An unusual disclaimer: Ranma ½ is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. And Son Turned Daughter was originally written way back in 2002 by the FanFiction author Tangent, and his characters Megumi, Yasushi and Ayane have, likewise, been borrowed without permission. Please see the first two chapters of this story under his pen name. This story is written for non-commercial purposes only.
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Sasuke has a super ninja technique? See the note at the end of this page.
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Kodachi whipped her gymnastics ribbon at Akane!
In an instant, the wet and makeup-ruined Akane decided to take the weapon seriously. "Anything-goes" was the lesson she grew up with - Anything could be turned into a weapon. But more importantly - She was a martial artist, trained to fight! And this was a fight! And not just one set in the present. Her opponent was the one who had ruined her childhood! At six-years-old, the Black Rose had stolen her first kiss!
No, it wasn't her first kiss. Remember, Ranma, her Romeo, had given her first, real kiss! In fact, she could still feel his lips lingering on hers from minutes ago. It was an adult kiss.
And the denial she had hid behind for ten years cracked like a dam. "Kodachi!" she swore. This was it! This was the fight where she would put her childhood behind her!
The yellow ribbon sent gravel and pebbles flying from where it had struck the garden's pathway.
With the side of her platform shoe, Akane kicked those that came near her. She made sure they were headed towards her opponent. It bought her the time to get into the pivot, defend-fight-or-flight, stance. Defend was the true martial artist's first option, for a number of reasons.
The side-ponytailed beauty in a green leotard twirled her ribbon, shielding herself from the shrapnel. "These are your tools? I'll match yours - only mine are of a higher caliber!" her ribbon grabbed stones that lined the pathway one at a time and flicked them at the raggamuffin with long, tangled hair in a red, wrinkled dress.
The stones would have bruised her palms if Akane had not adjusted for them. The other parts of her body could not adjust to the mini-cannonballs as well. But she was able to evade most of them.
She threw one of her stones at a stone headed for her jugular. She, then, threw the other at another coming at another vital spot.
"Let us make the game more interesting, shall we?" Kodachi said, pulling out an Indian club from an azalea bush with her free hand. A push of a button and spikes sprang from inside.
Akane backed up, her eyes darting, always returning to the Black Rose, but looking for a tactic to use against -
All of her power went to the backward kick! Her platform shoe connected solidly with the scaly nose of the monster lunging from the pond!
Kodachi screamed! Then cried, "You horrid, horrid girl! What have you done to Mr. Green Turtle!"
"I defended myself against a crocodile!" The splashed Akane then slammed her right shoe down on its opening jaw. "I am defending myself!"
Just in time, she jumped out of the way of the spiked Indian club. The accordion pleat of her dress gave her just the freedom of movement she had needed.
She immediately grabbed the handle of the club, pulling it from the soft ground by the pond. "I can use this! Teeth against teeth!"
"No! That would be cruelty to animals! He is my pet!" she said, about to throw a second spiked club. Only to drop it.
Instead, she snapped her ribbon out and wrapped it around the first club.
Akane held on. And the ribbon became skewered by the spikes. It became a battle of strengths, each pulling on her end.
Akane was the stronger, with her unusual center of gravity making her practically immovable.
Stubbornly, though, Kodachi wouldn't let go and was pulled closer. And then she smiled.
That smile warned Akane in time! She saved herself once again from Mr. Green Turtle!
The beast chomped down on the ribbon instead of her. The ribbon became ensnarled by its spiky teeth. The crocodile, then, thrashed its jaw about, trying to be rid of it! It tore the ribbon out of the hands of his mistress and the club from its target.
While the animal was attacking itself with the spikes and tying its own mouth closed, the soaking wet, disheveled Akane advanced on the vicious pet owner. Her ruined makeup gave her a weird look.
Kodachi stood her ground, but said, "You disqualify yourself if you do not use tools!"
