The Twelve Heavenly Chores of Saotome Ranma

by Juan Milagro

Ranma gets noticed by the Kami after the Battle of Jusendo and the death of Saffron. They charge Nabiki with hubris and sacrilege against them and heaven at large, even as They nominate Ranma to be the next demigod. This is a crossover between Ranma 1/2 and the Chrestomanci stories by Diana Wynne Jones. Readers are here advised that I am drawing from the Japanese language version.

4. Chapter 4: Akane's Unexpected Adventure

The Twelve Heavenly Chores of Saotome Ranma

Chapter 4: Akane's Unexpected Adventure

Akane sat down heavily on a hexagonal stump of basalt rock and surveyed her surroundings. The youkai had led her to a wedding of foxes just as she had expected, but once she arrived, every participant in the wedding kept waiving her away and pointing downhill to the thick stand of sugi she had just stumbled out of.

This place, an old growth forest, was in its early summer season. The trees were so tall and so big around that walking on the forest floor was much like blundering about on the bottom of the sea. The dim green rays of light were punctuated with the flashes of innumerable fireflies.

Rather than the luminescent yellowish-green she was accustomed to, these fireflies also flashed pale reds, sharp blues and pure yellows as well as the bright yellowish-green of the fireflies she had grown up with in Nerima.

The fireflies are distracting me from what I need to do, Akane thought. She shook her head in an effort to clear her thoughts. Gotta focus. I'm sitting in this clearing where the soil is too thin to support the trees. There is this long skinny field of basalt stumps sticking up across the slope. Even so, the tall trees have this placed trapped in a deep shadow. There's slick moss growing on the basalt, so I need to find another rout. It's too risky to cross this Devil's post pile. I'm by myself and who knows who or what might find me if I slip and injure a leg or an arm. There are youkai that will readily eat an injured human. More than a few of them have threatened to eat my flesh and not kill me first.

Akane tried to suppress a shudder and failed. Not only was she frightened, but her tramp through the dripping giant cryptomeria forest had soaked her clothing to her skin.

She leaned over to her left so that she could scratch her right buttock.

"Gotta get a backpack to carry for these kinds of unexpected jaunts," she muttered to herself as she leaned over to her right so that she could scratch her other cheek. "I'd give anything for a dry towel. Now I know how Ranma must've felt living on the road for ten years; no change of clothes; no hot meals unless you build a fire; constant cold or constant heat. There's just no way to travel this way and be comfortable."

And no way to preserve your clothing, either, Akane thought. This day dress is in tatters. I'll never wear it again. I'll be lucky if I have anything at all on by the time I get back to Nerima.

This led her to ponder other possibilities, even as it reminded her of all the times that Ranma had been trapped in a battle while in his girl form. He often had to fight with too few or no clothes on, but he never let that distract him from the fight.

I wonder what he would think if I stumbled through the gate as naked as he has several times? He'd probably laugh and then give me a pinch or a sly rub somewhere embarrassing. He loves staring at my naked body, even though that's not commonly known just yet.

Thinking about the nights that they had spent in her room as girls made her already stiff nipples crinkle a little tighter.

"Don't go there, Akane!" She said out loud. "They'll get chapped. It's bad enough to be wearing wet clothing in tatters, let alone having sore nips."

She tried in vain to suppress another shudder and then found herself trying to keep her jaws from chattering.

"Body temperature's low," Akane muttered. "There just isn't enough sun at the bottom of this deep old forest."

Why did I follow those youkai on the train? Akane asked herself. The wedding the youkai led me to wasn't for me or any of my family. The foxes did not want me there. Everyone simply ignored me. I was completely out of place there. Why did I come? It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I can see that it wasn't. I am so-oo stupid sometimes. Now I am lost, wet and cold. I could die from exposure here and no one would ever find my body. Worse, I am completely on my own. There is no way that Ranma will ever be able to find me.

Hot tears welled up in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Her nose stung and began to drip. She wiped at it and sniffled. She fought for self-control and finally gained a small measure of it. Enough to kill her sniffling anyway.

"Hello-oh!" Akane shouted. "Can anyone hear me?"

The echoes of her voice were short lived. Sugi forests are made up of mostly soft surfaces and do not reflect sound all that well, so she waited for a few seconds and hearing no reply, she tried again.

"Hello! Can anyone hear me? I'm lost, cold and wet! I need help!"

The echoes of her voice quickly died and no answer came. Akane shouted four or five more times and then decided that she may as well blunder on.

Dying on your feet is far better than simply lying down and dying, Akane, she thought. At least if I'm moving I might find a trail or something. I don't even want to think about Dad or Ranma learning that I just sat down and died. I'd never hear the end of it once they finally meet up with me on the other side.

The going cross slope was difficult. This forest was choking on its own ruin. It was old and had not been through a cleansing fire for several decades. There were rotting limbs and stumps everywhere Akane looked. Vines pulled at her as she plowed through them, and under story plants with huge leaves lapped wetly at her face and body. Some of the vines had thorns that ripped both her clothing and her exposed skin. Even worse, she could feel the painful itching bites of leeches attaching themselves to her skin.

"Next time I'll know better than to set out on a trip with the youkai wearing a dress," she muttered as she stopped to remove a leech high up on her inner thigh. "Should have known better than to follow a bunch of half-transparent and irresponsible creatures anyway. Why am I so stupid? I never do seem to think ahead."

She slipped on the deep matting of fallen needles and other detritus several times during the next two hours. She skinned both knees, her right elbow and her chin. The skinned patch on her chin was especially annoying. There was just enough bleeding from it to ruin her dress.

Akane had built up enormous stamina while training with Ranma, but this forest was so rough that she was dog tired after a mere three hours of trekking. She was dying to sit down and have a rest by the time the field of basalt stumps tapered to a point and vanished, but sensing that flat ground was nearby, she pushed on. Just as she was about to give in to her fatigue, she stumbled out onto a wide, well-worn path. There were no needles on it, and the ground was packed so hard that the misty rain had not turned into soft mud.

"Hmph! Been lots of traffic on this trail," Akane said. "Must be fairly well traveled, but which way do I go?"

She looked to her left. The path wound around to-and-fro along the gully as it went down hill. To her right, it wound to-and-fro uphill. The wide path was very much like the train tracks in Tokyo. It looked as though it was in a tunnel, only this was a tunnel through trees rather than structural steel and buildings.

"Downhill is easier and more likely to lead to people, if there are any in this place," Akane said. "I may as well go that way."

She turned to her left and staggered down the hill on the wide winding path. It wandered alongside a stream or small river. The stream was large enough to make the difference between a creek and a river difficult for Akane to discern. She was so tired that she did not care anyway. All she could focus on was putting one foot in front of the other.

She began to reminisce about the pilgrimages Soun insisted on her and the rest of his family take part in. Soun had, for several years, gone to the place where Ieyasu Tokugawa had been buried twice a year, once in the fall and again the following spring. For several years Soun prided himself in taking part in the historical reenactment of the "procession of a thousand warriors." Those processions had been Soun's main reason for spending so much money on his family's antique armor. Akane, smiled through her fatigue as she recalled how proud her father had been to take part in those quasi religious ceremonies. Soun looked so brave and fierce when he wore his armor. He was an entirely different man so long as it was on his body.

I wonder if Dad's armor is magical, like that dougi was? It sure makes a different person out of him.

They stopped attending the reenactments once the stock market fell apart and the money ran short. The processions proved to be entirely too expensive for a man of Soun's means. He could no longer participate in them. Akane had been glad for the relief from the boring tedium until she realized how important those trips had been to her father. They had always been exhausting, both physically and financially, but Soun's personality became increasingly frail after his lack of finances forced him to stop taking part. He seemed to regard his inability to keep up with the other participants as a kind of personal failing.

The sound of running water coupled with the wet misty atmosphere had combined to throw her memory back into her childhood. She remembered the physical torment she had suffered during those pilgrimages. This was much the same. She was seeing her early childhood from a more mature perspective now.

