the Tendos had to have some sort of extended family, but he had never met any of them. To think that Mrs. Tendo's family had invented the Neko-ken...he pushed those thoughts from his mind and focused on the good.
It was nice, waking up with signs of being cared for like this. In Nerima, this sort of thing would surely have caused misunderstandings and violence. There was no Pop to throw him into the koi pond, no Akane to misunderstand things and attack him, no Shampoo to elevate hugs from simple affection to an inescapable and uncomfortable Art...even if he missed the Nerima Wrecking Crew to a degree, there were positive aspects to their absence.
Still, a moment of laxity training in the Art would cost him.
Using a mix of Umisenken and gentle guidance, he was able to gradually escape and make the girls cling to each other instead. He admired his work with the eye of a prankster rather than anything else. Gently looking through Ukyo's rucksack, he found her camera. Looking in the items stored with the camera, he saw a scrapbook containing the developed photographs which had been made for them last night. Photography seemed to be a hobby of Saburo's as well as Ukyo's, and the former had a darkroom here both for his own use and for developing guests' pictures for a fee. Perhaps Nabiki's love of using photography as a source of income came from Saburo's endeavors. Admiring the photos for a time, and knowing that Kasumi had wanted a few copies as well, Ranma recalled his initial intentions. The boy used the camera to take a picture of the amusing position the two girls were in, adding it to the second roll which Saburo planned to develop later in the day. He then put the camera back where he found it and went off to cook a bit of breakfast before he started training.
"Good morning, Ranma," Ichiro said with a smile while preparing the kitchen's utensils for the coming breakfast. "Rising early is a virtue in and of itself." Saburo was already feeding the cats. Jiro was still asleep if the snores coming from his own small house next door were any indication. Ranma suspected this to be the typical ebb and flow of mornings around here.
"Mornin'. Pop is a lot of things, but he is a Master of the Art. He'd have to teach me a few good things here and there. Usually by ambushin' me in my sleep and attackin', but I can't complain too hard about the results. Even if I'd train somebody differently." Ranma got to work assisting with the cooking. Its steps were like various kata, layered together in a fluid manner of timing and intent to accomplish a more advanced technique. Since he started traveling with Ukyo, he'd recognized cooking as part of the Art rather than merely as a disguise for ninjutsu. He wasn't sure exactly when it happened. Maybe when he realized it was just as important to her as his Art was to him? Was that when he started respecting it as more than just being tasty? A flash of regret at how much he'd taken her for granted entered his being and was followed by more resolve to help Ukyo be the best martial artist he could without replicating his father's methods. He also realized that he'd taken Kasumi for granted in a similar manner.
A startled 'EEP!', followed immediately by another, alerted Ranma that his morning reprieve had ended. An embarrassed Kasumi and an irritated Ukyo left the guest room a brief time later, just in time for breakfast. Ranma placed the cooked rice, fish, and pickles down at the appropriate places on the table. Ukyo glared at him a bit in irritation, though he just flashed her a grin. The girl gave him a puzzled look, searched herself for a moment, and gave an amused giggle before starting to laugh more openly.
"Ran-chan, seriously. How did you do that? We had you cornered!" Ukyo inquired, revealing to Ranma that the girl was well aware of what she was doing in her 'sleep'.
"The Joketsuzoku of China." Ranma bluntly responded. Kasumi simply appeared confused by the response.
"That seems to be your answer for half of what I ever ask you about the Art." Ukyo said, while the regulars of the house simply seemed more confused. Even Saburo had come back in long enough to listen.
"Well, they are some of the best martial artists on the planet. They've also got a really low population. So the women train in how to hang all over a guy as a form of seduction. You can't try to push 'em away without touchin' somewhere you shouldn't, and they mean it that way. After havin' to deal with that, escapin' you girls without wakin' you is just another kind of trainin'." On seeing Ukyo's red face, Ranma's brain started to piece together that he shouldn't have used quite that much detail.
"W-what? Some Chinese girl was grabbing all over you? All those techniques, the Kinjakan, and now t-th-this? Just what happened in China, anyway?" Ukyo stammered, assuming that Genma had taken the boy that far, while Ranma scratched the back of his head. Yeah, he'd said too much. His expression was painful as he recalled Saffron...
"...Somethin' I've been tryin' to put behind me, Ucchan. There's no reason left for me to go back, though, so don't worry about that. If I can help it, I never wanna set foot in that part of China again." Ranma sighed, knowing all the trouble that had been borne of it. He loved going places and learning techniques, but the price for them was unreasonably high with the Amazons as far as he was concerned. He also hoped to side-step Jusenkyo and the Musk Kingdom entirely. He really should send a letter to the Phoenix People and tell them about the second hotline for the Jusendo Spring, though. Maybe he'd go ahead and send the Amazons the Pot of Liberation at some point. That didn't need to be done during a specific time frame though, and the monkeys guarding Hourai Mountain were tough. He didn't want to face them in a child's body.
Putting together that something really bad must have happened, Ukyo gave Ranma an unexpected hug. She'd narrowly beaten Kasumi to it, who had intended to do the same. "Sorry, Ran-chan. I was just worried. I suppose you needed to get away even worse than I thought." Ranma's tense body relaxed. This exposure therapy to hugs was doing him good, but it was also a source of comfort. Comfort that he'd been too 'manly' to accept until now.
"Thanks, Ucchan. I need to clean up in the kitchen after I eat. You can go out and-"
"Nope!" Ukyo said, poking Ranma's nose playfully.
"Huh? Nope?" Ranma said in a confused state.
"We're both going to clean so it's over twice as fast! Then we'll both go out and play with the kitties!" Ukyo was excited enough to replace the training regimen outright but was still responsible enough to do her fair share of the work.
"Then I'll pull up water from the well to replace what you'll clean with!" Kasumi volunteered, establishing a plan for the beginning of the day. After a humble but filling meal, Ranma and Ukyo got started while Kasumi departed for the well. The trio of shrine keepers mused over how rare it was for children to work without complaint, noting that they would have been forced to handle this themselves normally. Luckily for them, Ranma had his honor and Kasumi's father had an emergency to tend to that brought the children here. The two cleaners finished and did exactly as Ukyo desired while they waited for Kasumi.
"Meow, meow, meow~" Ukyo said playfully as she waved a stick with two paper streamers on it around for the cats to chase. The gohei with the two shide attached to it was retired from shrine duty due to wear and damage, but it made a wonderful cat toy. The hemp fabric the paper was made of endured the biting and clawing of the cats chasing it, and sometimes one would manage to grab it. Then they'd often lie atop it or roll on their side and kick it with their hind legs. Ukyo found this behavior adorable.
Ranma was also playing with the cats with another retired gohei. However, he seemed to have a better idea of which cats were interested. In truth, he was finding himself to be able to read the general emotions of the felines present. Just as people had moods that influenced their ki, so did felines. Did the Shin Neko-ken add a component of feline familiarity, or had his own natural ki-sense evolved again? Or was it due to both?
A shudder ran up Ranma's spine, and he joined a third of the cats in looking to a gray tabby that had just returned to the area. He could see the fear and confusion in its eyes and motions. Ukyo's words, however, made Ranma share that sensation.
"Hey, didn't that cat follow Kasumi when she went to the well?"
Ukyo's innocent question spurred Ranma to leap, easily reaching the path to the well and bounding along the branches as fast as he could. "Ran-chan? What's wrong? Ran-chan!"
Ukyo's cry and the alarmed priests' responses faded behind him as he surged forward toward an unknown danger.
Arriving at the well, Ranma noticed right away that something was wrong. The handle that managed the pulley was broken off and one side of the well's rim had freshly given way. He looked down into the well, concerned.
"Kasumi! Are ya down there? Can ya hear me?" The boy extended his ki senses as he called out, and he could feel a flicker of violet life energy down there. It was weak as if unconscious. It was below him but seemed to have moved away from the bottom of the well itself. He had to act quickly. The others caught up to Ranma at the well only long enough to see him jump inside.
"Ran-chan!" Ukyo called out, but a moment too late. They heard a splash and movement. Ranma called out to Kasumi, his voice fading as he moved. Saburo had to hold Ukyo back from going in after him.