Akane's hand automatically reached out for a mallet, the largest she could find.
But she didn't pull any out from thin air. "You think I'm going to play your game?! I don't normally use weapons." And Akane drew back her fist. "I prefer unarmed combat!"
The first blow was satisfying. And the second! And…
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There were no tall buildings in the Kuno estate; they were all no higher than the fortress walls surrounding it. It would have been easier for Ranma and Shampoo if there had been. They ended up running over acres of rooftops.
But they had the framed map. And both were experienced trackers. "The greenhouse is on the other side of this roof," said the damp pigtailed boy in culotte-shorts and even more badly torn shirt-blouse. He had lost the platform shoes in the hot water.
The similarly dressed Chinese girl took his arm to stop him. She could no longer keep quiet. "Ranma kiss Loud Girl!"
"Her name is Akane, Shampoo. Do you want me to call you, uh, Simple Girl?"
"Simple Girl? That what Ranma think Shampoo is, simple?"
"Hey! I ain't tryin' to insult you! I don't think you're a simpleton - you're not! But the way you talk! It makes you sound simple."
"I talk the way I do because Chinese makes more sense. Japanese is way more complicated than it needs to be!"
"What!? You can speak Japanese?!" And better than he did!
"I am no simpleton. I can speak your language. Great-grandmother taught it to me. But Shampoo stubborn. Shampoo want to think like Shampoo. Think like warrior woman!" Using a language she was not used to required mental energy she could better use in other ways.
"Well, I guess I ain't somebody to knock that. I don't speak Japanese no better than I have to." He frowned as he spoke. He had to guard himself against using Female Language. Japanese was full of gender differences in the oddest places. Shampoo was right; Japanese was complicated. It boasted of being a "devilish language".
"If I speak like this, will you kiss me, too, Ranma?"
"Kiss you!? Don't I have to beat you in combat or something first?!" He would prefer that.
"When I speak like this, I am a different Shampoo." And she moved closer to him. "I am in a distant land with distant rules from my those of my tribe."
"Uh, I don't think you can just go and kiss somebody in Japan." He didn't know. He had kissed Kodachi and Mikado, and, yes, even Akane at school, only because he-and-she had to! The closest he, as a she, had come to kissing just because she felt like it was when she had kissed a pig. (Gee, man! Which turned out to be Ryoga! No! Don't think about that, Ranma!)
Wait. When in the middle of combat, she had kissed Shampoo on the nose. She felt it was the right thing-
Ranma turned his head away from lips that were getting too close.
"Shampoo win kiss! Shampoo beat Loud-" She released him. "I shall challenge Akane! The winner-"
He grabbed her and kissed her. It happened again! Again, it seemed the right thing to do!
"Ay, Ranma!" Shampoo said when she had caught her breath. "Shampoo no want think of red hair body, now." She had accepted the truce. The Kiss of Death could wait. It could be annulled if Ranma could defeat her and make her his wife!
"Sorry, Shampoo. If I'm s'pose to feel something special, I didn't."
This hurt her. "Ranma love kiss of Akane!"
"Uh, not really." Their first kiss had been special, but only because everybody was watching them and it was so important to get it right. Lives depended on it! But their second kiss, the one he had given Akane minutes ago, it was less than special. Having returned to being male only minutes before, he was still struggling with the last surges of the Female Flower of Love. Half-girl inside, he had discovered how bisexual his female part was: Not very.
But shouldn't the male part of him like kissing a girl. Especially Akane!? She was his best friend! (Ukyo was a guy, so he wouldn't want to kiss him.)
Was it the Warrior's Chastity training? Or (shudder) was he destined for shudou? (Maybe he would want to kiss Ukyo?!)
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"Mistress Kodachi!" Sasuke cried, seeing her unconscious and a somewhat bloodied on the ground. There would be bruises.
"Sasuke! Is it safe for I to proceed?!" Kuno asked from a little further back.
