I took Kasumi out for some personal time that day. We had a short but informative talk in which she told me firmly she knew our arrangement wasn't permanent but that I was ruining it for her by trying to get her together with someone else so soon. She wanted to know what it was like to be loved, and I was being an asshole about it. She was right. I'd been unconsciously trying to save myself some heartache by not getting too attached. She'd tell me if and when she found someone else. We still had some fun, but I felt guilty and she probably wouldn't forgive me any time soon. I was actually surprised she didn't dump me right there.
When we got back to the Tendo home we parted with a hesitant kiss and I returned to the warehouse apartment to spend time with Ember, Guinevere, and Ukyo. My tolerance for social interaction was pretty low after a full day out in public and a lot of (arguably necessary) drama, so I excused myself after only a couple of hours and started working on some Potter-style communication mirrors for everyone. As I worked, I pondered my actions. Another part of me was chasing down the elusive mystery of where my extra mana went and why I'd gained an energy form instead of exploding.
My mind being capable of multiple simultaneous trains of thought was both incredibly useful and frustrating as hell, sometimes. The way [Multi-Focus] worked meant I could and did put my full attention to however many extra "threads" I had plus my main thought process, and sometimes ideas started to cross over and get mixed together. By that point several extra threads had started contemplating Kasumi and what I knew of her, two were going back over the Ranma ½ timeline to see what was coming next and if I'd missed anything I cared about, one was still chasing down the energy form thing, and a few were examining the fine traceries and patterns revealed in my aura when the last one was looking for where the mana went.
One enterprising thread was carefully going over the method I'd divined for using universal nullification, and startled me out of my thought process by trying it on a foot and getting it wrong. Were it not for Gamer's Body I would now have no foot. As it was it really hurt and cost me a load of hit points. I'd never before that moment experienced most of my mind metaphorically looking at one part like it was an idiot, and it got even weirder when the one part successfully argued that learning to do it properly could save my life and I could take a little pain to achieve it.
"Ladies," I called into the other room. "Am I insane?"
"Yes," they replied in unison, with not a single moment of hesitation. Kasumi had arrived at some point, and had been part of the chorus. What were they doing in there anyway? Was that Monopoly? I should probably take that Jump at some point. I'd read a fic that showed a pretty good way to go about it if you had any sort of resistance to mental effects or toxins. The rest of my head had already gone back to what it was going, except now there was a thread healing me whenever the one trying to erase my foot fucked up. It was keeping my main thought process and everyone else from concentrating too deeply, it was true that learning to become "nothing" would be more helpful than energy body in some situations.
I was about to go back to working on the mirrors when I realized I already had a stack of fifty in my inventory from my earlier work. Oh, hell. Now what was I going to do? I could try and figure out how to arbitrarily increase my mana pool. And it would probably be a good idea to turn [Mana Protection] back on so my foot stopped hurting every time it was nearly erased from space and time.
[By repeatedly using it in an interesting way, you've widened the scope of the skill: Multi-Focus!]
Really? I brought up the skill's description and read through the modified text. That wasn't so bad. Being more able to ignore distractions like pain was actually pretty useful. Expanding the scope of what gave me experience for the skill would also make it level up faster unless it suddenly cost more to compensate. I assigned the remaining extra threads to looking for breaking points in the things around me and chakra control exercises in hope that I'd finally max out [Mystical Energy (Mastery)] and just be able to use most of my abilities for free, then I went to spend more time with the ladies.
-
It was while I was healing a young man Akane had known as a child in Ryugenzawa that the next bit of weirdness happened. The boy had a terrible memory and a lot of old injuries, which was forcing me to come up with some creative ways to use [Holy]. He didn't run on hit points after all, and regenerating flesh and correcting brain damage were both things I didn't get a lot of chances to do.
'You missed a bit. No, over there.'
I'd already corrected for the error before it registered that the telepathic voice had been my own. My eye twitched, and I let the thread that had spoken take over healing and control of the body while I contemplated the implications of being able to telepathically communicate with myself. I noticed a giant something-or-other out of the corner of my eye and directed my unoccupied hand to taze it lightly. It went away and I went back to thinking.
When I finished healing the boy, Shinnosuke, his grandfather thanked us and asked if we could help to restore the flow of the Water of Life that had been sustaining him before my arrival. An eight-headed serpent of gigantic size had clogged the source of the springs in the area as it started to wake, and would need to be persuaded to move somehow. I shrugged and followed after Ranma and the others, since I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to bottle some of that or get a DNA sample from a real-life orochi. I had a tentative plan to integrate an ability to copy the form of things I had samples of, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. The [Copy] skill didn't cover it with the way it was worded. Maybe I could figure out a way to rename it?
[Copy has been renamed Mimic!]