"Jiro, fix that pulley! I'll get a larger bucket and fresh rope! We have to haul them up!" Ichiro called out, before rushing back to get what they needed to make the well functional again and mount a rescue. Ukyo kept crying, calling out for Ranma in fear as she reached for the well...
"RAN-CHAN!"
With a splash, Ranma was in the water. He swam upward and broke the surface, unable to take stock of where he was with the darkness and current fighting against him. While he could survive this, there was concern regarding if Kasumi could. He could feel Kasumi's ki fading up ahead. He started to swim downstream with urgency, increasing his pace until he felt her no longer being moved by the current. Perceiving her in the darkness ahead of him, the boy swam up to her and pulled her close. There was no conscious movement from the face-down miko-in-training. Ranma was in crisis mode and knew that he needed to get her out of the water, fast.
Extending his improved ki-senses through the life in the water, which thankfully felt stronger than usual for reasons he didn't think to consider, he became aware of the shape of the area around him. He was surprised to find a man-made incline existing under the water which sloped up to create shallows nearby. Hoping to find a place to work in the darkness, he swam over to these shallows while dragging Kasumi and found that the incline continued past the water's surface. Pulling Kasumi out of the water, the water running from her mouth and nose showed that she had lost consciousness and begun drowning.
Flipping her upside down and clearing out as much water as he could, he put a single hand below her rib cage and sent ki into her diaphragm in a move he'd seen Dr. Tofu do once to promote breathing. Rather than the typical easy and deep breath he recalled it creating, it was a violent lurch as he forced her to inhale and then purge the water from her lungs in exhale. He winced at how painful that must have been, but he at least managed to get the water out effectively. His lack of skill in this area meant that the rest would have to be old fashioned CPR.
Putting her on her back and tilting her head, Ranma would surrender the first kiss of this new life to Kasumi's lips. He fed her lungs air, and then pushed on her chest ten times to simulate heartbeats before repeating. After four rounds of this, the girl gasped, coughed, and sputtered to awareness. Forced to use his ki-senses in an attempt to check her lungs, Ranma was satisfied when he saw her now cleared lungs were working properly. "Take it easy, Kasumi. Cough as much as you want..." He patted her back firmly, trying to help the girl get back to normal.
The girl complied, haggard coughs soon giving way to smooth, heavy breathing. She could barely see at all, only aware of Ranma's voice and the feeling of water on her skin and clothes. Then, however, she saw a sphere of golden light manifest. Ranma's hand and face became visible, and then gradually the rest of him. She was aware of what he held, even as rare as it was. It was ki. Pure life force energy made manifest in his hand as a light source.
"Kasumi, do you remember? You fell into the well and drowned. I had to do CPR..." Ranma spoke softly, though his voice echoed through the silence of the chamber they were in.
"Shi...Pi...Aru?" Kasumi confusedly attempted to replicate the unfamiliar abbreviation in her native Japanese as her brain started to work again.
"It's a western First Aid technique. You stopped breathin' and your heart stopped. I had to restart it by pushin' on your chest and blowin' air into your lungs." Kasumi took note of this and recalled that she'd heard of it before.
"Oh...that's right...Mother taught me the 'kiss of life' in case my sisters needed help. You saved my life, Ran-chan? T-thank you..." Ranma didn't immediately take credit, but shyly answered in another manner.
"W-well...let's not celebrate 'til we're outta here." His speech deteriorated slightly with his embarrassment as he tried to focus on not getting another fiance once the urgency died down. She thought that yellow light flickered for a brief moment as he recollected his confidence, the mechanisms of what she saw and felt from it starting to take shape in her mind. "I think we need to keep goin' forward instead of fightin' the current by goin' back. Are you able to move?"
After gathering herself, the girl managed to stand. Her chest still ached, but it was manageable. "I-I can move, Ran. Thank you...but where do we go from here? W-what is this place?"
Ranma pondered, extending his hand and experimenting. "Let's see...uh...Pride of the...Brightest Firefly?" The ki sphere in his hand started to shift, changing its power into luminescence. Soon, the boy held an even brighter miniature sun in his hand in a variant of the Moko Takabisha, or 'Pride of the Fierce Tiger'. The rays of his inner light dispelled the darkness around them. "Heh, there we go. Might not be a powerful attack, but good for the dark. Maybe blindin' enemies too. Let's take stock of what we've got here."
Kasumi never knew such control of one's inner power outside of specific examples of her own family, and even then it didn't come easily. Kasumi sensed the ki, felt its structure, and committed it to memory as best she could in recognition of how rare such a thing was. Yellow light revealed that the room was a massive pool that was constructed of stone. Water flowed past the well they'd fallen into before feeding this room's reservior. Other stone structures at the edges of the pool were smaller types of troughs, likely responsible for sending water to other places. "Maybe the melting snow caused the spring to overflow? The bucket was yanked by the current and the pulley handle smacked me into the well when I tried to fill it." Kasumi's explanation made as much sense as anything else, as far as Ranma thought.
When they turned around, they were greeted with stone stairs leading upwards. Ranma blinked. "Hey, think we're in the basement of that castle your uncle talked about?"
Kasumi's eyes widened in realization. "Y-yes! That has to be it! This cistern is fed by the spring the castle used to use! You're a clever boy, Ran-chan!"
The yellow light caught Ranma's smirk well, his confidence returning. "Right! So we just need to find another way out or dig! I can use the Pride of the Fierce Tiger to get out if we need to! Let me know if you find anything you wanna keep along the way, I'll put it in my ki space." With that, the pair moved along.
"Ki-space, Ran-chan? Like where someone puts weapons, tools, and hammers? Is that where you had hidden the Kinjakan?" Kasumi was aware of the skill and found it fascinating. Akane had begun using hammerspace, but that form was subconscious and hardly as refined as true ki-space.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm also carryin' spare clothes, campin' equipment, a safe for Ucchan, an okonomiyaki cart, food, water, trainin' equipment, important papers..." Ranma said, counting things off mentally.
"Oh my! They didn't get wet or spoiled because of me, did they?" She asked in concern. Ranma smiled and shook his head.
"Nah. Water doesn't leak in if I don't want it to, and time doesn't seem to pass in ki-space anyway. Food's the same age and temperature when it comes out as when you first put it in. Beats needin' a fridge or havin' to reheat leftovers." This fact seemed to impress the girl more than anything else as they walked along.
After a time moving up the stairs, they came to a door that was jammed shut with rust and grime. "Hey, Kasumi, mind gettin' behind that pillar for a minute? You'll want the cover if I do this right...and you still might if I don't." With the confused girl standing to the side as requested, Ranma used the opportunity for training. He'd been slammed with boulders plenty and he could scan things with ki. So in theory he should be able to see it...there!
After smiling in confirmation, the boy plunged his finger into the door. Kasumi shuddered at the sound of a sudden explosion audible even to the group's would-be rescuers up above.
A boom shook the ground, and everyone dove for cover, worried that the well was about to collapse in on itself. Jiro trembled, worried for his niece. "T-that...that was...the kids! What about the kids-"
"Calm down! They're both alive." Ichiro said with focus while Ukyo barely kept from panicking.
"Y-you know they are? Or..." Ukyo plead for something to reassure her.
"You have ki-sense. Look over there, a bit further down the mountain. Search for Ranma and Kasumi where the shrine sits...Ranma's ki is yellow and shines like a beacon. Kasumi's is the smaller violet energy nearby." Ichiro said to the girl, who shuddered while holding back tears.
Turning in the direction prompted, Ukyo focused herself. She did some of the breathing exercises Ranma taught her were related to ki and calmed down. After a moment, she could feel it. She could feel Kasumi, but Ranma was like a bonfire in the dark.
"...You're right. Ran-chan's almost smothering her in power, but I sense her too...they're fine..." The relief in Ukyo's voice was palpable. Jiro, who seemed to actually care for Kasumi at the very least, sighed in relief.
"But they might not be for long if we don't get to work." Ichiro reminded, re-mobilizing the rescue team in but an instant.
"Ranma!"
A surprised and terrified Kasumi ran out from her cover and looked upon the aftermath of the blast. Dust and stale air met her face, revealing a dusty interior left much as it was four centuries ago during the Sengoku period with the exception of the current trespass. Within the entryway to this new space was a dusty but otherwise unharmed Ranma brushing pebbles off of the shoulders of his gi. The girl gave a cute sneeze from the dust, before regarding Ranma with a mix sniffles and relief.