"It depends, Master." The small ninja looked at the girl rubbing her hand and standing over his third master. She was a mess. "Is Mistress Kodachi defeated, and are you the one responsible, Miss Akane Tendo?"
"Yes! And it's about time!" Stupid ten-year-long denial! Honestly, what kind of family trait is that!? If she didn't know of her dad's, Kasumi's, and Nabiki's blindspots, she wouldn't be seeing her own.
The man who came up to her bust put himself lower as he adopted the pivot, defend-or-offend posture. "I am terribly sorry, Akane, but I must punish you in the name of the family I serve. I am duty-bound, as it is the way of the ninja!"
Kuno rushed forward and shoved him aside, staring down at his fallen sibling. "Tell me that my eyes do not deceive me, but I perceive that my beloved sister has been vanquished!"
"No, Master Kuno, they do not deceive (yet again). One of the Kuno family's own has been assaulted. By samurai tradition, the perpetrator must be-"
"Akane! My spirited goddess of the moon and tides! To think that the first person to rightfully claim victory over the Black Rose is none other than you! I always knew you were worthy! Indeed, how could it not otherwise be, seeing as how many times you have fought me, the Blue Thunder, to a draw."
"Draw!? I've always beaten you, Senpai Kuno!" Senpai(Upperclassman)? The effect of the Female Flower of Love was wearing off. What kind of girl was she that it made her more blunt and unreserved than she normally was? Shouldn't that be a trait that the Male Flower of Love would bring out? Or was she naturally a battle-ax? Or maybe that was what a real feminist needed to be?!
(The flower had also had her being more conscious of the way she looked. At least, now, she cared less about that. And just in time, too!)
"There is no questioning that there is no tie here," Sasuke said. "Mistress Kodachi will not accept her defeat gracefully."
"A forgiving spirit and recognition of sportsmanship are, indeed, not in my sister's nature." Kuno turned to his manservant. "All the more reason for you not to punish Dear Akane. The Black Rose will want to do the dirty deed herself and would consider it a grave insult if an underling did what she considers her rightful prerogative."
"(Gulp) You are right, Master Kuno." The ninja bowed to Akane. "My sympathies and condolence, Miss Akane Tendo. I shall miss our times together."
"..."our times together"? -You meaning those you peep on me and my family!?"
A groan came below them. Kodachi was reviving. Opening her eyes, she immediately looked for a weapon.
The closest was the wooden sword of her brother.
His honor would not let her touch it.
The girl in the green leotard forced herself to get up into a lady-like sitting position on her knees. She almost touched her head and betray how badly she felt. But the disciple of Nietzsche willed herself to appear strong. What hurt most was the damage she was sure had been done to her beauty.
Akane wished that the Code would allow her to knock her out again while she had the advantage.
"So," she gave her brother and the head of the clan standing over her a steady, if dilated, gaze. "I see that my dishonor has been magnified. Perhaps I should consider seppuku," she said wryly. "I may.
"-After I have reclaimed what honor I can!" She knew just where Sasuke kept his throwing stars. And in a flash, she sent them at Akane!
Akane was pulled away from them and to Kuno's own body. "I will allow none of that, Dear Sister! Akane is now under clan protection! If harm of any kind whatsoever befalls her, I, your chief and priest, shall hold you accountable!"
"And what can you truly do to me? I already said I was ready to commit seppuku," she said, obviously not seriously.
Kuno frowned, unhappy at not being taken seriously, and by one who he, by rights, had power over. But that had always been the case with his twisted sister. If only…. Then he had one of his ideas and smiled. "I shall wed Akane and, thus, demote you in the line of inheritance!"
"What!?" Now that was something Kodachi took seriously!
"What?!" Now that was something Akane didn't want to take seriously!