She remembered that Nabiki had never complained about the physical hardships inherent in taking part in those silly pilgrimages, until their money ran short. Kasumi, of course, never so much as raised a single eyebrow. She had reacted as she believed their mother would have reacted - with a stiff upper lip and stoic silence. Kasumi had simply prepared such food as they could afford and made certain that her younger sisters had the clothing they needed for those exhausting trips. Their last pilgrimage had taken place the year before the Saotome had arrived.

Akane remembered the places they shopped at while looking for the necessary clothing, and realized that they had all been places that specialized in trading second hand clothing.

"Hell, we still shop in some of those places," she muttered under her breath. "Most of the best clothes I wear everyday came from those kind of shops."

Mastering the Martial Arts is not only physically demanding, it costs a great deal of money was well, Akane thought. Now I can understand why Nabiki turned out the way she has. Dad led us down a path that leads only to financial ruin. Whatever on earth possessed him to do such a thing?

Her nose suddenly twitched at the fragrant smell of chicken roasting over hardwood coals. Her stomach heaved as well, reminding her that she had not eaten since her early breakfast. The memory of her morning meal seemed very distant and very small as she stood in the winding path that had finally leveled out. She could see a small cluster of buildings straddling the path ahead.

How long have I been on my feet today? Akane asked herself as she stopped to take stock of her situation. It took the better part of four hours for me to reach the wedding, and I have been stumbling around lost now for - almost six hours now! Does it ever get dark here?" I've been here long enough that it should be well past sundown, but there's not even a hint that the light is fading.

Akane was now dreading what she might find up ahead, but forced herself to keep moving anyway. The smell of cooking food only became stronger as she walked. She was salivating by the time she reached the traditional looking structures clustered around the wide path. Most of this village appeared to be between the path and the little river, but a great deal of its better buildings were on the upward slope on her right.

She came to a stop and stood violently shivering in front one attractive building. It was attractive for two reasons: its front was covered with ornate carvings like one of the more famous sentou back home, and there was the mouth watering aroma of yakitori emanating from it. Akane stared at the building as her shivering became violent shuddering. The hunger pangs nearly doubled her over. There was another smell that made her think of something, but she could not quite dredge it up out of her tired little mind.

This isn't a sentou, it's a ryokan, Akane thought. A very old ryokan.

"Konnichi wa gozaimasu!" Called out a youkai that looked for all the world like a western dwarf or halfling, maybe. It bowed to Akane after it had descended the five steps that led into the ancient wooden building. "The master was expecting you long before now. You cut through the forest to take a shortcut I suppose, yes?"

"Uh - ah - er..."

"You're drenched and cold," the dwarf said, before Akane could think of anything to say. "You must be starving. Follow me."

Akane finally managed to speak between shivers. She discovered that it was necessary to clinch her teeth so that they would not chatter. "I was expected? Why?"

"Yes you were and it is for training," the dwarf answered without looking back. "Where have you been?"

"I - uh - went to a wedding...uh..."

By the time she could half-answer the dwarf's question, they were in a dark little corner of an out building.

"Wait here," the dwarf said, pointing at a bath stool. "I'll be right back."

Bath stool or not, Akane was grateful to be able to sit down on something. She sat with her knees together and was just getting control of her shivering when the dwarf returned with another. The first dwarf was bearing a tray, the other was carrying towels and a yukata.

"Here, drink this first," the familiar dwarf said. "Careful, it's hot."

Akane took the proffered cup in both hands and sniffed it. It was sake. She had tried sake a few times before and had not liked it. In fact, after having tried it a fourth or fifth time, she vowed to never to put it in her mouth ever again, but she was cold this time, and the liquid in the cup was deliciously warm, so she drank it quickly and immediately regretted gulping it down. This sake was more like an ambrosia than it was a liquid made from rotting rice. It tasted nothing like the sake her father had given her.

"Oh, that was good!" Akane exclaimed as she put the tiny cup down on the tray. "May I have another, please?"

"Of course, you may," the dwarf said as it set the tray down on another stool in front of Akane. "Right after you eat."

The tray had a tiny bento packed with rice and skewer of roast chicken lying across it. There was a tall glass of water sitting beside the bento.

"Eat up; get a bath and get in a soak," the dwarf said. "You have but an hour left to get all that out of the way."

"Do you know who I am," Akane asked as she picked up a pair of chopsticks.

"You are Tendou Akane of the Tendou School of Anything Goes Martial Arts," the dwarf answered. "Master's battle dougi was very fond of you."

Akane was too busy eating to snap the chopsticks, but did manage to glare at the dwarf in outrage.

"That perverted thing?"

"Well, its being perverted was not the master's fault," the dwarf said,with a sheepish look on its face. "He was only a hundred years old then, and it was his very first try at making a magical practice dougi."

Akane felt her jaw go slack which was inconvenient. She still wanted to eat.

"Only a hundre..."

"Yes, well, his kind lives much longer than yours," the dwarf answered with another sheepish look. "That doesn't mean that he's a patient being. Eat up wont you? You need to bathe."

It was Akane's turn to look sheepish.

I suppose I stink to high heaven by now, she thought. Then she felt her brain click. It's not a dwarf, but a weird, human looking frog - and the other one is too! Shit! Why didn't I notice the mottled green skin?

"Go on, girl!" The dwarf croaked. "Eat your snack and get a bath. The master has been waiting for you for days now."

Akane wanted to ask how long a day lasted in this place, but was too busy wolfing down her rice. She ate at about the same speed as Ranma could when Genma was picking at him at the table. The chicken she had consumed as quickly as Happosai would have done on one of his rampages.

"Take your clothes off, deary," the other dwarf said as the first dwarf picked up the tray and left. "We are not shy around here so don't you be."

Akane hesitated for a moment and shivered. The shiver completely evaporated her sense of propriety. She stripped off her ragged wet clothes and accepted the towels.

"Bathing room is that way," the frog dwarf said as it handed Akane her fresh towels. "You'll find everything you need in there. The pools are outside through the rear door. Careful of the water in them. They are as hot as any you'll find in Tokyo."

"Thank you very much - er - I'm sorry," Akane said. "I did not catch your name."

The squat youkai bowed as it said, "I am the fifth enslaved frog of nine, Akane-san. You may address me as you please."

This took Akane aback a bit. She was not accustomed to dealing with enslaved creatures. She was not sure that she wanted to, either.

"In that case, I will call you Daigo-san," Akane said. "Will that be fine?"

"Of course, Human-san," the creature answered. "Whatever pleases you."

"I really am uncomfortable having a slave around to deal with," Akane said aloud without meaning to.

"Oh, don't worry," the frog youkai said in a cheery voice. "My slavery is only temporary and, it is justified. Master will give me my name back when my sentence is complete."

Akane went from being slightly uncomfortable to being exceedingly uncomfortable. "What did you do to justify your slavery?"

The youkai looked offended did its best to look taller. "I do not answer that question. It is enough that I am temporarily a slave."

"I'm sorry," Akane said as she bowed to the annoyed creature. "I meant no offense."

"That is quite all right, Human-san." Daigo-san answered. "You are not familiar with the customs here. Allowances are necessary because you cannot help being rude anymore than you can spare us your body odor. Please get a bath now if you would."

Akane stifled an embarrassed giggle and bowed again before entering the bathing room.

It was small, but complete, and it had a door that led back outside to an isolated set of outdoor pools. She was quick to avail herself of the expensive shampoo and cream rinse she found on the shelf. There was also three different types of soap, each of which was intended for different areas of the body. She made use of all three of them and was shocked by how good it felt to be truly warm and clean.

She settled down in the shallowest part of the nearest pool. Daigo had been right about the temperature of the water. It was as hot as any bathhouse in Tokyo, but she was too tired to care. She fell asleep without meaning to. Another frog-type youkai woke her.

"Come, Akane-san," it said in a much deeper voice than Daigo's. "Dinner is waiting on your table."

"Thank you, Enslaved frog-san," Akane said. "I'm sorry that I do not know your name."

"That's quite all right," the youkai said. "I very much prefer to remain anonymous. This way, please."

Akane followed the frog-type youkai back into the bathing room and donned the yukata hanging there. There were a pair of fresh panties and a modern brassiere that fit her perfectly. She was deeply grateful for the modern underwear - especially the bra. She hated wrapping her chest with strips of cotton cloth the way ladies did prior to the Meiji Restoration.

