Chapter 9: To walk a mile or ten, part 1
Perception of the universe depends, by definition, on each spectator's point of view. Thus no truth can be absolute.
(A/N: When writing Akane's and Ranma's names, I'll be referring to their minds. Body specifics, including pronouns, will correspond to the bodies. )
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Akane, still sitting on the ground, was desperately trying to come to terms with the situation. She took a couple of deep breaths, glancing at Ranma's prone form and wishing she had fainted like that too. She wasn't sure she could or wanted to deal with this new development. She stared at her hand, a hand smaller than her own and unfamiliar. She clenched and unclenched her fingers, marveling at the sensation, the pure power she could feel under her skin. It felt like the blood was singing in her veins, she decided. Ranma's body seemed to be in a constant state of sugar high by her standards. Pushing back envy and promising to herself she will one day reach and surpass that feeling with her own body, she reigned her determination and decided to do something more creative than simply lie around.
Rising to her feet, she almost swooned as Ranma's sharp senses assaulted her mind. She noted that Ranma's body had a weak version of chi vision permanently active. It took her some seconds to come to terms with the onslaught of information, but she soon found her center. Sighing, she leaned next to Ranma and regarded what was until recently her own body. Her hand moved reflexively and brushed one of the black-blue bangs out of Ranma's face, then froze as she realized what she was doing. Akane reached and griped Ranma's wrist, then recoiled in morbid fascination. She had only placed what seemed to her like moderate power and yet she had left distinct bruises on her former body's arm.
Is this why Ranma doesn't like hitting me even while sparring, she asked herself gulping. I always say how I'm not made of china glass, but this...
Akane shook her head. There would be time for contemplation later, she decided. For now, they had to return home. As gently as she could, she lifted the slightly larger body in bridal style, marveling at how light it felt. And that jerk had the nerve to call me heavy... Distracted, she looked around, remembered where she was and attempted to leap to the closest rooftop.
She was very surprised when she found herself twenty meters from the ground and upside-down. Letting a yelp of surprise, she only had time to shield Ranma's body and brace for impact. She felt the pain at her back as she reached the ground, then nothing. Blinking again, she stood on her feet, regarding the crater she had created on the tarmac, then bit her lip. No pain or damage whatsoever to her body. What is this baka made of? She wondered incredulously. Sighing, she decided it would be safer to run the distance instead, lest she actually blundered and hurt her former body.
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Shampoo had never killed a human in her life, but it was hardly because of lack of effort. As far as she was concerned this would change soon. After all, Kodachi Kuno was neither supernaturally powerful and elusive like Ranma nor would her death prove detrimental to her or her tribe's health like Akane's. However, as the amazon dodged another razor-edged hoop that tore at the roof below her, she admitted the gymnast was if nothing else talented. Kodachi had reached to the point where she was subconsciously using her chi, both to augment her body and to imbue her tools. Of course, without awareness and proper guidance she would be hard pressed to reach Shampoo's level. The problem was, the Black Rose's style was hit, distract and run, a natural enemy to the amazon's more direct and brutal technique.
Ducking a razor-sharp ribbon that severed a chimney in half, Shampoo rolled forward, trying to slash at the gymnast with her sword. Kodachi parried with a steel rod disguised as a rope, altering the blade's trajectory enough to jump out of harm's way. Shampoo snorted as she had to leap back pretty fast to avoid the same chimney that had been yanked by the ribbon and thrown right where her head used to be.
The amazon muttered a curse in mandarin. She knew that particular parry very well as she had been both at the giving and at the receiving end of it. Everybody seemed keen to incorporate Anything-goes in their style these days. She, Mousse and Ukyo had been forced to make changes here and there in their personal forms, as challenge upon challenge would rear its ugly head. Ryouga was practically an adept of the style after all that time and now even Kuno and his sister were picking tricks here and there.
Narrowing her brows, Shampoo channeled her chi in her bonbori, then sent forth a small chi blast. It was nowhere near the madness powerhouses like Ranma and Ryouga would unleash but it was enough to overwhelm Kodachi. The gymnast, with no time to dodge, crossed two clubs in an 'X' fashion and intercepted the attack. It still smashed through the tools and hit her just above the diaphragm, although it was weakened enough to only smack her in a wall behind her instead of burning through her. Grunting, the Black Rose regained her wits and threw a smoke bomb, then another razor hoop. Shampoo sensed it coming despite the smokescreen and leaped in the air, high enough to somersault above the smoke cloud.
Kodachi smirked. She knew she was no match for the other seasoned warrior in a straightforward fight, but tricks were her middle name. Shampoo's eyes went wide as a ribbon wrapped around her ankle, then yelped as the club that was tied at its end bounced on her skin. It would have been a minor inconvenience, if not for the spikes that shot out a second later and grazed her leg. Still in the air, she tried to correct her fall, then dismissed her sword in hidden weapon space. Charging her hand with life energy, she knifed at the ribbon, severing it without cutting her skin. Landing casually, she cringed as the gymnast voiced her hideous laugh then tried to run away leaving a trail of black petals. Shampoo attempted to follow, but found her body was heavy. In horror, she realized the club's spikes had been poisoned. Not losing a second, she let her mind elapse into a special meditative technique that would slowly purge most harmful substances from her body. When she looked again, the Kuno girl was out of her sight.