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There below them was the acres, hectares, wide Greenhouse Laboratory, as the map called it. Neither Ranma nor Shampoo had seen many movies or TV shows; they were unfamiliar with the Mad Scientist tropes. They still felt uneasy. Just yesterday, they had been to the Trade Show of Dangerous and Cursed Plants. It was probably not the first one that plant collector Kodachi had been to.
Ranma tried to see in past the green slime that had found its way between the metal framework and spread over the glass panes. Some of it had even seeped onto the outside. "Do you want to try a door?"
"Scout first!" the still disappointed and frowning Shampoo answered and leaped. The boy followed.
The lavender-haired girl slipped on the slime. Ranma had to mid-air maneuver towards a section without slime.
It wasn't ordinary algae and the accomplished Chinese martial artist was slid towards one of the large panels of glass on the roof. Getting off the conveyor, she stepped on a part with no green on it.
The glass wasn't glass. It did not break - It gave beneath her! The clear algae let her fall through its sliminess!
"Shampoo!" Ranma cried, diving after her!
The amazon warrior landed on her feet, breaking pots and their plants beneath her slippered feet! As she was dealing with the pain and the task of maintaining her balance, she noticed the juice of at least one of those plants was very acidic. It was already eating away at the table she was on.
"Look out!" Ranma shouted as he tackled her! He saved her just as nearby plants released cactus needles, pepper spray, and mustard gas!
The strong and solidly muscled boy landed for them on an aisle between the tables of plants. For a moment, Shampoo could almost forget she was a warrior; she was more aware of she being a woman and Ranma being, now, a man. Her hand was on the bare skin of his chest as she was held, back and thighs, in his corded arms.
"Don't move, yet!" he told her in his male voice. His eyes and senses were vigilant for any sign of more attacks.
"Shampoo no move," she said as she leaned closer to him. Her training was screaming to be used. But her female instincts didn't want to listen. For far too long they had been neglected! This was her first real contact with a flesh-and-blood member of the opposite sex she was not battling. (Mousse didn't count, of course. Besides, he was the one she was most battling!)
There were no further signs of attack. "No sudden moves," he said, moving to set her on her feet. She was slow in letting go of him. "And no damagin' plants we don't have to."
The girl's hand slid from his manly chest over to his well-used hand. "Ranma and Shampoo together go where?"
Memories of Shampoo the relentless hunter intent on killing him when a girl tried to raise. But they didn't fit with this Shampoo. Her hand in his didn't seem to be leading up to a martial arts technique. Besides, he wasn't a girl now. He had no memories of the amazon wanting to attack him. - Unless she was still mad that he hadn't found her kiss special!
He shook his head. He had to think about the danger that was all around. He grasped her hand to better keep it from possibly attacking him. "We find the Female Flower of Love and the Male Flower of Weakness."
"The Male Flower of Weakness!" Shampoo remembered the effect one had had on Ranma's father. He hadn't wanted to be alone with his wife, but, now, they were on their second honeymoon - in a love motel! "Yes! We must find that."
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Kodachi attacked Tatewaki at his weak point: She laughed. As she rose off her knees, she mocked, "You can't marry. Not this girl, or any other." When she had risen to her full height, she looked him straight into his eyes. "Japanese law requires you to be eighteen. You are only a boy of seventeen."
"That's right!" Akane hurried to agree. Before, Kuno had seemed to only want to date her! (Unless that was another of her denials.)
But he was a Kuno, and he did not think like commoners. "Japanese law says that Akane can marry at sixteen. As any girl can. She and I can be half-married, until we can be fully married in a few months!"
" "Half-married"!?" Akane felt sick at the idea.
"But legally-"
"Legal! That's what it needs to be! Sasuke! See that a proper betrothal contract is prepared! Better! There must be one in the Kuno files! After all, Akane won't be the first of the clan's concubines."
"Concubine!" Akane cried.
"Concubine," the Black Rose sneered. But she knew being a 'half-wife' would give her opponent certain rights and duties. Rights and duties that would weaken her own position within the clan. But she smugly doubted the lowly girl would understand that.