I am proud of being a woman, Akane thought. Why would any woman want to hide her sex? It never made any sense to dress the way women once did. None whatsoever.

She stood in front of a mirror and brushed her hair out. It was gratifying to see what superior shampoo and cream rinse did to her hair. It was softer and silkier than it had ever been before. It made her feel like one of the latest pop stars.

She put down the brush and followed the anonymous youkai down a hallway and into a small room. It was a low table with a kotatsu. The table was laden with food and there was a cushion for her to sit on. The tatami looked fresh and new.

"You'll find a bed in the next room," the anonymous youkai said, pointing at a shouji on one end of the room. "Master has decided that you are too tired to do any training without a few hours of rest. He is making preparations for your stay."

"What preparations?" Akane asked as she sat down.

"He is delaying the passage of time, for you, of course," Anonymous said. "You would not want to return to your home and find everyone dead from old age, now would you?"

"Not really, no," Akane said. She had learned in China to expect to take part in nine or ten impossible things before breakfast. "I have a lover back at home. I'm certain that he would die of grief over me before he got old."

"Yes, you are a very lucky young woman," Anonymous said as he bowed and backed out of the open shouji. "If you need anything, just ring the bell there on the table. One of us will see to your needs."

Akane wanted to dig into her meal, but she paused and took in a deep long breath through her nose. The room smelled clean and had a floral tint to its air.

I can't imagine that I smell so bad to these guys, she thought. They must have a terribly effective sense of smell - or maybe I'm nose blind to my own odor. I know that happens once in a while.

There was enough food on the table that it took her nearly a full hour to eat it all. Her eyes were heavy lidded and she found getting her and her full tummy up off the cushion to be a serious struggle. She was delighted when she stumbled into the next room only to find a futon equipped with modern pillows rather than the hard boxes Japanese people once rested their heads on. She knew right down to her bones that would never be able to sleep that way no matter how fatigued she might be. She laid down with a will and never thought to look outside to see if night had fallen.

Akane fell into a deep dreamless sleep. She was so rested after she woke, that she knew that she had to have slept for hours and hours. A brief nap would not have refreshed her as much as this sleep had. Her joy was spoiled by the necessity of using a night jar. The building did not have running water or plumbing for sewage. Whoever ran this place had been thoughtful enough to place a washbowl out for her use.

Having taken care of her morning business, she discovered that she was thirsty and rang the bell that was still sitting on the table in her assigned quarters.

Yet another frog-type youkai appeared bearing a tray laden with food and drinks.

"Your breakfast, Akane-san," it said with a deep bow as it placed the tray on the table. "Please eat and drink as much as you like. Ring the bell again after your needs are met, and one of us will take you to the master."

Akane ate slowly and sipped at the orange juice greedily. She needed time to think.

The light looks the same as it did before I went to sleep, she thought. Either time does not pass here at all, or this region is some sort of bubble in the space-time continuum. Either way, whoever created it has the power of a Kami. But it cannot possibly be a Kami, can it? Whoever made this place also made that wretched battle dougi that nearly ruined my relationship with Ranma. He or she might well be omnipotent, but they clearly are not omniscient. I wonder what sort of creature this creator is? Whatever it is, I will have to be careful. It could easily destroy me and it would be well beyond anyone's power to avenge me. Although, I think that Ranma would die trying to find whoever it is. We did manage to kill Saffron after all. Together, Ranma and I can accomplish almost anything. Perhaps that is why I am here. Who knows?

With her belly now full and her mind in the Zen state of mind of no mind, Akane picked up the bell. Its tinkle this time seemed much louder than the other times she used it.

Just goes to show you how necessary measurements are, Akane thought. Fear tends to magnify the little things and that make you even more fearful.

One of the curious looking youkai immediately appeared in front of her. This one appeared to be a kappa rather than frog.

"This way please, Tendo-san," the semi-transparent creature said with one those deep bows that the enslaved around the region always used.

Akane shivered with disgust. I simply hate having to deal with enslaved creatures. It's so unfair! She thought. And it likely causes me bad karma to boot.

She followed the ghostly kappa, it was mostly transparent and floated rather than walking, out of the room and down the hall. They wound around in the exceedingly complicated architecture of the building until the youkai led her into a sort of large enclosed garden. There was no roof overhead, but the building surrounded it completely.

Oh, Akane thought, now I know what an atrium is like. Still haven't seen an impluvium, though.

She was suddenly confronted by a being who had feathers like a woodpecker, dull green on its back with a red crest and a black and white speckled belly. It had an astonishingly long nose instead of a beak. It seemed supremely confident in itself and its skills, but she had managed to throw it on its ass anyway.

The creature laughed out loud. "I see my dougi was right about you, Tendou Akane. Let us try this!"

The creature whipped out a steel blade that Akane treated with as though it were an over-sized razor.

There is no such thing as an unloaded gun and there for damned sure no such thing as a dull sword, Soun's voice said in her memories.

Akane and the creature circled around each other as far apart as the atrium would allow. Akane did her best to examine the sliding doors. They all appeared to be the same and she doubted that any of them would simply slide open at her lightest touch, which is what she needed to escape from this seemingly bloodthirsty creature.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Akane asked. "Why did you bring me here? Why did your messengers take me to that wedding first?"

The creature found Akane's questions amusing. It grated out a loud cackling laugh before answering them.

"What I am doing is training you," it said between burbles. "That is why I sent for you. As for the wedding that was my mistake not yours or the youkai I sent to fetch you. They wanted to attend that wedding and I gave them permission to do so, provided they picked you up on their way."

"You forgot to tell them to bring me here before they went to the wedding, am I right?"

The creature launched an attack that was very similar to the ones Kuno had overused, so Akane managed to fend it off quite handily.

"As a matter of fact, I did forget that, yes," the creature said as it kept maneuvering around the atrium. "I see you know how to cope with edged weapons even when you do not have one for yourself."

"You should have expected that, Master," Akane said. "Your dougi chose me over Ranma, did it not?"

The creature cackled with delight even as it launched another sincere assault on Akane. Had her skills been the least bit less than they were, the assault would have made a messy end of her.

"That was the first dougi I ever made and your receiving it had nothing to do with me," the feathered creature said in a voice that put Akane in mind of a Mina bird. "Your fate collected it for you."

The creature launched yet another ruthless attack on Akane, but she once again managed to evade it.

"What did my fate have to do with anything?" Akane asked, hoping that the question would distract the creature long enough for her to launch a creditable counter attack.

Learning the art from this thing is going to make training with Uncle Genma look like a slow walk in a park, Akane thought.

"Oh, like as not it has everything to do with your family and your fiancée," long-nosed creature said in a squawking voice. "Shall we try another weapon? The bo, perhaps? Or would you prefer the English quarterstaff?"

A thick pole, a little under two meters long, suddenly appeared in Akane's hands. She saw that her putative teacher had one as well. Akane grinned as she launched a very sincere attack on her feathered opponent, but he was crafty and she came out of the brief exchange with two very bruised fingers on her right hand.

"You'll learn not to tip off your opponent eventually," the long nosed apparition said. "You would have died against someone bent on doing you real harm that time."

Akane grimaced with pain and shame. She knew deep down that what this creature said was the absolute truth. She was not performing anywhere near her full potential.

Ranma has Happosai, I have this - this - oh! He's Tengu! Akane thought as surprise shot through her body, forcing it to tingle from the top of her scalp to the soles of her feet. It was then that she noticed a curious interaction between her and her quarterstaff. She could feel her ki flowing into and she could feel the ki that the quarterstaff had absorbed from its previous users flow into her. It was a remarkable feeling. So remarkable that she became distracted and earned herself another sharp clout in the ribs from her new master.

Her newfound knowledge of her weapon allowed her to fend off most of the energy from the blow, so she merely grunted as though surprised, but not hurt. Nothing could have been further from the truth, though. The blow to her ribs smarted enough to affect her breathing. She and the Tengu danced about for a few more minutes before it called a halt.

"I see that you are tired, Tendou Akane-san," the Tengu said. "Let us rest."

"Hai, sensei," Akane answered as her quarterstaff suddenly vanished.