"Maybe you could warn me next time? Please?" Kasumi asked in a tone of concern and disappointment he'd not seen often before. Ranma felt guilty and rubbed the back of his head as he gave a nod. The Breaking Point was now his to command, but any jubilation he felt from the accomplishment died upon a certain realization. Ukyo had only ever called him Ran-chan in front of her, so how did Kasumi know his name?
"Kasumi...what did you just...call me?" Ranma inquired, very worried. The girl paused for a moment, before adopting a more timid expression.
"...I'm sorry," Kasumi said, upon realizing what she'd cried out in concern. "I've been waiting for you to tell me yourself, but...I guess...you do hate my family. Both Nekoyama and Tendo." Kasumi seemed to be close to crying.
Ranma immediately spoke up. A normal girl crying was bad enough. Making Kasumi cry was like hurting a puppy. "N-no, Kasumi! I just...look, I don't know how you even know me, but Pop's engagements hurt everybody they touch! Just getting' too close to me and Pop ruins lives, so I figured if ya didn't know about me...well...you might not get hurt by this engagement mess."
Kasumi didn't seem to be crying at least, but she did seem confused. "But marriage is supposed to be a good thing, isn't it? Mommy and Daddy are married and love each other...why are you afraid of it?"
Ranma remembered that this Kasumi was a nine-year-old girl. Her notions of marriage came out of storybooks and from seeing her parents. Ranma tried to think of a way to explain things to her in a way she could understand.
"Uh...well, Kasumi. I guess it's a good thing because they love each other. That's s'posed to come first, then you get married because of it. But Pop didn't make those engagements for love. I don't even know most of those girls. Pop just offered me up so the girls' fathers would give him things he could run off with. Jiro was offering a place as the heir to the Nekoyama family. Mr. Tendo was offering the Tendo Dojo." He looked to Kasumi, half hoping she could understand and half hoping she never would. He got angrier as he spoke, but not at the girl. "He sold me, Kasumi! Ucchan's father abandoned her over what Pop did! What I or what those other girls wanted for our lives didn't matter to him, and he ruined our futures for whatever he could take! All while preachin' about the family honor I'm s'posed to uphold while he's draggin' it through the mud!"
Ranma felt arms around him, a comforting embrace that worked to help diffuse his lament. The taller girl started doing what she did when her sisters got upset, though it seemed that Ranma favored shaking over crying. Boys were different, after all. When he'd calmed down, she simply smiled at him for a moment.
"It's okay, Ranma. I won't tell your daddy you're here. I know he's a bad man now. Your mommy's very worried about you though. She's in Sekigahara right now. We should call her and my Daddy!" Ranma was hesitant and tried to think of something to say. His mother was looking for him? Had he made that much of a scene?
"What's wrong, Ranma? Are you scared of your mommy, too?" The girl asked, tilting her head.
Ranma shook his head. "No, but Mr. Tendo...well, he doesn't care about our bein' happy either. Prob'ly better if I never meet him."
Kasumi desperately wanted to say no, but she really wasn't sure. Her father certainly wanted the schools joined.
"Well, we don't have to worry about that right now. We need to leave before any of that, Kasumi." Ranma wanted to thank her but felt awkward about saying so. He was supposed to be the older one this time around, and here she'd been comforting him. A younger Kasumi will still be Kasumi, he supposed.
With that, the pair entered the Nekoyama Castle Basement proper. Torches in holders lined the walls in places, but Ranma decided against employing them. The air was stale enough as it was in here without fire consuming oxygen as well. The pair explored the long main hallway and the rooms off of it, finding assorted treasures and the like from the Sengoku period. These included sets of authentic Samurai armor, some swords and assorted weapons, ancient scrolls, and other such things. Kasumi avoided having Ranma put anything extra in ki-space for her sake out of worry of overburdening him. She did claim a bow which seemed to have been magically altered so it and its string would not break due to age or over-strain and wore it herself along with two quivers of ofuda-sealed arrows.
"Ranma, look at this!" The girl called out happily. When Ranma entered a dry and undisturbed room that Kasumi had noticed the contents of first, his mood sank. The room was full of enough clothing to fill a small store. Much of it was expensive and had somehow been preserved. The boy wondered if this was just so it could make a guy wait while his female companion browsed it 400 years later. And browse Kasumi did.
She looked over and searched for attire for Ukyo and Ranma. Why, the kind girl even provided some extra outfits 'just in case'. Some outfits were good for training, while other outfits were clearly high-class kimono and hakama. They'd even found small sacks of coins left with some of the outfits. After looking inside, Kasumi handed one to Ranma that was full of gold and silver coins, as well as some lesser metals. "Here, Ranma...for your journey and care."
The boy was stunned and tried to decline. "H-hey, Kasumi! I'm grateful, but this stuff's yours! Givin' me outfits and gold? I mean, I'd feel bad takin' it. I'd feel like Pop!"
The girl was insistent, pushing it gently into Ranma's hands. "Ranma, there's a big difference between being given something honestly and doing what your daddy does. I know you won't come back with Daddy, and I want you and Ukyo to be okay. You're going to have to pay for school soon, aren't you? Please, take it. I have more in these other sacks. Just don't let anyone trick you into giving up that gold and silver for too little money." The boy was hesitant and clearly uncertain but eventually accepted in spite of his pride.
"I don't feel easy about it...but thanks, Kasumi. Payin' for Ucchan's schoolin'? I hadn't even thought about that one." Ranma accepted bashfully when informed by Kasumi that he needed it to care for Ukyo's future.
"I know it's not easy. Daddy has his pride too, but sometimes he looks past it for our sakes. He's a good man." Kasumi reassured the boy again and only moved once he put the items into ki-space. They then left the room and proceeded to the next one down the hall.
It was an iron door with a series of multiple locks.
"...Looks important, don't it?" Ranma asked with a smirk that betrayed his intent. Kasumi responded with only a silent and slightly critical gaze which made Ranma want to immediately backtrack. "...which is...why...I'll stick the locks in ki-space when you look away and...remove them without damaging anything at all?"
With her smile returning to her face, Kasumi turned her head to allow the move to work. Her cue to look back was hearing the creaking of the door as Ranma pulled firmly. The door groaned, shuddering as flakes of rust fell free due to the movement. Upon seeing what was inside, both children gasped. It was hard to tell what was what in the yellow glow of the light they were guided by, but Ranma suspected that the vast majority of the shininess in this massive storage room was gold. Barrels and sacks of ancient gold coins, Ryo, were present. Jewels were present as well, though the kind they were couldn't be determined in the light they had available. Assorted other items were present, wrapped in coverings. There were also fine silks and fabrics which had yet to become clothing. In this space, sealed away from light and elements for centuries, time had been kind. It made the contents of the wallet pouches they'd found before look like a pittance.
"T-this is...the wealth of my ancestors...the treasure of Nekoyama Castle!" Kasumi said in awe.
As if to contest her claim upon this bounty, a large gust of spiritual power hit them from within the room and kept them from entering. A dark mist of energy that was a contradictory form of luminescent black flowed through the hall and into the door of another sealed room. Assorted ofuda seals on the door weakened upon contact with the miasma and burned away instantly. The door promptly exploded open from the inside. A series of supernatural growls and roars were heard before the mummified remains of four Bengal Tigers with empty saddles emerged from the once-sealed room. An ominous blue pinprick of light shone in each of the partial skeletons' empty eye sockets.
They looked upon the children and charged.
Ichiro, Saburo, and even Ukyo flinched and looked to the cliff face below the shrine in horror. It was the closest point to Ranma and Kasumi that they could reach easily and where they likely needed to start chipping away at to reach them. "W-what is that?" Ukyo inquired of the darkness she was feeling near Ranma. Jiro was confused, unable to sense what his brothers could.
The youngest of the brothers whispered, "The malicious dead. They've run into a dangerous situation. To think that sort of power rested under our shrine...they must have found a way into the Castle's basement! Who knows what remains there!"
The eldest sibling pulled out a gohei and started to chant, the stick with the paper streamers being used to attempt to battle the forces they sensed. Unfortunately, he doubted he could accomplish much from here in time.