That was easy. And that was a big-ass snake thing. At least it didn't look as goofy as it did when it was ink on a page or celluloid. With Ranma and Akane fighting it there were plenty of scales flying around, so I grabbed a few with telekinesis. Shinnosuke's grandfather said something about the moss growing on its head being special, so I grabbed some of that too. I didn't have any moss in the garden yet, and magic moss would make an interesting feature in the walk-through area I was planning. I examined the creature closely both visually and with [Mystical Energy (Sense)], and was unsurprised to find that it was magical.
'Should we see if we can find some eggs or something?' One part of me thought, and I absently replied in the negative since I prefered not to traumatize it any more than necessary and didn't want to rely on animal ingredients in my potions and such. It was a bit limiting, but with the plant resources, alchemy techniques, and potion techniques of several worlds it was a lot easier to maintain. I started growing more wood clone-golems and tossing them in my inventory. When Ranma and Akane needed a hand I tossed a few sleep spells at the orochi. It wasn't enough to put it down since it had magic of its own, but it was a sufficient distraction to allow the others to knock it out. What was their plan here, anyway?
If they dragged it off to the other side of the lake or something it would just come back whenever it wanted. They couldn't exactly put it anywhere else. Could they drag something that big, even in water? Could I? I conjured some weighted bands and a vest to wear, then tossed an additional enchantment on my boots to keep the extra eight from transferring into the ground beneath me.
-
Wearing the weights and running around while I worked on other stuff was surprisingly effective at boosting my ability scores, given the low weight (for me) I'd started with. Washu seemed to have set the experience needed to gain a level or boost my stats pretty high to compensate for losing the upward curve, but if I was persistent about it I thought I might be able to hit 500 in each of my physical stats before Saffron showed up. A pair of Amazon youngsters showed up to try and get in between Xian Pu and Ranma, but [Elemental Bending] and [Mokuton/Plant Control] sent them packing. I also got to smite the most pathetic demon I'd ever seen, a cave full of idiot ghosts, and a possessed doll that Ranma spotted when they went on vacation. The damn thing was creepy as hell and just leaking malevolent energy. I had no idea why anyone would build a bed and breakfast type place themed around the thing.
Aside from that I mostly spent time with the family and Kasumi. Guinevere showed up infrequently, but always got some grooming time in while I told her what I'd been up to. I was actually kind of frustrated that Rouge, the canonical character with the asura curse, never showed up. Either emptying the springs or keeping Taro on ice had butterflied the event away. Reviewing the original timeline in my head showed that most of the interesting stuff was likely to pass me by at this point. The only significant events still likely to happen were Akari showing up, the cursed mirror that made freaky duplicates of people (which I wouldn't be going anywhere near), Konatsu showing up, a couple of people getting sick, and Saffron.
Remembering Konatsu's terrible living conditions and the fact that the "teahouse" he was forced to work at might not actually be destroyed without Happosai's influence I went and kidnapped the poor boy myself. When I offered him food and a place to stay he went very quiet and stared at me intensely. He pretty much vanished the moment I let him into the warehouse apartments and told him where the food was. I wondered briefly if the boy raised as a female ninja in a brothel running around unsupervised was a good idea, then modified the wards to prevent him from stealing anything or peeping on people. When he showed up again I'd offer him a bunch of money to get settled somewhere permanently or a chance to go with me when I left.
I'd initially meant to stay for a while after defeating Saffron, but the situation with Kasumi changed. She actually had found someone she liked in her night classes, and was slowly pulling away from me as she got to know him. It was what I'd wanted to happen eventually, but it still hurt. The way it was going I'd probably be an ex-boyfriend in a few months at most. Maybe she'd let me give him the shovel speech? No, probably not. I contemplated lending The Shovel to Soun for the occasion.
When it finally happened I made a point to congratulate her as sincerely as I could. I was happy that she was happy, but also disappointed I hadn't had more time with her. Seven months just hadn't been enough in my opinion. Ember had already moved to the warehouse apartments, and I followed. The worst part about the whole thing was that Kasumi seemed more upset about breaking up with me than I was. She was supposed to be happy to have found someone she might be able to spend her life with, but she was so sweet about the whole thing I was actually getting upset for her. I was the ex-boyfriend! This wasn't how things were supposed to work!
She told me I'd been very kind and sweet (except for trying to push her away), and she was glad we'd gotten together. It had apparently given her the courage to actually go out and ask her new paramour for a date. Did Nerima have therapists? I needed a therapist. And so did Kasumi. She was clearly terminally nice. I'd sort of accepted the serial romance situation, but I still felt bad for being terrible at it and giving Kasumi a hard time. Apparently I hadn't gotten any better at the dating game since I found Guinevere and we clicked, which was to say I was sweet but kind of pathetic. Ukyo's words, not mine. Ouch, by the way.