Two field chairs materialized along with two of the servitor youkai with pitchers of cool water and towels. One was for the master, the other for his student. They set up folding tables, poured water in each of their glasses and then disappeared.

Akane picked her glass up and greedily drank from it. The water was as fresh and sweet as any she had ever tasted before. She picked up the pitcher and refilled her glass, then drank about half of it. She stared at the cup in silence, thinking about the water. It was as good as her new master.

"Thank you for saying so, Tendo-san," the woodpecker like creature said. "It is very good water."

"Where does it come from?" Akane asked.

The tengu smiled. "From my private well. There are several wells around here, most of them are tainted with a touch of sulfur, as it is with most hot springs, but this water is rich in minerals without any sulphur in it."

"So I noticed," Akane said. "It is some of the best I have ever tasted."

"Of course, if you want to be able to fend off insects with little to no effort, you would drink water from one of the other wells here."

This surprised Akane and it must have shown in her face because the Tengu grinned at her. "You did not know that, did you?"

"No, I mean, yes, I had been told that, but I never believed it."

"Tis true. Drinking water from a mildly sulfurous well prevents attacks by parasitic creatures, fleas, ticks and the like. Hardly anyone who lives here and drinks from the local wells suffers from them."

Akane felt the sharp sting of a mosquito bite on her the upper half of her left arm and clapped a hand on the noxious creature.

"What about mosquitoes?" she asked.

"You have to soak up sulphur for a few months, to fend them off, but it will happen eventually - assuming you stay here that long," the Tengu said. He seemed to reflect on this for a moment. "You will likely need to return home before that happens. Arranging time for you mortals is very vexing."

"Why am I here? Or dare I ask?" Akane said.

"You are here because I need to teach you," The Tengu said. "You are so adept at using edged weapons that it is very impressive, even for one such as myself."

This statement rushed to Akane's head, despite her heartfelt modesty. Her face suddenly felt hot.

I wonder what Ranma would think of all this? Akane thought. I so-oo wish he were here.

"Oh, don't be bothered by your fiancée's absence, Little One," the Tengu said with an offhand wave. "He is very good, even by my standards, but he is entirely too cocky. You will need to beat that out of him eventually."

"You read minds?"

"Only when you are thinking very strongly," the Tengu said. "It very often gives me a distinct advantage during a fight."

Akane considered this for more than a few seconds.

If he can sense what I am thinking, how do I ever hold my own against him? Akane thought. There must be some sort of physiological response in us that he can read from.

"That's only part of the secret," the Bird-man said. "You'll get it all in a few days."

Akane took a very large drink from her glass. "You said that you arrange time, for mortals like me. What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means that I manipulate space-time while you are here, my dear Tendo-san," the Tengu said, "You will remain ageless so long as you are on this estate, yet I keep you synchronized with the world you are from. You do realize that you have wondered off into an entirely different realm of existence, do you not?"

"Yes, I - I - knew that something was odd," Akane said. "I've been interacting with all kinds of youkai since my last visit to China."

"The youkai go everywhere," the Tengu said with a rueful grin, "They even go where more powerful creatures cannot go. They will lead you to any place you need to go, once you learn how to communicate with them."

"Most of them I have never heard speak," Akane said. "Do all of them talk?"

"In their own way and in their own time, yes."

"You do realize that you have me at a disadvantage, do you not?"

"Oh, dear me! I apologize. My name is Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac," the Tengu said. "I thought perhaps you would have recognized me. I recognized you easily enough."

Akane was shaken to her very core by this pronouncement.

"I do recognize the name. You were a famous swordsman in Europe, weren't you?"

"Yes, in the early seventeenth century. I left France for Japan in late July of 1655."

"You reportedly died from wounds you suffered in a botched assassination attempt."

"Falsified, obviously, but the attempt on my life was most sincere. I simply took advantage of it so that I could go to my new home."

"Your new home was Japan?"

"Yes, you see, we Tengu are made, not born or hatched. An opening became available and I accepted it. France was boring in those days. Too much fussing about over religious matters for my tastes."

"Why was that dougi you made such a pervert? Are you a pervert?"

"Some people said that of me while I was in Paris, but I almost never lived up to their claims. I suppose I should be ashamed of that particular failing, but I'm not. Sex is bothersome and tedious for me. There are those who thrive on it, but I am not one of them."

"You were an infamous brawler though, and a very notable swordsman."

"I am still both of those things, my dear."

"Why do you have to manipulate space-time in order to teach mortals?"

"Were I not to, there would be grave consequences for my mortal students," Savinien said. "They would return home after their training was complete only to learn that everyone they had ever know died of old age while they were training. It is a very painful experience, you know. I missed ten years because of my training."

"How did that happen?"

De Bergerac rolled his eyes and shook his head. "My teacher, Takuan, had entirely too many students. He could not keep track of us all, or our needs. You do know of Musashi, do you not?"

"Hah!" I don't know of anyone in Japan that doesn't. Most of us also know who Takuan was."

"Musashi and I learned our mastery of the sword from Takuan. If you check the historical records from those years you will find a number of puzzling discrepancies."

"Let's see, Miyamoto Musashi was born some time in the late fifteen hundreds - 1584 - I think."

"Yet Musashi's father's gravestone says that he died in 1580. That must have been a world record for a pregnancy, don't you think?"

Akane hung her head. "It's not possible. Human pregnancy lasts only nine to ten months."

"You're talking about today with modern medicine, but yes, it is as true today as it was back then. Four years or so is way longer than anything possible for a human being."

"So...His mother was a...What?"

"Oh, she was as human as you are, but there was this kind of - er - mishap in dealing with what you modern kids call the space-time continuum."

"What did people call it when you first came to Japan?" Akane asked.

The Tengu shrugged his shoulders and said, "We called it heaven or hell or the beyond, whatever seemed appropriate."

They sat in silence for a moment, and another question traipsed through Akane's mind.

"Why was I chosen for this?"

"You died twice," Cyrano said. "Once by being drowned by the people living on Mount Phoenix, and once by magical dehydration caused by the local phoenix, a fellow named Saffron. You and your fiancée defeated a Phoenix Kami together. What more could have been asked of you?"

Akane was stunned by his reply and so stared off into space.

"Oh, do go on, my dear! Surely you know by now what your destiny is."

This sobered Akane very quickly. "No, I don't know what my destiny is. Do you know?"

The Tengu smiled at her gently. "You are a phoenix yourself, you silly girl."

Akane blushed. She felt her face getting hot.

"Wait!" Cyrano shouted as he threw his pitcher of water on Akane. Don't burn now, you still have a thousand year or so to go!"

Akane sputtered. The water was positively chilling. "Wha..."Why...Why did you do that?"

"I thought you were about to burst into flames!" The Tengu shouted in an alarmed voice. "It's much too soon for you to do that."

"I...I'm not going to burst into flames!" Akane shouted back. "Whatever made you think that?"

"You are already a phoenix!"

"I'm a what?"

The Tengu cackled with humor once again. "You, are a phoenix. The next time you die, you will do so by bursting into flames."

"I most certainly will not!"

"Certainly you will, my dear. That's what phoenixes do."

This brought Akane up short. "You mean that I am going to live forever?"

"Well, forever is a rather long time, but for all practical intents and purposes, you will last as long as your native part of the universe lasts. I don't know what will happen after that. At least, no one that I know does."

Akane's jaw was now flapping like a rag in a strong wind. It took her a moment to regain her composure. "You mean that everyone I know now will die before I do?"

"Well, perhaps not Ranma, although I don't give him much of a chance at outliving your first life."

Akane was now flabbergasted all over again. "My first...life?"

"Yes, this, well, technically I suppose you should count it as your third life, but yes, this life of yours will outlast the lives of all the people you know, save possibly Ranma Saotome, but he could die in battle at any time. His fate is yet to be decided. Who knows when his thread will be cut? The Fates are capricious with the threads of a warrior's life."

"I'm a warrior, too," Akane said with iron determination in her voice. "Why wouldn't they be capricious with me?"

"They will be or - well - they are. It's just that you will be reborn from your ashes. Most creatures move onward. You will be reborn from your ashes over and over and over..."