Ranma wanted to use the Kinjakan to set the undead creatures on fire, but the low levels of oxygen made that a bad idea. Magical fire was still fire sometimes, and fire would simply burn through the oxygen they needed to breathe. He'd learned that the first time he'd made a fire pit inside a tent as a little kid. The boy entered the Shin Neko-ken to buy himself the agility and speed needed to deal with these foes, but it wasn't easy. The creatures had shed much of their mortal weight while gaining power, and it was all he could do to keep up without being slashed in half. Keeping his light source up was making him a tempting target and also slowly burning energy. The Umisenken couldn't be used without extinguishing the light he needed to fight by. His gi was already in even worse shape than it was when he started. All he had managed to do thus far was keep Kasumi safe.
The Breaking Point managed to shatter the ulna bone of the front-left leg of one of the beasts. Unfortunately, the miasma simply collected the shattered bits and sculpted the limb back together. It was weaker and he suspected he could pulverize the whole skeleton eventually, but he doubted he had the time. Blasting apart their skulls bought a few seconds, at least. Simply cutting them with the Shin Neko-ken's ki claws seemed to similarly disrupt them.
Kasumi had managed to get to a nearby door and peek inside. Not finding a corpse to attack her, she entered and used the mostly shut door as a slit through which to fire arrows. The problem was that the girl wasn't particularly skilled.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry, Ranma!" An apologetic cry rang out as an arrow came closer to the boy than the undead tigers trying to cut him into pieces.
"No harm done!" He called out through the strain. "What're the arrows supposed to do against bone, anyway?"
"They're supposed to dispel the spirits possessing the tigers. I'm aiming for the blue hitodama in their eyes, but I'm bad when my targets are moving!" Kasumi admitted, irritated at her lack of capability. However, Ranma did not condemn her inexperience.
"Got it!" Ranma called out, pulling free a couple of arrows she'd fired into the nearby wall and surrendering the light source for the moment. The blue eyes would provide just enough luminescence for his task. Flipping between and over the claws of the creature, Ranma savagely drove a blessed arrow point into the blue light in each eye socket, making the creature cry out in pain as it was stabbed literally in the souls powering it. The monster fell to the ground while leaking the black miasma, defeated. Ranma was ready to charge forward with the arrows for the next one, but Kasumi called out to stop him.
"W-wait! Ranma, each arrow is single-use!" Kasumi was horrified, thinking that the boy had committed to a deadly mistake, but Ranma was nothing if not adaptable. Discarding the useless arrows, he rolled under a strike and called forth the Gekkaja. In a flash of white-blue light, the offending creature was frozen in place to the floor in solid ice. Even its head was held stationary.
"Can you hit a frozen one?" He called out to the girl, only to be forced to leap away as Not-so-Cuddly Kitty Number Three tried to slash him in half. Ranma's answer came a split second later as an arrow rushed out and struck the frozen creature first in the left eye, and then the process repeated for the right. The creature roared as the black Miasma evaporated from its form.
To their credit, the third and fourth undead cats attempted to circle around and avoid showing their eye sockets to Kasumi's vantage point. She'd fired so many arrows recklessly, however, that the boy had plenty of ammunition strewn about to employ. He just had to freeze the two first and he could tend to them at his leisure.
With a slash of the Gekkaja, the pair of wary felines were frozen to the wall. The magic power of the staff and arrows felt to Ranma like cheating, but there was a life at stake. Defending Kasumi took precedence over a fun fight. Grabbing two arrows, he stabbed out the 'eyes' of the third monster, but before he could get ammunition off the ground or walls to tend to the fourth...
CRACK
The miasma which had escaped all rushed into the remaining creature, and four hitodama appeared in each of its eyes. The hitodama then merged into a single massive point of light in each eye socket as the former feline gave a massive roar. The tremble shook the area and knocked Kasumi onto her rear, while Ranma struggled to keep his balance. The feline broke free of the ice and started to change shape. Cracks were heard as bones were forced into new positions. The cries of power from the cat were as much pain as anything else. The grotesque result was a combination of the bone and dead flesh of all four creatures joined as one monstrous approximation of the feline form. Then the miasma entirely covered its figure like so much black fur.
Sunlight shone through cracks in a nearby stone wall due to the outburst of power, letting sporadic rays of the morning sun shine through. This signaled nearby salvation to the children, but also more readily showed the horrifying visage of the predator seeking their deaths.
"A bigger enemy is just easier to hit, you know!" Ranma couldn't afford to let the yellow light that was his confidence waver. His and Kasumi's lives counted on it.
The beast, powered by the lament of those killed by the Neko-ken, attacked Ranma savagely. The boy dodged the claws but was still swatted away and knocked through a stone wall. Kasumi flinched as the room she was in lost much of its protective value due to the sudden renovation. Her eye opened tentatively, the girl expecting to see Ranma's corpse, but she instead saw the rubble slide away as a child stood unharmed...and glared at the cat beast.
"Ya think that's gonna do any good?" He spat angrily in defiance. "I do worse to myself trainin' every day! Get it together!"
Kasumi questioned the sanity of getting the deadly monster angry, but Ranma seemed to be past caring. He launched himself at the creature with the intention of slowing it with the ice of the Gekkaja, but he soon found the staff to be a liability in this particular fight. Moving with the staff was awkward with his smaller body in a fight that demanded speed, and the Shin Neko-ken and ki boosting could only push his six-year-old body so far. Already the supernatural enemy was pushing him to speeds beyond those which Taro or Saffron had the skill to demand. He had to store the Gekkaja back in ki-space just to keep up.
The enhanced instincts and speed of the Shin Neko-ken allowed Ranma to dodge attacks and use the Bakusai Tengetsu and ki claws alternately in attempts to damage his foe initially, but the miasma fur now dulled the strikes and even helped the thing regenerate what damage he dealt. This was also preventing the fine strikes needed for the Bakusai Tengetsu to work or for the ki claws to cut deeply. He even finally managed to boost his body to the levels needed to use the Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken, or the Chestnuts Roasting over an Open Fire Fist, but the larger number of weaker strikes did even less good. He hadn't time to charge up the Pride of the Fierce Tiger, nor could he summon enough confidence to take out this supernatural monster four times his height.
Eventually, the inevitable happened. Ranma was swatted aside again by a paw, but this time the youkai's tail was promptly wrapped around his neck before he could recover. Black miasma at the base of the tail was redirected to thicken that at the end where Ranma was held. This protected the tail from his attacks even more effectively as it slammed him into the wall and started to squeeze. Kasumi could do nothing but watch in horror and helplessness as the boy who saved her suffered at the hands of the tiger youkai.
Ranma struggled, clawing at the tail as it sought to choke the life from him. Sound faded away in time, replaced by a steady and distant tone, and his vision began to dim. Ranma realized that he was helpless. With his body weakening and no plan coming to him, his confidence winked out like a candle in the wind.
Even so, Ranma hadn't truly surrendered. Knowing that he and Kasumi were about to be killed here wouldn't allow him to yield and filled him with a familiar sensation, that which he'd felt when fighting for Akane's life. He might not be in love with this girl like he had been with Akane, but his wish to keep her alive was still strong. In the state of consciousness before eternal sleep where one cannot so easily lie to themselves, he felt the faint echos of another type of ki within his grasp...
The boy would have attributed the violet slash of energy that came next as a trick of the eye, had he not fallen to the ground and felt the grip on his neck slacken. The miasma from the severed tail rushed back to the creature as it turned away from Ranma to look upon the one who dared to wound it. Looking between the monster's legs from his seated position as he recomposed himself, Ranma stared in shock at what he saw.
Bearing glowing violet ki in her eyes and matching ki claws that had cut the youkai's tail at its base, Kasumi Tendo gave a focused yowl that chilled Ranma to his core.
"What...was that?" Ukyo asked, feeling something very strange. Ranma's ki had taken a nosedive, while Kasumi's had grown sharply.
The priests had no time to respond before a loud rumbling was heard. Looking around themselves, they soon became aware of a dust cloud of small creatures descending from the area of the shrine and down the cliff face.
Ukyo's eyes widened. "T-those are..."
The monster roared at Kasumi, who merely stood before the youkai in defiance. Though awakened to the Shin Neko-ken, Kasumi had nowhere near the resilience or skill Ranma did. She wouldn't stand a chance. The boy struggled to stand, to get into a position to defend her, before he felt a rumble. It was like a steady earthquake that grew in intensity, and the movement even made him fall to the ground.