Shampoo sighed. Perhaps she should try again tomorrow with the same potion. For today she had had enough of the training life in Nerima entrails and it was only early afternoon.
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Ranma tried to return to awareness but it felt like having to swim though quicksand to reach there. Everything felt wrong, her mind warned. She slowly opened her eyes, sighing in relief as she realized she was inside the Tendo Dojo and not on the bed of some rich weirdo. That last occurrence had been happening often enough as it was. She noticed in disbelief there was another person inside the building, one her chi senses failed to indicate. That person was running through a simple yet intense kata she recognized as part of the basic Anything-goes style. As the fog left her mind, Ranma's eyes went wide.
"Who are you!" she demanded, jumping to her feet and assuming a battle stance. What seemed like her female form snapped her attention to her then sighed in relief.
"It's me, Ranma. It seems things started going crazy again."
Her eyes went wide. "Akane?" she breathed in disbelief. "Wha-why do you look like me?"
The neo-redhead sighed again. "We somehow switched bodies Ranma" she clarified hesitantly. She was mentally shouting to herself not to panic. From what her newfound senses indicated, Ranma was quickly spiraling into shock.
Ranma felt the world around her spinning, apparently intent to give her a bad case of motion sickness. She absently thought how the world was out to get her as she swooned and collapsed against the dojo wall. Akane shook her head and rushed to her side. "Come on, Ranma, don't faint on me again" she muttered testily.
"Guys... don't... faint" she muttered haltingly. "They pass out."
Akane rolled her eyes. "That would be fine and all, only you are currently a girl, Ranma."
That snapped the formerly pig-tailed martial artist out of her stupor. "Oh shit! I'm a girl. I'm a girl! I'm a GIRL!!!" she babbled frantically.
Akane tapped her on the head, not sure how much force to use. She winced as her fiancée let a pained groan. "Really, Ranma. You needed to get control of my body to realize I'm a girl?" she asked idly, biting her lip.
"Nope, I learned that from day one" she muttered, missing the actual significance of Akane's words.. Before Akane could even think of growing angry, Ranma focused on the situation at hand again. "But that's not the point! The problem is I'm a girl!!"
Her fiancée felt an overwhelming urge to start smashing cinder blocks... with her head. "Stop saying it over and over like a damn mantra. You've been changing to a girl for two and a half years. You even had to stay in female form at times."
"But then I knew my body was within reach. This body is full girl! And what gives you the right to be so calm about it! I bet it's the larger boobs or something..."
Akane had to squelch the urge to drive her former body through the floor. "You forget I've been in the body of a doll twice. After that this is no big deal" she retaliated, grinding her teeth.
"Wait till you hit hot water, then talk" came the murmur as Ranma impulsively hugged her own small frame.
Akane decided Ranma was too frantic to reason with for now. She briskly walked out of the dojo. "I'm going for a walk. When you stop acting like a girl, I'll come back so that we might solve this mess."
Ranma decided he had hyperventilated enough and lost himself inside the soul of ice, deep enough to fill the dojo's interior with white mist. She spent some minutes meditating like that, letting a relieved sigh as she returned to normal awareness. The problem was still there, but now Ranma felt ready to deal with it.
As she jumped to her feet and stretched, a sudden thought crashed in her mind. "She is going for a walk" she muttered, recalling Akane's words. "While wearing my body... In Nerima..."
Ranma was out running before her mind could fully appreciate the severity of the situation. A second later, when it did, she decided to push Akane's body to its limits. Ranma couldn't let her fiancée get herself killed, after all, especially when her own body was also involved.
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As soon as Akane left the Tendo estate, her worries seemed to vanish. She couldn't rightly describe the feeling , but it was very close to exhilaration. She had recently learned to recognize and consciously use her chi, although Ranma was constantly egging her to improve her control. In her own body, the life energy usually felt like a mass of warm air just below her lungs. In Ranma's body it felt like seething magma, ready to jump and flood the world at her whim.
"Ranma was right, I shouldn't feel so happy about this" she muttered guiltily. Guilt, however, failed to prevent her from jumping from rooftop to rooftop like a superball, missing a landing more often than not and leaving small craters to her wake, dismissing the brief pain. Akane felt the urge to start giggling in glee as she performed acrobatics she up to then believed to be physically impossible.
Her mirth was cut short when her new and ten times more intense danger sense compelled her to dodge to the left. She cringed as a reinforced red umbrella reduced a wall to dust. The figure of a man came out of the resulting cloud.
"Ranma, prepare to die!"
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01-04-07: This chapter is a bit smaller than usual, although if I did a decent job, you shouldn't have noticed until now. I feel the shampoo-kodachi battle should have been longer, but I didn't want to focus too much on them. I sure hope my little cliffhanger can keep you interested until next time.
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