Akane felt her stomach fall away, the way she did when standing on something at a great height. She was horrified in a way that she had never experienced before.

I should be happy, thrilled even, but I'm not, Akane thought. Will the Kami charge me with hubris the way they did Nabiki? This is terrifying. I am going to outlive every one I know? Daddy? Kasumi? Nabiki? Even Ranma? Not to mention all my friends at school. What the hell did I do? An even more horrifying thought crossed her mind.

"Will I ever have any children?"

Cyrano grimaced the way person does when he steps on something sharp.

"Ah...well you see, there's a price humans must pay for becoming immortal."

"So I will never have a baby, then, will I?"

"No, you won't."

Akane had risen to her feet without realizing it, now she sat down rather heavily.

"Mine and Ranma's betrothal is about us having children."

"Yes, well, you cannot have children," Cyrano said. "Ranma will have to turn to another woman to fulfill that part of the bargain between your families."

Akane's nose stung as hot tears welled up out of her eyes, splashing down her reddened cheeks.

"It's not fair!"

"No, no it isn't fair at all," Cyrano said in a saddened voice. "Life is almost never fair, but it is in this case. You get to live practically forever, so why should you insist on having children?"

"Because I want them!"

"We all have things that we want. Having a desire does not mean that you can have it."

"But this is forever!" Akane shouted. "I will live forever, but I'll never ever have kids of my own. What kind of bargain is that?"

"Most people would say that it is a good one," Cyrano said.

"Well - it isn't!" Akane shouted. Hot tears of frustration were now dripping from her chin. "Not for me." She sniffled.

Cyrano rolled his eyes and clapped his left hand to his forehead.

Akane glared at him. "What's wrong with you, Master?"

Cyrano dragged his hand down across his more than ample nose and pulled at his chin with it. "You just reminded me of the love of my life, Roxanne."

"You mean that was more than a play?"

Cyrano rolled his eyes. "Yes, it was much more than a mere play, but it was nothing like the play that Rostand wrote. I never ..." he paused to shake himself all over, making his feathers rattle and fluff out temporarily. "Never mind all that. It's water under the bridge and long gone. You are clearly overwrought. Go have a nice long soak and get a nap. Someone will wake you for our next session."

With that, Cyrano the Tengu spun on his heel and left the atrium, but he never opened a door. He just walked directly away from Akane. He got smaller with each step he took, then simply vanished into thin air during his fourth stride. Akane sat for a long time staring after Cyrano. There was a noise to one side of her and she turned her head. It was one of the frogish youkai bearing towels and a wash rag.

"Please, follow me, Tendo-san," the youkai said in a chirruping voice. "Your bath is ready."

Akane did as her new sensei instructed, and once again fell asleep in the hot water of the outdoor pool. Her fingers felt better, but she was overheated and famished. She visited the shower and wetted her overheated body down with cool water before putting on a dry yukata. By then, the youkai had a hearty meal on the table for her. She ate her fill, it was unagi eel on rice, one of her favorite dishes. She even drank a beer with the meal, but she followed the beer with several tall glasses of cold fresh water. After that she slept like a rock.

She trained with Cyrano the Tengu again when she woke up. He drilled her mercilessly on the use of the staff he had given her. She was completely exhausted and battered by the time Cyrano called an end to that second session. Cyrano left in the exact same fashion as he had at the end of their first training session, and Akane staggered off behind another of the slavish youkai, which this time, was a lantern with arms, legs and a single eye.

"Are you enslaved?"

"No more than any other lantern is enslaved," it answered in a language that was actually a soft hiss in Akane's mind. "I enjoy this work."

"I see," Akane said. "Do you belong to Cyrano?"

"No, I belong to this ryokan," it answered.

"Cyrano does not own this place?"

"He leases it," the lantern youkai whispered, "whenever he needs to train a student from the mortal realm."

"Oh, where does he live, do you know?"

"In the mountains of Kyushu, I think," the lantern said in its hissing voice. "By the way, you have learned to speak the youkai tongue quite well."

It was then that Akane realized that she had not actually uttered a single word. She had merely asked with her mind. Then she was frustrated because she had lost all contact with the youkai lantern. It did not hear another thought coming from her. Or, at least, it never indicated that it had heard or felt anything at all.

Akane bathed and ate alone once again, then slept for an indeterminable period of time. It never became dark at this ryokan. She had to be in a completely enclosed space to be in the dark. The place was stuck in what appeared to be an eternal twilight on the floor of an ancient forest.

Next thing I know, I'll run into Rod Serling, Akane thought as she sat down in one of the pools. The water was painfully hot at first, but soothing. I wonder how long I have been here. How many training sessions have I been through? Is this the third or the fourth time?

She soaked until she felt her level of relaxation go as deep as it would ever go, then got out of the pool, dried off and dressed. This time she had been given a dougi that looked much the same as the one her father and Uncle Genma had gotten from that monastery.

This dougi felt very different though. It operated differently. Rather than helping her to make moves good enough to defeat an opponent, it encouraged her to make moves that had never crossed her mind before. It was uncomfortable, especially when Cyrano got through her guard, which he did quite frequently.

"I give you the best weapon ever used or made and a dougi to match and still you are as slow and clumsy as the average mortal," Tengu-sensei complained. "You should practice kata with that staff between this session and the next."

"Are you telling me or the dougi, Sensei?" Akane asked. "And what is so special about this bo?"

"That staff was used by none other than Miyamoto Musashi in his first duel against a swordsman," the Tengu said, then cackled. "He killed that ill tempered fool with it."

"You mean this bo was used to kill Arima Kihei?" Akane shrieked.

"Oh, do go on, girl!" Cyrano said in a clearly aggravated voice. "Surely you can feel the power of it. I can see it coursing through you as soon as you touch it."

Akane nearly dropped it, but managed to hold it at arms length instead. It was pulsating in her hands, as though it were a living being.

"Yes, it is very much alive," Cyrano said with a fierce smile. "Not only does it have the spirit of Musashi in it, it possesses the spirits of every man Musashi killed with it."

Akane shivered from the top of her scalp to the soles of her feet. She was that appalled by what Cyrano had just told her.

"Oh, come on, girl! You and your betrothed killed a Kami, after all. You should be proud to wield Musashi's bo."

Akane found herself panting and unable to speak.

This thing has been used to...to...kill men? She wanted to scream, but could not get the words past her larynx. He really wants me to use it? Really?

Then she realized that the staff was emanating love to her through her hands and up her arms. It was very much like holding Ranma's hands. She reflexively returned the emotion and the staff literally quivered.

"Yes, you keep doing that, Tendo-san," Cyrano said. "The staff actually likes you. It expects to be used in many future victories in your hands."

Having said that, Cyrano spun on his heel and walked directly away from his student, disappearing in mid-stride of his fourth step.

The dougi took over Akane's body as soon as Master Cyrano vanished. It forced Akane to do kata after kata after kata. She improved by visible increments with each kata until she became tired. The dougi forced her to do three more rounds before suddenly vanishing, leaving her naked in the atrium.

"Chikuushou!" Akane shouted in frustration. "It left me standing here without so much as a stitch!"

Akane cast about for a place to sit. She was so tired that she did not think that she could stay on her feet any longer, and having her sweaty skin exposed to the ambient air was about to chill her to the bone. Instead of a place to sit, she saw another frog-type youkai, holding a pitcher of water and a glass. Another youkai, this one was rather like a rack used to hold armor, stood next to the frog-youkai holding a fresh yukata and a towel

Akane decided that modesty would be wasted on youkai. She walked over and took the glass and pitcher away from the frog-youkai and poured the glass full. This water was tainted with sulfur, but it was cold. She drank it down greedily and then poured herself another glass, gulping it down.

She handed the glass back to the frog-youkai and then took the yukata from the armor-rack youkai. She was surprised that this was not a yukata, but more like a regular housecoat. It was made of soft thick felt and had a dark blue and green plaid pattern. She was grateful for its softness and warmth. The armor rack turned and hopped away, disappearing in the middle of its fourth hop. Another youkai appeared out of nowhere, this one was clearly a kappa.