This left the youkai to take the full brunt when the damaged wall connected to the cliff face exploded inwards and a literal sea of angry cats poured inside.
The cats from the shrine, sensing the plight and transformation of their mistress, flowed into the area and across the battlefield like a wave. The wave parted for Kasumi, leaving her undisturbed, while the surprised youkai was swept down the hallway past her like a leaf in the current. Ranma watched incredulously as his confused foe's roars grew further away in spite of its best efforts to get off of its back and free itself from the current.
Ukyo and the priests leapt into the hole the cats had just made, though an irritated Jiro had to be carried by Saburo. The girl rushed to Ranma, clinging to him, while the uncles checked on Kasumi.
"H-Hey, Ucchan. I see ya managed to jump up here on your own..." He said, glancing out the hole in the rock and seeing at least a three-meter drop. "Guess we'll have ya roof-hoppin' in no time." The tired boy was a mess with his gi torn almost to shreds, his body covered in water and rock dust, and even paw prints on his head and back from the arrival of their unlikely salvation.
The praise was not what Ukyo needed to hear at the moment. "J-Jackass! D-don't brush off something like this as training! I felt you almost die!" Ukyo cried out, clinging to Ranma's ruined gi and openly crying. Ranma wasn't sure how to handle this but hugging Ukyo when she was crying tended to be the right way to go. He did so while the priests checked on Kasumi.
"Kasumi! Your eyes! I-is this the Shin Neko-ken?" The eldest brother asked, noting the violet ki glow in her eyes which matched Ranma's own yellow shine from the demonstration the night before. The girl gave a demure nod of confirmation. Ichiro nodded back in understanding, noting the seriousness of the situation. Leaping into action, Ichiro and Saburo pursued the evil they perceived being carried away down the hall. Kasumi looked to Ranma and Ukyo, the latter of whom was no longer crying and had let go of Ranma.
"Right! Time to beat up the guy bullying Ran-chan!" She cracked her knuckles and bounded off after the priests.
"Bullyin'? H-hey, wait just a minute! I wasn't bein' bullied! I had him right where I wanted him! Get back here!" Ranma followed, his pride tarnished at the very idea, while a Shin Neko-ken empowered Kasumi giggled and followed suit. Jiro was left by himself to catch up. The man passed the storeroom full of gold and froze, seeing the treasure in the dim-but-now-manageable light.
"...Later, Jiro. Later."
The group nearly managed to catch up to the tail end of the colossal clouder of cats as they rushed down the hall, nearly to the end of the basement. They had trouble, however, as thousands of tiny paws kicked up over 400 years of dust. The gap this necessitated to avoid running into the dust cloud, however, gave the surprised humans enough time to stop when, as one, the feline horde stopped their movement at the door which Ranma had initially destroyed. Flinging the creature off of themselves, it landed hard and bounced twice on the descending stairway beyond with angered grunts before falling into the water which Kasumi had nearly drowned in.
Ranma winced as the undead entity released a screech of pain and began to fall apart into bone and flesh. These mortal remnants, much of them pulverized by time or combat, fell apart when no longer held together by the black miasma which was being destroyed by the water.
"Oh my! That's right! The water from the spring is blessed!" Kasumi said, recalling a detail that would probably have helped them to know much sooner. It may even have provided Ranma some limited protection during his fight since he'd been soaked in it. The skull started to sink into the water, the blue pinpricks of light serving as its eyes escaping from the doomed avatar. Merging again into a single bright hitodama, the ethereal orb moved to try to possess its greatest threat in Kasumi. The girl drew an arrow and took aim in response, refusing to yield. She released one more ofuda arrow with her Shin Neko-ken enhanced eyesight and dexterity only for the blue orb to narrowly corkscrew around the projectile in evasion. The arrow buried itself in the rock wall behind, leaving Kasumi defenseless.
Ranma Saotome moved more quickly than his body would normally allow, even faster than the priests. His confidence still shaken and his body battered, he briefly wondered why and how he was rushing in front of Kasumi so readily. Recalling the feeling he'd tapped into before seemingly imminent death, Ranma grasped an epiphany.
Confidence was just one fleeting component of Ranma Saotome's greater nature. Pride. Stubbornness. Honor. All represented something more fundamental in his personality.
"Determination...of the WILD HORSE!" The large ki sphere which escaped Ranma's hands when he gave his raspy cry glowed more brilliantly than the Pride of the Fierce Tiger ever had. The hitodama struck it head-on and a loud cry of ethereal pain echoed through the cavern above the water. The blue light of rage and malice held for a few scant seconds of resistance before it was overpowered and banished by the glow of emotions superior. Ranma's attack then continued onward, blasting into the rock wall above the blessed body of water at a roughly forty-five degree angle before daylight began to shine down from the hole onto the assembled group. The boy panted heavily, staring at where his enemy had been, as the priests stared dumbfounded.
"Ranma...Saotome...doesn't lose." The exhausted boy then fell backward into Kasumi's arms as his consciousness finally left him.
Ukyo rushed to assist in supporting the unconscious child. "Ran-chan! Wake up! It's not time for a nap! Kasumi? W-what just happened here? What was that?"
"I'm sorry, Ukyo," Kasumi said gently to the girl. "I was knocked into the well by the pulley handle spinning when it grabbed the bucket, and I drowned. If Ranma hadn't gotten the water out of my chest and given me the kiss of life, I'd...I'd be dead. It's all my fault!" Kasumi spoke with sad remorse, though the priests had another opinion.
"Kasumi." The stern voice of her eldest uncle made the normally serene girl look to his face. "This was not your fault. It was ours for allowing the well to become unsafe. We have a duty to provide you a safe environment to train and grow, and we have failed in that regard on this day."
He gave Kasumi a deep and honest bow. "I apologize to you, and I will also apologize to your mother and father. For the moment though, I need you to stay calm. Tell me exactly what happened here." The child looked ready to refute her uncle's claim of guilt, but more pressing matters made her prioritize.
"I-I was carried into the castle's water source and drowned...Ranma...he used the 'kiss of life' and revived me. My chest feels better now. The current was too strong for us to swim back, so we went forward. We went into the basement of the castle and found a bunch of stuff. There's even a room full of gold, jewels, and silks! I think it's the castle's treasure!" Kasumi's words confirmed that Jiro had seen the treasury. Finally, the family's wealth was restored.
"A gust of wind forced us away from that room. Black Miasma." The trio of men flinched, knowing that that form of black mist was akin to concentrated spiritual poison. It was fortunate that the children had been blessed in the spring water before all of this started. "It entered another room with seals all over it, but the seals burned up. Then the four tigers from the story came out. Undead tigers. We managed to beat all but one of them. Ranma slowed them down and we used the ofuda arrows to finish them off...but then the last one absorbed all the miasma and became a feline youkai that almost killed Ranma. I awoke the Shin Neko-ken, the kitties felt my distress, and you saw the rest."
With this description, Ichiro nodded sagely. "Kasumi. While I'm sorry you had to go through this, I'm glad that you were able to fight when the time came. Not everyone can stand against such a thing and act. That is what separates the baser Neko-ken from its true form." Kasumi got a gentle pat on the head before Ichiro started to plan things out. He then looked to the unconscious Ranma. "And even fewer still can channel an emotion-based ki attack, much less one of such magnitude. I'll have a few questions for him when he finally wakes, but I suspect that will be some hours away." The eldest of the Nekoyama brothers then looked to the middle sibling. "Jiro. Note any injuries and take the children to the shrine. Take all appropriate measures to ensure that they are not cursed or poisoned, particularly by the black miasma. I sense no corruption, but we need to take all possible precautions. Supplement with the dry healing incense for Kasumi, just in case there is any water left in her lungs. I don't want a dry drowning nor infection. Saburo and I will work on sanctifying this place." Jiro gave a nod as the brothers walked off to tend to business. He picked up Ranma and carried him.
"Come on, kids. We have a lot to do. Ukyo, you weren't exposed to much, so your purification won't take as long. You can simply play outside once that's done, but I have to ask you not to interrupt the more complex rituals. I'll need complete isolation to work on the hard jobs once we've made sure to cleanse you." Jiro coaxed the kids to return to the shrine after giving Ukyo this instruction and got to work.