Konatsu eventually started showing up for breakfast, and I had to use magic to get his kitchen clean. He'd somehow managed to be a Cinderella type but had never cooked for himself because his relatives were afraid he'd poison them. They were right, but it was still weird. Ukyo and I started teaching him how to cook, and he insisted he was now my servant for life. I exchanged a glance with Ukyo behind his back and just told him I'd accept his services as long as he was willing to provide them, but we'd need to have a discussion. Servitude for room and board wasn't going to work for me, and he needed to know we'd actually be in a different world eventually before he made that kind of decision.
Arguing with the male kunoichi reminded me of Dobby from Harry Potter in some of the fanfiction I'd read. He was trying to negotiate for fewer benefits and less pay, while I was going the other way. After I explained the Jump-Chain, my age, my status as a shapeshifter, and my goal we took a bit of a break. When we came back to the table he agreed to accept a reasonable wage, health care, and two days off per month. I added him to the party for safety and communication purposes, and he quietly started obsessing over pleasing the family much like he'd obsessed over Ukyo in canon.
That night I got impatient, and together with several of my [Multi-Focus] threads decided to perform an experiment. We'd gotten the ghost thing working for individual body parts, but it was getting annoying that we all had to be in one place. I pulled out a pre-made wood clone-golem and shoved one of my threads into it with mind magic. It took all night to stop the process being horribly disorienting to the point of nausea, but when Ukyo woke up the next morning there were three of me in the apartment and eleven more of me elsewhere. I was blessedly alone in my own head, for once.
[By doing something special, you've created a new skill: Multi-Focus (Multi-Presence)!]
-
Wren 07 stalked through the undergrowth, watching his prey (Wren 02) search the riverbank for signs of his passage. Between enhanced senses, aura masking, invisibility, careful manipulation of the temperature of the air around him, and leaving no footprints the winner of their contest would be declared mostly based on sound and scent. [Mystical Energy (Body)] in controlled bursts allowed even those to be mitigated at the cost of making aura masking a great deal more difficult.
When his opponent was in just the right position, he pounced. Unfortunately a tiger coming from the other direction had the same idea, and both Wrens lost themselves in the nekoken in the middle of an Indian jungle.
-
That was weird and slightly scary. I pulled the two threads that'd lapsed into the nekoken state back and applied Gamer's Mind to calm them, since it wasn't overridden by the drawback in the absence of actual cats. The two clone golems they'd been occupying were an acceptable loss, and still maintained enough sentience to act in my best interest without the additional guidance.
I officially ended Mu Tsu, Ranma, and Ryoga's apprenticeships on September 23, 1990. They could all now control their curses, make minor but lasting arbitrary changes to their forms, heal themselves and others to some extent, and sense both mana and ki reliably and with precision. Using the smallest bit of illusion magic I'd taught them, Ryoga and Mu Tsu could also "talk" in their animal forms now. About a month later Ranma invited me to have dinner with the family and sat me between Akane and Xian Pu, which I thought was odd. It became a bit more clear what was going on when both of them started doing...interesting...things to me under the table while Ranma watched my face twitch with a grin.
I found out later that night the girls had wanted to try twin Ranmas for a while, and all three of them were randy enough to find experimentation with my shapeshifting ability fun. I ended up friends with benefits to the three, which was much more casual and easier to accept than what I'd shared with Kasumi. The mechanics of the relationship were a bit confusing, but it worked.
Ryoga did end up dating a young lady by the name of Unryu Akari. She raised some sort of bizarre attack pigs and was utterly obsessed to the point she was constantly comparing things to them. They'd met when Ryoga had heard her verbal tic in a nearby conversation and burst out laughing. When she confronted him over it he led her to a quiet place and showed her his piglet form, which she of course found adorable. Their introduction had been much different than in the original timeline, but they also got along better since Ryoga's curse was more of an optional thing for him now.
There were some inconsequential shovelings, the new year came and went, and Ranma proposed to Akane and Xian Pu. With Nodoka's guidance the trio decided to have one wedding in Japan for Akane and Ranma on January 31, 1991. Everyone would then take a trip to the Amazon village in China for a wedding between Xian Pu and the others the next day, which would be considered the official anniversary. Family and friends were contacted, the Amazons alerted, and even the Jusenkyo Guide and his daughter were invited to the second ceremony.
The Japanese ceremony was beautiful, and I provided teleportation to the Amazon village so people wouldn't have to bother with plane tickets or boats. The Amazon ceremony went wonderfully too, until the Phoenix People attacked [1]. They seemed to be after the Jusenkyo Guide and his daughter Plum, but some telekinesis and sleep spells put them down long enough to deal with after Ranma and the ladies had retired to a private home.