Akane staggered along behind a floating kappa, hardly able to hold her head up as the kappa led her to the bathing room. She fell asleep while soaking in the outdoor hot pool. A frog-like youkai woke her up. It was the one she had decided to call Daigo-san.

"Good evening, Daigo-san," Akane said. "I missed you."

"I am gratified to know that you did, Human-san," the frog-like youkai replied, but he looked revolted. "Dinner is waiting for you on the table. Please get out and dry off."

"Yes, of course," Akane said. "Let me get dressed and I'll be right there. Could you get me a pen and some paper?"

"Why do you want a pen and paper?" Daigo asked, suddenly suspicious. "That might get us both into trouble, you know."

"Trouble?" Akane asked. "How might a pen and paper get us into trouble?"

"I shall ask Master for permission to get those for you," Daigo answered. "Such items have great power here in our realm of existence."

"Oh, now I remember!" Akane exclaimed as she tiredly pressed the back of her hand to her right eye. "If someone writes down your name you become one of their possessions, right?"

"There is much more to it than that, but what you just said is essentially true," Daigo said. "You do not know enough to have a pen and paper in this realm."

"I don't have the enslavement of anything in mind," Akane said. "All I want to do is to keep track of the number of training sessions I am completing."

"You mean you actually want to make trouble for yourself?" Daigo asked. "Why?"

"All I want to do is to keep track of how many times I train with Master Cyrano, that's all!" Akane was irritated now.

Daigo gave her a hard stare. "Go ahead and make trouble for yourself. It would serve you right, human." There was a snarl in Daigo's voice that Akane did not like. It seemed menacing.

Akane still held Musashi's staff in her hands and Daigo eyed her warily, as though it feared an attack.

"Why are you so nervous?" Akane asked. "I'm not going to attack you."

"That remains to be seen, human," Daigo said. "I don't trust you."

"What have I done to make you mistrust me?"

"You are a human and you are here," Daigo answered. "It unusual for a human to even notice us youkai. Most of us have either been betrayed or abused by humans. None of us trust the likes of you."

"I'm not..."

"Do you have any idea how many of your botched meals are running around in this realm? All of them were supposed to be eaten but weren't thanks to your making them so poorly!"

Akane's face got red.

"And all those misshapen dolls you made! There are hundreds of them running about in this realm."

Akane felt the sting of tears in both eyes. She was both frustrated and ashamed.

"It would have been fine had you kept those dolls, but you simply threw them into the trash - as though you were ashamed of them!"

"I - I was ashamed of them. I didn't want anyone to see them and make fun of me."

"I know, and the dolls you tried to fix are the worst looking of the lot!" Daigo shouted. "Have you no shame?"

"Would walking upright under this building do?" Akane asked.

"No!" Daigo shouted. "That is where your botched meals live you konama onibaba..."

Akane was startled when Daigo suddenly vanished in the middle of his rant. He was replaced by the lantern youkai.

"Master says that you must not be allowed to have a pen and paper," the lantern hissed softly in Akane's mind. "It would fall afoul of his spell to control time for you if you kept track of anything you do here."

"I see," Akane said. "Do you resent my presence here?"

"Pay no attention to that scum eaten little frog," the lantern hissed. "Bigotry knows no borders. He is just a simple frog that turned into a youkai when he was gigged by a human and eaten. He has been warned more than once about clinging to his resentment of what happened to him in his previous lives in the other realm."

"How many youkai are there like him?"

The lantern gave Akane the impression of somehow shrugging. "How much bad karma is there in that realm? Youkai such as he are the product of bad karma."

Akane suddenly felt faint. She could not remember how many clothes and rag dolls she had attempted to make, let alone the botched meals that had made someone ill. Some of her meals had even made her sick.

"Oh, don't worry," the lantern hissed. "You are innocent of any deliberate wrongdoing. All the youkai you produced will not hold your clumsiness against you. They all know what you have become and are proud to be part of your past."

Akane gave out a huge sigh of relief. Then it dawned on her that a phoenix must have some serious duties to see after and she quivered.

I just hope I'm up to it, she thought.

"Now it is time for you to bathe," the lantern youkai hissed softly. "You have a very long day ahead of you tomorrow.

Unable to record the number of sessions as they occurred, Akane completely lost track of both time and effort. It seemed as though she studied under Cyrano-no-Tengu for at least a year, perhaps longer. But then, after very tiring session, she found that she could not seem to quite recover her breath, even while she soaked in one of the outdoor pools. The youkai looking after looked rather too transparent, as though it too were suffering.

"What's wrong?" Akane asked her attending youkai. It responded by silently shaking its head. "I'm going to need help getting out of this pool."

The youkai, which appeared to be an ancient chest of drawers, rattled and banged then yet another youkai appeared. This one was shaped like a ladder; it lowered one end of itself into the pool.

"Thank you most kindly, ladder-youkai-san," Akane said as she used it to clamber out of the pool. "You are a life saver. Water and I do not mix all that well. I'm a hammer, myself. Can't float for kaka."

Once she was out of the pool, she could tell that the ladder-youkai was having trouble getting out of the water as well and pulled it out. It turned out to be extremely laborious. She found that she could only pull one rung of it out of the water at a time with mighty jerks. Each pull required as much energy as she had used on her cell gate in Jusendou. By the time she had pulled the ladder-youkai out of the pool, she was exhausted and fell onto her side. All she had on was her birthday suit.

---

Cyrano-no-Tengu settled down in his nest with a sigh of frustration.

"Damn these space-time spells!" His frustration was very real and deep. "I thought I had the hang of them before I started her training! Now everything is about to fail and I can't to anything about it!"

"You cannot," a distant voice said, "but I can. May I help you with these very peculiar magicks?"

Cyrano recognized the voice. It belonged to Inari-no-Omikami, the Kami of commerce, communications, agriculture and industry. Only Amaterasu herself was more powerful in the Asian pantheon. Chills ran up his back. His feathers ruffled involuntarily all over, doubling his apparent size as he answered.

"Yes, Inari-no-Omikami, please do!" He squawked. "I shall owe you gratitude forever."

"Yes, you will," Inari replied as she made herself manifest on the edge of his nest. "Your little Genwakuza has drifted away from Earth."

"That was my intention," Cyrano-no-Tengu said. His feathers were still ruffled and now he shook all over, making a rattling noise. "I did it so that Tendo Akane would not age, while I trained her."

"I see," Inari said with a foxy grin. "That was rather foolish of you."

"Whawka?"

"It is acceptable to slow time for the sake of your students, but freezing time altogether has disastrous consequences. Did you not realize that the space-time tendril connecting this realm to Earth has grown so tenuous that it is no longer transferring adequate supplies of air and water?"

"That's why she had such a rough time with training today," Cyrano said in a surprised voice. "She was short of oxygen!"

"And moisture in the air," Inari said. "Allow me to correct that."

Suddenly, Cyrano realized that he had been affected as well. He felt the nagging cloudiness of thought dissipate like the morning fog. He could breath much easier and the air was no longer dry and scratchy in his throat.

"That's much better, Inari-sama," Cyrano said. "Thank you ever so much."

"I'm not doing this for you, Cyrano," Inari said. "I am doing it for my niece."

"I was unaware that she and her sisters were any kin to you," Cyrano said in an alarmed voice. "I apologize for inadvertently risking her life."

"Their mother was a kitsune and quite dear to me," Inari said. "I never could understand why she married that yarou Soun, but she did at least produce some fine daughters with his help. Here is how you can avoid the problem the next time you need to to teach students for a prolonged period of time. You calculate a geodesic path through four-space thus. See?"

"But that will age the students about one second out of a hundred!"

"True, but it will not cause you to drift away from the constantly moving Earth, either," Inari said. "The way you stopped time caused you and your little Genwakuza to stop moving, so Earth left you and it behind. Earth is now a quarter way further through its orbit - millions of ri - yet you and your Genwakuza stayed where you were when you cast your spell."

"I see."

"No, you don't, not yet. We must now accelerate and that will put a strain on you and everything else in your tiny Genwakuza. I shall do my best to alleviate as much of the pressure as I am able, but we must accelerate."

Inari called out loudly in a language that each listener heard in a way that was comprehensible to him, her, or it.