Once Ukyo was outside and out of the way, and Ranma was resting comfortably, Jiro made an herbal tea for Kasumi to drink. "You're going to feel tired after drinking this, Kasumi. If you nod off, it's completely understandable. Go right ahead. You've earned a rest..." Jiro said in his most gentle possible tone. Kasumi obeyed and soon slipped into a state of sleep.
Soun and Nodoka were rushing to Nekoyama Cat Shrine in a rental car after the former had received a call to his hotel room from Ichiro. The call forty-five minutes prior had informed him that Kasumi and another child had fallen into a well at the shrine. Rescue equipment likely couldn't make it up the mountain and Ichiro was gathering supplies to lower someone into the well for a rescue of their own, but took the time to call and ask Soun to come and assist as soon as possible. Detective Nogura was busy at the police station setting up Mr. Daikoku as an informant and specialist. He wasn't allowed to work a case outside of Sapporo that wasn't related to the Saotomes, but the local police would soon be on their way as best they were able. Nodoka had naturally volunteered to come.
The fear and nervousness both felt were amplified notably when they saw a ball of ki launch into the sky from the general direction of the shrine and explode spectacularly in the air above. Soun would be tempted to attribute such raw power to the Master, were he not able to sense the type of ki as being quite different from Happosai's lust-powered aura.
Getting to the shrine as fast as they could once leaving the taxi, Soun Tendo honed in on the sound of a crackling fire. Zoning in on it like a lifeline, Soun Tendo barged onto the grounds and saw a child with brown hair and a white bow from behind. Reason escaped him as he stooped down and embraced the surprised child from behind. "Kasumiiiii! You're alright! Your father was so worr-!" The child screamed and shifted her stance. Elbowing him in the stomach and going for a leg sweep, she used the pivot to slam his face and upper body down straight into the fire and the rocks inside that she'd been using for training.
"Leggo of me, creep!" Ukyo screamed out, even over the panicked cries of the man. He promptly complied, albeit more from the fact that he was suddenly on fire than conscious compliance. Scrambling away with the top of his gi on fire, he started to roll on the ground to put himself out. Nodoka rushed over, grabbed a barrel of runoff water collected from the roof of the nearest building, and dumped it on the man to finally end the danger. Only after Nodoka achieved this end and Soun calmed down did the latter manage to inspect the girl glaring at him.
"You...are not Kasumi." Soun bluntly observed.
"Obviously!" She yelled out in anger. One Nodoka Saotome, who observed the whole scene, was more than a bit surprised. Soun immediately recovered, and started to prostrate himself before the child in low bows from his knees.
"I am so sorry! I thought you were my daughter! My brother in law called while getting rescue equipment together and said that my daughter had fallen down a well. You have the same hair from behind, and in my desperation..." Soun trailed off before bolting to his feet upon the realization that Kasumi might still be in danger after all.
"Kasumi! Daddy's coming!" Soun yelled out as he hopped onto the nearest rooftop and started scanning for this evil well to pull his child from the maw of.
"Uh...Kasumi's inside the house with Ran-chan and Jiro. She fell in the well and drowned, but Ran-chan saved her with this CPR thing." Soun blinked for a moment before he scrambled back down from the roof and made for the door like a mad man. Ukyo called out after him. "W-wait! They were exposed to a youkai! They're doing a purification ritual!"
On barging in, the unlikely trio would see something unexpected.
Two very young figures clad in expensive and overly large kimono were in the room, seated in chairs in front of an altar. The alter had on it a number of gifts including a pair of wedding rings. Soun approached the girl and saw that dressed in the vintage white shiromuku kimono with all the appropriate wedding accessories was his daughter. She even had lipstick applied.
"K-Kasumi! Kasumi, wake up!" He cried out when he saw she was not responsive. With a shudder, the girl woke and looked to her father. "...D-daddy?...Daddy!" The girl in the Japanese wedding dress embraced her father, while Ukyo went to Ranma.
"Ran-chan! Wake up, already! C'mon, this ain't funny!" She shook him unsuccessfully, drawing Nodoka's attention to the sleeping child.
"..R...Ranma?" The woman's chest tensed up as she saw the boy who had certainly grown since leaving her arms four years prior but was unmistakably her child. He was the same as in the videos and pictures from the previous day, though the fresh bruises and cuts covered in bandages spoke of a struggle. The woman embraced him and wept, even as someone entered from another room.
"Ah, got it. Here's the marriage sake-HEY! What do you people think you're-...Soun?" Jiro's anger suddenly became fear as the man whose daughter had almost been taken from him stood.
"Jiro...as nice as it is to see Kasumi in her wedding kimono instead of her funeral attire...isn't this a bit beyond the pale?" The Demon Head Technique was made manifest, regarding Jiro angrily. The middle brother of the Nekoyama clan steeled himself.
"Hmph. Do you think you can make that decision after betraying your honor pledge? You promised my father one of your children as an heir for the Nekoyama family in exchange for Kimiko's hand in marriage!" Soun winced. "When Father died before you had your firstborn, and my brother tried to forgive that agreement, enforcing it fell to me! Today, I will adopt her into the Nekoyama as should have been done on her birth, and wed her to the boy who saved her!"
Jiro presented a marriage agreement signed by Genma, promising one Ranma Saotome to inherit the Nekoyama Shrine on marriage to 'Jiro Nekoyama's niece'...and Soun's eyes widened as Jiro kept speaking. "Hmph. Genma may have been a louse, but Ranma has proven himself worthy in spades. To deny him the hand of the girl whose life he saved would be even more dishonorable of you, Soun. Add to that the ki attack he used before to forcibly dispel that youkai and it is an obvious decision. That much spiritual power at such a young age, with Kasumi's control...their heirs will revive this family."
Nodoka's eyes widened. "You mean that light we saw shoot into the sky was Ranma's doing?" The mother didn't know what to think of that, and Soun took a good, long look at the sleeping six-year-old.
"Kasumi," Jiro said, getting the girl's attention. "You were always meant for greater things than the Tendos could allow for. You and Ranma have reclaimed the Nekoyama treasure and defeated the youkai that plagued it. The cats have rallied to your cause and forgiven your blood for our ancestor's sins. We three brothers have no heirs of our own, but through you and your husband, our noble family will be reborn!"
Jiro expected Soun to be angry, and Kasumi expected her father to defend her, but the man was...chuckling? "I see. So that's what happened. Well, Ranma was engaged before birth to one of my daughters. It is the single oldest claim there is on his hand in marriage. He'd have to take over the Tendo Dojo and merge his style into my own, but we can discuss the details later..." The surprised Jiro had been planning to need to fight Soun on this, but instead...it seemed that they both wanted something similar here?
"...Is that why you had me drink that weird thing, Uncle Jiro? To make me fall asleep so I couldn't tell you 'no'?" The too-young bride looked to Jiro with disappointment. "You knew he would resist, so you'd do it while he slept and made me fall asleep for it too. You hoped I would just accept the marriage because I was grateful to him for saving my life. But I can feel it in your ki. Deception. Greed. I don't know if it's my ki sense or the instincts of the Shin Neko-ken...but I see it now."
The girl looked to her father as well as Nodoka, and gave a shudder, feeling betrayed. Tears fell. "When I asked him to come home with us...Ranma told me he wouldn't go back with you, Daddy. He said you wouldn't care how we'd feel about the marriage, and that it would be better for him if he never met you! W-was he right, Daddy? Are you going to go from telling me to resist Uncle Jiro to obeying him just because it's something you want? He drugged me, Daddy!" Silence filled the room. Soun felt indecision and Nodoka felt horror.
That was when the occupants of the small house heard a loud crack. Everyone looked over to the windows to see the shrine's cats glaring at them from outside. All the way to the top of the window frame.
Ichiro and Saburo looked on from a hilltop outside as cats broke through the windows and doors of Jiro's small home to flood the domicile, screams ringing out as an angry feline tidal wave rushed to the aid of its mistress and her friend once more. Ukyo hurriedly carried a sleeping and well-dressed bride-groom outside and ran away while the adults were predisposed with their current predicament.
"...Jiro?" Saburo inquired, a bit stunned at the display.
"Jiro." Ichiro seethed in uncharacteristic anger.