Meanwhile, Sasuke was stuck between the fire and the frying pan of two opposing masters. He was only glad his first master wasn't present as well.
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Their palms were becoming sweaty, and not in the way Shampoo hoped for. The hot humidity inside the greenhouse was making things uncomfortable.
Something drew Ranma's attention. "What Ranma see?" Shampoo asked, staring. "Is only long table with bonsai trees."
"Have you ever seen small coconut trees? I have." The Headmaster, the father of the Kunos, had one on his head before Ranma had cut it off. Then he went from thinking he was Hawaiian to thinking whatever nationality got into his head for that day. Could these be one of the Cursed Plants? Were they what made him 'Hawaiian'?
"Shampoo see big coconut trees." There, further away, was a small grove of the potted palms inside the greenhouse.
"Man, just what the Hawaiian Kuno'd need to decorate with."
"Hawaiian Kuno? Kuno no Japanese?" Wiping the dampness from her forehead with her forearm, the warrior woman realized the heat she felt reminded her of her fits of anger.
"Oh, you haven't met Kuno's dad, yet! He's more nuts than his kids! I think, maybe, these coconuts have something to do with that," he said, looking at the bonsai trees.
Shampoo tied to giggle. She was still looking at the large trees. "Ranma think coconut fall on head of Headmaster?"
"Man! Too many theories about the guy! Enough! We gotta take care of the flowers we came for!"
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"About the Kuno files, Master Kuno," Sasuke said to his second-in-priority master, "...they are in as much need of 'repair' as the mechanisms of the Kuno Chateau. Perhaps, if you could-"
"You need not use your time-split technique to search them, Sasuke," his mistress told him.
"As a humble servant, I must do what my masters command of me, even if it means splitting myself to be into two, three, or…" and he groaned with, "or more times at once." He almost let himself cry as he sighed, "I lose height every time I do it." Then, in a barely heard grumble, he said, "Not that my masters give me many chances to regain some of my lost height."
His master suddenly realized the implication of his sister's words. "I think he does, Dear Sister - Sasuke! The nearest camera!"
Now that Akane had heard the talk about a "time-split technique", she was more prepared to see what happened next. Sasuke leaped up into a tree and out of sight and then almost immediately returned. But for a couple of seconds, she saw two of the little ninjas passing each other, briefly merging before continuing in different directions. The time-split technique must be how the ninja was able to do all the many things his masters demanded of him. No wonder they keep him around despite not being the perfect servant he tried to be.
"The camera!" This Sasuke said, presenting Kuno with an old-fashioned, film camera. "I believe the timer was operating properly and the evidence you seek is in one or more of the sequence of film frames."
"You will not use those pictures," the Black Rose warned. "They would dishonor...the Kuno name!"
"Exactly! Letting the world see the ignoble defeat of a Kuno? And by one socially inferior? That would a quite a serious scar on our superior reputation!"
"Hey! I've defeated you too many times to count!" Akane said angrily.
"Please, Miss Akane, do not persist in claiming that!" Sasuke said. "It is only by Master Kuno's generosity and his claiming to have only been tied in your matches that he is able to not treat you as a criminal to the clan. Remember, the Kunos live by traditions before the Rule of Law, where might made right. Tatewaki Kuno should be admired for doing what he can to make the traditions less harsh."
" "Admire, Kuno"?!" she snorted. But she did see there was some truth in what the little ninja said. He had never been as bad as his sister - or his dad!
Kuno, of course, took her saying Admire, Kuno the wrong way. He was filled with pride. "But the clan will have no great loss of face when Akane is married into the clan! She would no longer be an outsider! Her superiority will become part of ours."
"And, then, my vendetta becomes a family affair," Kodachi smiled evilly. 'Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.'
Kuno had been right, unlike him, the Black Rose did not have a forgiving spirit and recognition of sportsmanship.