---

Akane was sound asleep when she heard Inari's voice shout: "Get down and cover your head!" So she rolled over so that she lay flat on her stomach and then crossed her arms over her head, just the way Soun had drilled her and her sisters to do in his survival training course. The youkai around her did pretty much the same, save for the ryokan, which was itself a youkai. Something about planting her nose in the stone outside told her that it was ghostly. Then she lost all thought as it felt like tons of soft weights suddenly pressed down upon her body. She started having difficulty breathing again.

---

Cyrano found himself unable to lift his chin out of the straw of his nest. It was as though some invisible giant came along and pressed his head down with one hand, driving his chin into the straw. He did not know how long this continued, but it became about all he could bear before it finally stopped.

"Gahack!" Cyrano cried out as the pressure vanished and he could once again raise his head. "Why did you do that?"

"Because it was necessary to get your Genwakuza back in orbit around Earth, Cyrano-no-Tengu."

"Did it have to be so rough?"

"It was as gentle as I could make it. You should not have been so foolish to stop time for so very long, you know."

"I - I meant well! It was not as though I did this on purpose."

"I know," Inari said in a purring voice. "You would otherwise be dead."

Cyrano felt more than a little fear slice through his body. He shuddered.

"How did you learn these magicks, anyway?"

"From a human wizard named Howl Pendragon. He built a castle that could wonder about the countryside, yet had a door that would open in different towns."

"That must have been complicated."

"It was, but he had the help of a fire demon."

"An oni made of fire? Really?"

"Yes. It was a falling star that Wizard Howl caught."

"A hidama?"

"Yes."

"I did not realize that they were living beings."

"Many hidama are in some realms."

"Oh."

"They are very powerful beings where they are beings at all. In this realm though, they are merely falling bits of rock."

"Oh." Cyrano's voice had a note of disappointment in it.

"I must go take care of my other duties. Call for me when Akane-chan is ready to return to her family. I shall show you how to reverse this spell, all right?"

"Yes, of course, Inari-sama."

"Ciao!"

"Good bye," Cyrano said as the Kami of Commerce vanished. He clapped his left hand to his forehead after Inari was gone.

"I'll never attempt this sort of thing again without Inari's help no matter the costs involved. She drives a harder bargain than any other Kami, but her work is worth the price."

---

No matter what Akane said or did, Cyrano would not explained what had happened. He only trained her all the harder. He pushed her up to her limit during every drill plus a little more. She was exhausted at the end of each session. Some of those sessions had gone by quickly. She might have suspected foul play, no pun intended, had it not been for the increasingly drab appearance of Cyrano himself. He left looking as tired after each session as Akane felt. She decided that a change in subject might help.

"This ryokan is a youkai, isn't it?"

"Yes, child, it is. When did you decide that you were staying inside a youkai?"

"The other day when all that weird stuff happened. How long have you had it enslaved to you?"

"It's not enslaved. It likes it here. It could leave at anytime and there would be nothing I could do about it. Now, en-guard!"

Akane batted away Cyrano's thrust with Musashi's bo.

"You're dodging my questions."

"No, I'm not!" Cyrano said as he launched a daring fléche on her. She cheerfully bruised his ribs in return.

"Yes, you are, dammit!" Metal blade rang against Musashi's bo. "Now answer me. Where did you find it?"

"This old ryokan was wondering about Towada Ko, if you must know. Its owner was a shrew so the place went broke. It later burned up in a fire and became a youkai. Happy now?"

"No!" Akane shouted as she launched an attack of her own. "Why is it here?"

"This is the realm of youkai, silly girl. I'm a youkai as well."

"I know that, but why does it stay in this particular wood?"

"Why don't you ask it? It could tell you far better than I," Cyrano answered as he tried to jam the tip of his sword between Akane's breasts. Akane riposted with the bo, driving the Tengu's blade into the ground.

"Why do you do that?" Cyrano asked.

"Because it hurts you to have to resharpen it!" Akane answered truthfully. "You haven't enslaved the inn?"

"Of course not!" Cyrano squawked his frustration. "What ever made you think that?"

"The other youkai say they are your slaves, why not this ryokan if it is a youkai?"

"I don't hold any of their names, child. They are being punished for their misdeeds."

"Who holds there names?"

"A local witch. I merely rent their services from her."

"What did they do wrong?"

"Well the frogs and the kappa, the majority of the youkai working here, are prone to eating each other's young."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed," Cyrano said as his sword rang from another blow of Maharishi's bo. "You could easily break a sword with that thing, you know."

"Why would I?" Akane asked. "We're only sparring."

"Because it would help you to do so, silly," Cyrano said, as he thrust the tip of his blade at her again. "Go ahead and try. It will give you a feel for it."

Akane then took a hard swipe at Cyrano's sword and it flew out of his hand.

"I said try break it, not knock it from my hand!" Cyrano squawked with frustration. "Why don't you ever listen?"

"I do listen and I tried, but you turned loose of it, Master."

"I did not turn loose of my sword!" Cyrano said in a dry tone of voice. "You hit it as though you were a gorilla or something."

Akane grinned at him. "Ranma calls me a gorilla all the time, but then he also says I only have half the fleas."

"I'm not surprised," Cyrano said as another sword, this one a katana rather than the rapier he had been using, appeared in his hands. "You rely on your strength entirely too much. You need to start using the techniques that dougi and I have taught you."

"What techniques? One of them is for breaking swords?"

Cyrano launched an overhead attack. This frightened the wits out of Akane. If she failed to block it, the attack would split her from the top of her head to her crotch. She felt her ki surge into the bo just before it made contact with the side of the katana. The katana rang out as though in pain. The majority of it whistled across the atrium and struck a rock. Cyrano was holding the now next to useless pommel in his hands.

"That's more like it, Akane-san! Very good."

Akane stared hard at Cyrano and panted.

"Let us rest for a moment," Cyrano said. "That was a major breakthrough for you."

"How so?"

"You finally used your ki," Cyrano said with a smile. His smiles tended to frighten his students more than encouraging them. This smile was much the same as the rest. Akane gave him a pensive stare. "Which is what I have been after since you arrived."

Akane stared off into nowhere, silent as a grave.

"Next time, we shall train in another place. Prepare yourself. Get a bath, have big meal. Your training will become truly serious starting with our next session."

Akane merely cocked an eyebrow at the tengu. Cyrano spun on his heel cackling as he disappeared in mid-stride on his fourth step. He heard Akane give out a shrieking growl as the dougi insisted on her doing yet more kata. He cackled again, just to let his student know that he was aware of her torment.

---

Cyrano-no-Tengu had good reason for delaying Akane's training. He needed the time to heal up. He stayed in his nest, which was in one wing of the youkai ryokan, not moving for the equivalent of three days. She had actually given him a severe drubbing, and that was a first for him. He could not believe it even as it happened.

"No wonder this girl has been made a phoenix. She's incredibly powerful, even for a Tendo. I just hope she will be obliged to teach a student like her one day," Cyrano muttered to himself through the waves of pain washing through his body. "I hope I never have to teach the likes of her ever again!" He groaned even louder as he realized what he had to do next. "Now we have to go out and train on that devilish clump of stone posts. At least she will be as miserable as I this time."

---

Akane wakened with a jerk. She had been dreaming about fighting Cyrano-no-Tengu to the death. It had not been a pleasant dream. She had gotten tangled in her covers while she slept. They had her bound as though someone and walked into the room and tied her up as she slept.

Akane gave out an exasperated sigh as she resisted the urge to simply rip the bedclothes to shreds. She took the time necessary to extricate herself one twisted tangle at the time. By the time she had finished her bladder was screaming for relief and she had to rush to find the night jar.

After she had finished her business and cleaned up, she realized that the room was unbearably hot. It had always been chilly in the past. It made her wonder if something major had gone wrong while she slept, and was surprised when a never before seen youkai suddenly appeared in her room. This one was based on a lamp hanging from a hook on a bent pole.

Without two legs it was unable to walk, it hopped about on its pad, thump, thump, thump with its lit part making squeaking noises as it swung to and fro. Another youkai, this one based on hat rack thumped along with the lamp-yokai. It had a fresh yukata, towels and a wash cloths draped on its arms. Akane wordlessly took the towels and washrags from the rack-youkai and silently followed the lamp-youkai out to the bathing room.