The five adults and one child sat in the ruins of Jiro's home. Kasumi was dressed in a fresh set of her shrine keeper attire and several cats were resting comfortably with their mistress. She and Nodoka were being apologized to profusely by Ichiro and Saburo. One treated a mother seeking her missing child kindly, especially if that woman had a sword and a reason to use it. Jiro's actions counted on multiple levels, even necessitating their continued separation. It was one more sin toward the boy that the family had to atone for.
"It is alright, you two. Kasumi has already confirmed your innocence in this matter, and you did show Ranma kindness. I do have one important question though. If your job was to keep the knowledge of the Neko-ken from spreading, why didn't you simply destroy the training manual? It was the only existing reference of the method, right?" Nodoka's question was initially met by blank stares. Then, with all the grace the youngest man of faith could muster...Saburo's palm went to his face in frustrated realization.
Ichiro's response was slightly more tactful, having had the opportunity to think on his response while sipping his tea. "...We will burn the manual within the hour, now that we have formally concluded the purification of the site. With the spirits of the dead having gone to the other side and our ancestor's sins forgiven by the last surviving victims of the Neko-ken and by the cats of the shrine, we seem to be free to move on. As for if Genma taught himself the skill, I regret to say that the price he would likely pay would merely be his due."
Nodoka agreed, giving a nod of assent as Kasumi turned the page of the photo album and bade Nodoka to look. "Here, Auntie Nodoka! These are the pictures with Ranma!" The mother's interest was immediately shifted to the new target. She saw images of Ranma and Ukyo's travels. A man bound in tires being rolled around like a toy by children while Ranma and Ukyo happily looked on. Ukyo practicing martial arts with Ranma. Ranma training in the Chestnut Fist so fast his hands blurred. A battered and smiling Ranma surrounded by broken boulders. Ranma and Ukyo at a campfire. Pictures from Sekigahara, including with a couple of children in traditional dress and a man in a samurai outfit. Ukyo cooking on a yattai alongside the little girl from Sekigahara. Ranma in various spars. A picture of Ranma and Ukyo with the unknown Sekigahara children and Kaori Daikoku. A picture that was taken from behind Ranma's shoulder while riding on a strange bike through the woods. A picture of Ranma, Kasumi, and Ukyo sitting at the shrine's dinner table. A picture of the three of them in the bath, with a very shy Ranma looking away. And...a picture of Ukyo and Kasumi snuggling together?
"Oh my! Ranma must have taken that one! He escaped from between us in the middle of the night. He thought it was funny, and even Ukyo had to laugh." Kasumi smiled fondly, having enjoyed the time they spent here, brief as it was.
Sadly, the mood wasn't all positive. Soun and Jiro were covered with cat scratches and bites and had assorted dressings to help with them. The burns which Soun had endured when mistaking the missing Ukyo for his own child had also been treated. He looked the worse for wear now, with his only consolation being that he would likely be healed well before Jiro was. The moment for marrying Kasumi to Ranma having passed and his own guilt at Kasumi's suffering having tempered him, Soun was no longer excited in the least. He and Jiro were glaring at each other in fury, though Soun's rage seemed to be deeper and longer-lasting at the moment. His Demon Head technique had formed, regarding the man with a sustained and unrelenting clarity which was unnerving to those who saw the technique in its normal state. "First, you engage my daughter to be wed without my consent, regardless of if I approve of the boy or not. Then you let her fall in a well and drown. Then you allow her to be attacked by a youkai. And then you teach her that technique? Were it not for the burden it would place on my daughter and wife's souls, and my vows as a martial artist, I would beat you to an inch of your life and beyond."
Jiro was about to complain, but Ichiro put his hand on Jiro's shoulder. One look silenced him.
The man looked to Soun's demon head...and gave a deep bow of apology. "As head of the Nekoyama family, the sins of my brother are my sins. I apologize for all that Kasumi and Ranma have been forced to endure. I also clarify my existing position as the family head that the Tendo clan has been formally released from its obligations to the Nekoyama clan since the time of my father's passing. Jiro's conduct is not the stance of the Nekoyama family, and was borne of his own personal greed."
This made Jiro gawk. "What? But it's the only way we will have our heir! And that heir has to be Kasumi! She and that boy represent everything the Nekoyama clan possesses! They're our future! This is why you need to step aside brother! You're unfit, casting aside the family's future on a whim like this!"
The girl finally decided she'd seen enough. Gently focusing and recalling her training thus far, she then applied what she'd learned from talking to and observing Ranma today on top of it. Nodoka watched in curiosity as Kasumi held her hands in a cupped position. The girl then focused on a small amount of her ki and gave it shape with some effort.
"Serenity of the Gentle Butterfly..." Kasumi half-whispered as the baseball-sized ki sphere Kasumi created shone a bright velvet, like a jewel, and drifted above her hand like a soap bubble on the wind. Everyone present stopped talking and stared as the sphere gently landed on the Demon Head and popped, making the construct vanish.
Soun blinked, clear-headed once more before he looked down to his eldest child in shock.
"Daddy? Uncle Jiro? You two are why Auntie Nodoka didn't get to keep Ranma today! Instead of comforting her, you started to fight again and scared Ukyo into escaping with him! Uncle Jiro never even apologized! Tendo? Nekoyama? I'm ashamed of both names today!" Soun promptly felt remorse for his conduct, stunned at his child's words, but he soon learned that things would get worse.
"Didn't Mommy ask you to come here to help Auntie Nodoka find Ranma instead of driving him away? What do you think she'll say about this?" Soun flinched at the question and knew then that he was in a great deal of trouble. Kimiko would not be happy about this at all. Oh, she might forgive him in time, but the subtle ways she could choose to make her displeasure known...they attacked a family man to his core. If that wasn't enough, his wife just might find the strength to call forth her hammers in spite of her sickness.
"Auntie Nodoka, I'm sorry. I...I wanted Ranma to come back with us, but he...seemed to know Daddy better than I did. Can you forgive us for this?" The consideration surprised Nodoka, who briefly hesitated. She wasn't sure she wanted to forgive the two men. But she also knew that Soun was riding the high of learning that his daughter was alright after nearly dying and also the prospect of securing the future of his child. She also knew Kasumi wasn't at fault. Her fear called her kitty friends, and they helped save her and Ranma from who they saw as bad people. After a moment, she sighed and smiled.
"I can, dear. It's not your fault anyway, Kasumi. I'm just glad you're alright. This whole thing must have been horribly difficult for you." Nodoka's response, and Soun turning to bow to Nodoka and confirming the apology, certainly helped things. Kasumi was relieved to find that the anger in the room had dropped notably. She was more aware of it than before, able to see the jumbled colors that made up a person's emotions at any given time. Emotions that were scattered and unclear to varying degrees.
"It was difficult, but I came out more clear. I mean, I understand myself a little better now. I think that's why Ranma and I can make these ki bubbles. That's the key to this sort of ki control, right? Finding a defining emotion? I think he switched to another emotion in the end to save me...it was a lot stronger. Like a wall of will." As he listened to his daughter correctly describe the nature of ki, Soun started the waterworks from stoic eyes. Already she was touching on things in the Art that he never expected his children to approach.
"My little girl is growing before my eyes. To have an emotion-focused ki technique at her age is astounding. To have one that can disrupt negative emotion-empowered ki with her serenity is even rarer. It is a shame she isn't interested in more of the Art." Kasumi hesitated for a moment, upon hearing his words. She pondered what had happened earlier in the day and the girl's hand tensed slightly, remembering the boy who had nearly died for her because she wasn't strong enough. The boy who had saved her several times over. Nodoka perceived this and watched the girl closely.
"...Daddy? I think I might have been more help today if I was better with a bow. I have one now, so are you willing to train me in archery? Right now, I have to cheat and use the Shin Neko-ken if I want to hit anything very far away." Soun looked down at his child in surprise, almost as if she'd grown a second head. For a moment, Kasumi wondered if she'd overstepped some boundary to ask that of her father. Then the waterworks doubled in intensity as he abruptly knelt down and hugged his seated child.
"Kasumiii! You're making your father very proud! Of course we can train you in Kyudo! We can start you in the Art as soon as things have calmed down! I know exactly where to begin, too! Don't you worry, our school has a number of techniques suited for that sort of Art!" The girl's serene smile returned as she returned her father's hug, grateful to have the chance to even do so after the close calls of today. She wasn't really sure if he'd stop at teaching her Kyudo though. He seemed rather excited.