"Hey, wait! I don't want to be a part of this family!"
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The greenhouse was huge: acres, hectares, large! And long tables filled with potted plants were everywhere, with only bushes, shrubs, and trees scattered among them along with hydroponic tanks. Finding two small flowers was seeming like a hopeless task. "Maybe we should jump up to those metal beams and joists and get a bird's-eye view," Ranma said.
Shampoo glomped onto his arm. Before he could react, the frowning girl pointed to them. "Is more of slime up there! Is part of guard system!"
"Then how are we gonna find the flowers?!" There were more tables with flowers on them than not.
"Pink and blue." (Her rising anger was beginning to make her question how much she wanted the Male Flower of Weakness.)
Ranma nodded. Most of the groups of flowers were basically of the same color. It was going to take sharp, trained senses to pick out two small, odd flowers among the others. But how much time did they have? They couldn't move too quickly without attracting the attacking plants. They may be able to survive a few, but not tablesful at once!
"Shampoo glad Ranma here!" she said, not only clutching his hand, but her other fingers almost digging into his back. "This place remind Shampoo of childhood enemy from village of herbs and flowers." If she were the fearful type, she could be using her dislike as an excuse to cling to this rugged male. But her disliked was out of hatred, and it had her dragging her feet more and more.
At last, she was resisting going any further. The plants were overwhelming her! "Ranma, Shampoo want find door!"
"Door? Where would that…." Ranma was looking to one of the walls and the outside its panels of glass showed. "That's a good idea."
"Ranma go outside?!" Shampoo said, hopefully.
"No. Kodachi probably left the flowers by the door, if she wants to use them soon." And he began looking around for something, anything, different in the greenhouse. "What do you think a plant laboratory looks like?"
"Shampoo no know. But Shampoo know what pharmacy of great-grandmother look like." And she scanned for the sign.
"There!" Smoke rose many yards, meters, away. And where there was smoke, there was fire - more heat to feed her angry associations!
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"You have no choice in the matter, Concubine," Kodachi told Akane. "Traditionally," she said, eyeing her brother, hoping to use this trigger word in her favor, "you are a subject of the Kuno Fiefdom, and therefore must do and give whatever your lord or lady demands of you."
"What!?" Akane cried at the nerve of the Kunos!
"It is true, Miss Akane," Sasuke said. "Traditionally, Japan was totalitarian for a thousand years. The longest in history."
"Well, it ISN'T anymore! And I won't let it be!"
"She is defying you, Lord Kuno," the Black Rose told him.
"As do you, Dear Sister."
"I have not killed her, yet."
"And you won't!" And Akane produced her largest mallet.
"Huh, Miss Akane, I do not think that will be of much use against paralysis powders or poisons."
"May I suggest, 'The best defense is offense'?" Kuno said.
"That would go against the Code! (Stupid Code.)" But it would also go against the ideas behind what made a true martial artist. That was what mattered most to Akane of the Tendo Dojo! Her answer was, 'A martial artist must be prepared to lay down her life'.
"True. But as a samurai lord, I must abide by another Code."
"Which rules that this peasant must be punished for defying her lord and master!" Kodachi pressed her case.
"Master, uh, Mistress, may I report that Miss Akane is of samurai blood," Sasuke said. "And on both sides of her lineage!" He did the best he was allowed to do for her.
"But still of lesser rank!" Kodachi said.
"Not really. Her ancestors ruled the Tendo domain of Yamagata Prefecture."
"But they do not now! And they cannot be recognized because they have renounced the Traditions!"
"I thought our family came from the Dewa Province, just north of Yamagata," Akane said. Was the ninja right?
"The addition of the Tendo blood can only make that of the Kuno clan all the purer," its lord and high priest declared. "Sasuke! See that Akane becomes my concubine that she may become my wife!"
"But your ancestors weren't even samurai! They were kuge!" Bureaucrats!