The JSDF had arrived in the area in response to the reports of a ball of yellow light shooting into the sky and exploding. Dust clouds and some fresh holes in the mountain reported by their helicopters clued them into the exact location. The local police being present before they arrived, responding to a call of two children falling into a well placed before the beam of light had even been fired, had caused a bit of surprise. It was a strange sight and a few conflicts over jurisdiction happened, but a truce was called when it was revealed that the person in both cases a certain missing six-year-old boy. If Genma Saotome showed up and had any capabilities resembling those his son apparently held, they'd need to coordinate their forces. Both groups had learned from Sapporo. Detective Nogura and his new adviser, Mr. Daikoku, were slower to arrive since they only departed once it was realized that Ranma was at the center of this newest development as well.
The story that came together was a very strange one that invited skepticism. Ranma Saotome, Kasumi Tendo, and a horde of cats fighting a 400-year-old youkai required a certain faith to believe. However, there were many strange things that didn't otherwise add up. There was clear and recent damage to the basement, including huge claw marks all over the place cutting into solid stone. One of the walls, thankfully not a load-bearing one, was freshly destroyed. The cliff face was torn open and had smaller claw marks all over it. All these things were strange enough. The fact that a perfect five-meter-wide circle with vitrified and still-cooling walls was found in an area and angle consistent with a blast seen by tens of thousands of people proved to be impossible to otherwise explain.
It was at that point Kasumi was led to the group by Detective Nogura. Her father went to collect some debris while Nodoka stayed with the child. There was no way Nodoka would let the girl be left alone with strangers after the things that had happened to her today, and the dozen or so cats flanking her seemed to feel the same. "Everyone, may I have your attention?" Police and JSDF alike took note and looked at the man. "I understand that some of you may still have doubts about ki or the cause of this incident. Well, we've got a ki-adept right here. This is Kasumi Tendo, the girl who fell into the well, and her shrine maiden and martial arts training mixed with exposure to Ranma's skills and a regrettable amount of trauma conspired to wake up such abilities in her today as well. They're not to Ranma's known or Genma's suspected degree of power, but are more than enough to demonstrate."
Kasumi wore her typical serene expression on her face as she bowed to the police and the military personnel. "Hello! It's nice to meet you all, and welcome to Nekoyama Shrine. I appreciate that you came to help us!"
Her father picked up a boulder roughly a meter in diameter and set it down beside his child. This alone would have been impressive enough. He moved back a fair distance before speaking the words "Please show us, Kasumi." The man didn't speak with excitement, which was understandable. The price for a chance to develop this power could have been far too high.
Those assembled watched the pleasant girl generate a violet glow in her eyes. Moving her hand at a speed beyond that which would easily be seen even by a camera, the boulder collapsed into several circular slabs with just a single slice. Her arm was still extended, showing violet energy claws extending from her fingers. She was a bit nervous at the looks she was getting. "T-these are my ki claws. They're part of the Shin Neko-ken, which also increases my speed and flexibility. Ranma and I got lucky and developed it properly, but most of the people who try just become afraid of cats and can't control it. That's just the basic Neko-ken and is too dangerous to spread knowledge of. I wonder if the people who look for it get cursed. Neither Ranma nor I wanted the power..."
Ichiro spoke up, having followed behind the cats. "This shrine exists to keep the knowledge of how to learn it from ever being known because it's so dangerous. The sole known written record of teaching it has been destroyed. It is not something to attempt. It is literal torture, pure and simple. The fact Genma Saotome did so to his child is unforgivable. Kasumi learned it when the conditions were accidentally met, including her life and that of another being placed in imminent peril. Genma was foolish enough to seek the power himself. Thankfully, he likely lacks the resolve needed to accomplish anything but its lesser state, if any."
While Ichiro spoke, Kasumi showcased the power by running like a cat, bounding up trees into branches, and generally revealing feline agility and speed. Several cats playfully followed. Soun nervously watched as he set down another boulder, noting that Kasumi had leapfrogged over Akane in ability. His youngest wouldn't be pleased. The military personnel observed a nine-year-old child performing feats that a well-trained soldier couldn't do, and gawked.
"Okay, Kasumi. Use the other technique. This time, however, tap into its destructive power." From her perch in a tree, Kasumi regarded her father's instruction. She wasn't too happy about it.
"But my power is from serenity. How can serenity destroy?" Kasumi asked her father.
The man nodded. "While it's true that a serene state of mind is hard to achieve in battle, it is something attainable internally regardless of external conditions. It only matters that you are serene inside. Besides...to blast something to pieces is to eventually confer unto it a final state of serenity if that thought helps." Kasumi didn't know if she liked the lattermost point, but the formermost was sound enough.
Focusing herself, she uttered the words "Serenity of the Gentle Butterfly" and gently deployed her ki-bubble toward the boulder. It drifted down like a soap bubble, touched the boulder gently...and promptly blew it into pieces in a violet blast of explosive power. Small chunks of rock rained down in the aftermath, and a half-meter crater was left in the ground beneath where the boulder once stood. "Oh my! That was...fun!"
Every human who had not previously been introduced to ki, and many who had, went pale at the display of force. The cats didn't seem to care either way.
Ranma shuddered a bit as he was shaken awake, finding himself in the dark. The boy sat up and looked around, stretching as he felt the familiar sensation of a vehicle's movement. It was dark, but he could see windows to the outside and felt warmth next to him. When he moved, there was an immediate response.
"Ran-chan, are you awake?" Ukyo's voice could be identified, even if quiet.
"Y-yeah. What happened, Ucchan? I saved Kasumi, and then...where are we?" He would worry that he was still in the buried castle basement, but the smell and movement were all wrong.
"W-well...Mister Jiro tried to marry you to Kasumi while you were both asleep, but her Mommy and Daddy showed up. Her Daddy wanted to go ahead with the marriage since he had his own agreement with your father too, but Kasumi got sad that they didn't care how you two felt about it. The kitties didn't like that she was sad. They broke the windows and flooded the house, Ran-chan! It was scary, but the kitties let me pick you up and run away while the grown-ups were all panicked and stuff." Ukyo conveyed the situation to the best of her understanding.
Ranma was more than a little surprised. He'd been out long enough for that to happen? It was almost like he was back in Nerima. They'd gotten away by the skin of their teeth. "Thanks for gettin' us out of there, Ucchan. Mr. Tendo is really pushy about the engagement. I don't know about his wife, but I wouldn't want to meet her at a time like that. Where are we, though?"
"Well, I was able to carry you south until we got to a truck stop. When we got there, I did something Daddy used to do when traveling around. He'd find a partially loaded truck that could hold our cart and take us close to where we needed to go, then either pay the driver or make a big meal before and after the trip. You're holding the cart, so it was even easier to find someone to take us east. We're in a big truck on its way to a place called Takato." Ukyo bashfully brought her fingers together, hoping that she hadn't messed up any of Ranma's plans. She didn't have much choice.
Ranma pondered for a moment and recalled where Takato was. The place was in the valley between the Kiso and Akaishi Mountains. It was on the way to Tokyo, and he could think of a few other good things to do there this time of year. Things they could turn into training. He smiled at Ukyo.
"Good work, Ucchan! You couldn't have picked a better place!" Ranma's praise made Ukyo smile, relieved that she'd made the right choice. Ranma continued, pondering how best to proceed. "I know we can't do much sparin' or standin' right now, so it's time for some ki control exercises. I said back in Sekigahara that I'd teach you how to guide ki into your weapons, right?" Ukyo nodded excitedly at the recollection. Seeing Ranma control ramen noodles and fishcakes seemed to be something the girl could easily translate into her own food-based Art. "Well, the first step is to channel ki into your own limbs and control it. You did that without even thinkin' when ya jumped up and into the hole in the cliff face today. We'll spend the ride over to Takato havin' you master it in your arms. There's enough space in here for ya to punch the air from a seated position. They don't have to be full power moves, just learnin' how the ki flows and how to guide it. I can watch your ki flow and help guide things. Ready?"
"Yes, Ran-chan!" Ukyo responded excitedly. She'd just seen him save the life of a girl by tearing a youkai's very soul apart with his own. While it was a blow to her hopes to catch up to him any time soon, he was about to teach her the first steps that might one day lead her toward such a power herself.
She paid very close attention to his guidance.