The Tendos weren't the only one with denial as a family trait.
But Sasuke Sarugakure's could tell her, "All the more reason for them to marry into a true samurai bloodline."
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Shampoo rushed forward toward the smoke and the sound of air conditioning! Kodachi did not share her brothers need to keep the Kuno estate as authentically antique as he had 'inherited' it.
"Shampoo, no!" Ranma told her.
Fruit dropped and exploded with enough force to rattle tables. Small, round berries were shaken off their bushes and rolled into their path. She slipped on some and fell, squashing them beneath her.
She screamed in pain! "Cold! Cold! Too cold!"
She shoved herself off the floor and tore off her blouse. Beneath her yellow sports bra were stains and some damaged skin. Ranma smelled something that reminded him of menthol, a chemical that triggered the cold nerves.
He helped her up. "Remember: No sudden movements! At least you're not burnin' from something spicy."
"Cold bad enough!" she frowned. But it had cooled her unreasoning anger down.
Ranma had an idea. Picking up a berry, he popped it. He spread its juice around before it could concentrate in one place, and then rubbed his hands over the back of his neck. "They can help you feel more cool," he said. Kodachi had more than just air conditioning to keep herself cool in the humid hothouse. The bushes were near one of the entrance doors, ready for her to use when she came in.
Shampoo didn't want to have anything more to do with the berries. The girl with only a bra on top was walking, carefully, to the air-conditioned laboratory.
It was a large room with no door and no windows except for those facing the inside of the greenhouse. There were, though, open cases along its other walls, filled different plants. And included among them were the pink Female Flower of Love and the blue Male Flower of Weakness in their own small, plastic cases.
Shampoo easily took the Male Flower's, her interest in it renewed.
"We should destroy those flowers," Ranma said. But, berries in hand, he was more interested in the large, ornate and ancient urn hanging by a swing arm over a raised fire pit. The smoke they had seen came from this and another one that looked more like a very old-fashioned furnace. The smoke had been let into the greenhouse to help keep it humid. This part of it must have tropical plants. And those that didn't mind the soot.
Finally, he had to ask, "Why doesn't she use an electric or gas stove?"
"Is for alchemy! Great-grandmother say all ancient recipes use alchemy burner, before modern invention. Must use burner if want recipe made correct!" She wasn't impressed by the other things she saw in the room. To Ranma, it looked like a high school chem lab.
"I guess that makes sense. Okay, let's destroy these plants and- Shampoo!"
She had gone over to a large, ornate and ancient looking book open on a stand. "Is recipe book!"
"We didn't come for that! -Shampoo! It's too big to take with us! Besides, we're bettin' Kodachi doesn't go too crazy when we destroy just two flowers. She will go completely psycho if we take her book!"
"Hmf!" Shampoo turned up her nose too dramatically. "Great-grandmother have many, more big, more old recipe book!"
"Look, I don't like not doin' something about the book, or this greenhouse. But it has to be right by the Code. And Kodachi has to know she is goin' against the Code. She won't admit it, but inside she'll know and that'll keep her from gettin' all righteous and over-the-top."
"Can not threaten if already destroy thing," the warrior woman said it more simply.
[] [] []
"I've had enough of this! I'm going home!" Akane said, storming away. "Try and stop me and I'll beat you all up - Again!"
Again, Sasuke tried to help her as best as he was allowed, "Master Kuno, Miss Ranma Saotome is samurai on her mother's side."
"Ranma?!" Akane cried, stopping in her tracks!
"Ranma Saotome!?" Kodachi cried, her fury doubled!
Tatewaki saw the effect the name had on his sister. And he was still identifying with his role as leader of their clan. "A fine suggestion, Sasuke. If something unfortunate should happen to my goddess of the hunter's moon, Akane, then Ranma, my goddess of Venus, shall be my wife!" he declared.
"Ranma won't agree to marry you either, Kuno!" Akane told him.
"Not even to save your life, Miss Akane?" Sasuke said. "Or revenge if your life is taken?" His real audience wasn't her, but, rather, the eavesdropping Kodachi. His Mistress had to believe that Ranma would, just to take her down lower in clan status. Such was the 'logic' of internal clan politics.
"Ranma can't marry you! She's really a, a, uh…" Dare she say it?!
"-a lesbian! See, Dear Brother? Even the upstart recognizes your threat as empty," Kodachi snorted. She was more practical than her idealistic brother.
"We do not know that of a certainty," he answered. "Once her friend is truly endangered, she may well have a change of heart."
[] [] []
"Ranma! Book of Recipes open to Womanhood Flower!" And Shampoo began reading.
Or tried to. "Stupid Japanese! Your writing system is even more complicated than your spoken language! Chinese people know how to read Chinese even when they can't understand each other when they speak!"
Ranma had moved up beside her and did the reading. "It does tell how to use the two flowers!" He shuddered at the idea of being made permanently docile and submissive, only interested in the things a mother would be interested in. - And it worked on men as effectively as it worked on women!
He ripped the page from the book and tore it to little pieces. "There! And even if Kodachi does know how to make the recipe, I read the antidotes! There are three of them!" There was one for each sex but also one for both. But who wants to keep a flower-holder in their hair? "We can go, now.
"Shampoo!?" he frowned at her. She had taken a test tube of some dark, colored chemical and splashed one of the pages of the book with it.
"Is threat! Bad Girl now know Ranma and Shampoo know about book and plants. Bad Girl go too far and Bad Girl loose treasured things."
"A threat, huh? I wonder what other ways I can use keep her under control?" He heard the siren call to heroes. Ever since he had become almost convinced that the Accursed Training Ground of Jusenkyo was there to make better martial artists of those worthy and would punish those who were not, he had been trying to be more of a hero. Or heroine. Girls could be heroes, too, he vowed.
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Akane was angry! And not just from what happened between her and 'her Lord and Lady Kunos'. After successfully stomping away from them, she had triggered two booby traps so far. There was the tiger trap that looked like normal ground until she stepped on it and almost fell onto sharp poles yards, meters, below. Clinging to the grass with her fingers, she had kicked off her platform shoes and dug her toes into the damp clay that lined the pit. That left her and her new dress filthy as well as yet more wet and wrinkled after she had already fallen in a vat of hot water and been splashed by a pond's crocodile. Then her dress had been torn by the thorn bushes that attacked her when she broke a tripwire. She had been lucky to escape with only some scratches. Knowing the Black Rose, they could have been poison-tipped!
"Which way is out!?" she cried in frustration. In her anger, she had gotten turned around and lost her way!
"Dearest Akane! It is not safe to be in Kuno Chateau unaccompanied!" Kuno called after her.
Then he screamed as he himself triggered one of its traps! Akane was tempted to not find out what had happened to him. "Idiot," she cursed, turning around.
The kendo master had his bokken but was unable to use it. A bolo had been launched and its cord was wrapped around him and a tree. Instead of a long-winded excuse, as she expected, he said, "I am glad to see that you are unharmed, my Diana of the Night!"
"Unharmed!? Look at what your insane place did to me and my new dress…." then she realized: He hadn't cared about any that! He didn't care! Kuno wasn't interested in her because of her looks - He admired her as a martial artist! This was her weak point, and it reached down into her heart.
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How is it possible for Sasuke to do all the things that are expected of him? The time-split technique lets him be in more than one place at the same time. It does not allow him to be seen being in two places; one of his "after images" has to disappear into the other. He can only be seen to be doing things at incredible speed (as in his fetching the camera in this episode) if he had already anticipated the task ahead of time.
This technique requires that energy be whittled away from him. One form is physical and takes away some of his height. Another form is mental and takes away some of his concentration to details. And that means he will never be the perfect servant.