Akane took her own sweet time bathing and then lazed about in the hot spring until her skin was pink and horribly wrinkled.

"I've been hanging around with these youkai for so long that I am becoming careless of my appearance," Akane mumbled. "Doesn't matter. I needed the time to deeply relax."

She flopped down on the futon and slept until the next meal was served. The youkai brought tons of food to her and she ate steadily for what seemed to be an hour or more. She was so full by the time she finished that she just had to get in another nap. She had a long dreamless sleep and woke fully rested. The lamp-youkai and the hat rack youkai were waiting on her when she woke. She accepted the towels and wash rag from the hat rack-youkai and followed the lamp-youkai out to the bathing area. She only took in a brief soak in the hot spring and returned to her room much sooner this time, only to find the gaudy dougi waiting on her.

"You, are another youkai, aren't you dougi?"

The dougi gave her an elaborate bow in response.

"I suppose we had best get on with it then," Akane said as she undid the belt on her yukata. The dougi replaced her yukata with a flash and then marched her outside the inn.

"It has been so long since I walked outside the ryokan that I had forgotten there is a village here," Akane said aloud. "Where are we going?"

Musashi's bo silently appeared in her hands, giving a friendly buzz in both hands by way of greeting.

"You are not youkai," Akane said to it. "You are genuine piece of oak!"

The bo buzzed her palms once again in answer.

"And you're loaded with ki."

The bo buzzed twice in answer. Akane gave out an audible sigh.

"I wish that there was someone I could just sit and talk to," she said aloud. "I think that I am getting homesick."

The dougi promptly made her start practicing thrusts and parries with Musashi's bo. Akane did her best to relax, allowing the dougi use her body as it pleased. It was far easier on her physically and she could absorb more knowledge when she relaxed. She and the dougi danced through the ancient sugi, whacking and thumping their huge trunks as they went, until they reached the basalt stumps.

Someone had gone to the trouble of removing almost all the dead-fall from the area for as far as she could see. The basalt stumps had thoroughly intimidated her before, but now it positively frightened her.

Another youkai, this one a kappa, appeared with a pitcher of cold water, a towel and a tall glass. It poured the tall glass full of cold clear spring water and held it out toward Akane. She accepted it and drank it all. Then she accepted the towel and wiped her face free of sweat.

"Thank you, Kappa-san," Akane said. "I needed that a lot."

The kappa knelt silently in response. It could not lower its head or the water in its dished in place would have poured out onto the ground. Kappa needed to keep their dents full of water at all times.

Akane felt a powerful surge of ki in her legs and was shocked when she landed on the flat top of a basalt stump two meters up from the ground. It was slippery with a thick growth of moss and she had to struggle to keep her footing, even with the dougi's help.

"I wasn't ready for this!" Akane shouted in an angry voice. "Why didn't you warn me?"

The dougi then forced her to leap off the tall stump to a much shorter one. This one was laden with moss as well and slipped, soaking up the impact with the right side of her rib cage before falling down between the short stump and the even shorter ones. They formed a tight crevice, trapping her body.

"Grr! Why are you doing this to me, dougi?"

She struggled to get out the uncomfortable jam, then remembered to relax. The dougi took over, showing her body what to do to escape the grip of the hard stone pillars. Akane breathed a sigh of relief once she was back on top one of the larger diameter stumps, but was given no time to rest.

The dougi wanted her to crush the skull of a small furry youkai that hid in the crevices of the basalt stumps with the end of Musashi's bo. The furry thing was nimble and could run through the cracks between the stumps as though it were made of water. It stayed on the move constantly, and she could not touch it at all, let alone get in a telling blow.

The dougi decided that she needed a break just she was getting the hang of how the furry thing slipped about, and made her backflip onto the soft mat of sugi needles about ten shaku away from the field of basalt stumps and pillars. She touched down softly by using her ki. She felt a surge of pride from the dougi. It had not prompted her this time.

"Oh, be quiet, you!" Akane said to the dougi. "So I did it without you prompting me. It isn't that big of a deal."

She got another burst of pride in response. Another pair of youkai suddenly appeared with a picnic lunch. It was rice balls with mystery meat and an even more mysterious sauce. All of it tasted quite good, so Akane never bothered to ask what the meat and sauce were made from. She simply consumed them and consumed them rapidly. She was now looking forward to busting that squirmy furry thing with her bo.

Two hours later she was winded and she had not stirred a single hair on the furry little thing. Rather than forcing her to do more kata, the dougi simply allowed her to walk back to the ryokan on her own. This proved to be a painful chore. Akane was completely exhausted by the time they arrived. She fell sound asleep in the hot pool. A youkai was obliged to wake her up and lead her to dinner.

When Akane woke the next time she felt as though she had been in a bad car wreck. There was not a single spot on her body that failed to hurt. She was especially sore on the right side of her ribcage where she had struck that basalt stump when she fell. That part of her was scraped raw, bruised and cut all at one and the same time. Her forehead had a large abrasion that was now scabbing over and she had a blackened eye. She had blisters on both hands and her feet - well - she did not like to think about the soles of her feet. Both of them had been hardened for years. She could strike matches on them as though she were wearing shoes after she had returned from China the last time. Now they hurt like they did the first time she tried running about barefooted.

When she started to eat she discovered that she had chipped her left canine tooth. It hurt to beat the band, but she ate anyway. She could only tell that these things were wrong with her body because she could feel them. She had not even glimpsed anything like a mirror since she had arrived at the ryokan.

"Maybe I'm better off not knowing what I look like," Akane mumbled. "Especially if I look as bad as I feel."

She went out again, and again and again, training for what seemed like weeks on those devilish stumps of basalt. She grew weaker and more physically damaged with each session. She never complained. She refused to give Cyrano-no-Tengu the satisfaction of hearing her cry "Uncle!" Akane decided that if she did ever cry out for mercy, the training would become even worse that it was already. She had decided to go on until her body gave out or she died or both.

After the fourth or fifth session out on the stumps of stone, the youkai began serving her a small cup of foul tasting tea before she bathed in the evening. She did not know all the herbs in it, save that it had some stewed willow bark. It alleviated enough pain for long enough to allow her some fitful sleep after each session. She had quickly lost track of how many times she had drank it at the end of her training periods. Time turned into a long tunnel through grey fog for her. She lost track of everything.

Then after a particularly trying session of drills, she was allowed to sleep without being wakened. Her back felt funny when she woke and it hurt like hell when she sat up on her futon. Her bedding was stained with blood, but Akane could not tell from which wound. It might have come from one of several for all she knew. She did know that she was missing some teeth from one of the nasty falls she had taken. She also could feel puffy places on her face. Her nose seemed crooked and she could barely see out of her left eye.

She ate as best as she could with one side of her mouth. Her jaw muscles ached from from the effort and her ragged teeth caused her excruciating pain, but she forced herself to eat anyway. She knew that she would need the energy from her food to work through the next session on that cold cruel pile of basalt stumps.

The dougi snuggled up to her bare skin when she started to remove her yukata. Akane shivered.

"I'm dying, you know," she said. "You will soon have a dead body inside you."

She heard it reply as though from a great distance, "We shall die together, today I think. Don't worry, though. You shall return and I will move onward."

As cheering as that conversation had been, Akane struggled to stay on her feet on the way out to that dreaded agglomeration of stone columns and stumps. She could feel the dougi struggle with her unresponsive body as they leapt up on top of a tall spire of basalt. She could see nearly the whole of basaltic intrusion from this vantage point. Something glimmered in the sun on the far end of the long stretch of stone, nearly all of it was now bare of moss. She hand rubbed most of it away during her training. She jumped off the tall spire of rock without so much as the faintest thought and landed gracefully on one of the short stony stumps. Then she leapt from top to top to top over the length of the field of hexagonal shafts until she was near the glimmering object. She stood aghast as she stared at it.

It was a bronze mirror and she could see herself in it. She looked like a corpse wrapped in a shiny dougi. Her face was battered and twisted. One side of it hung loosely as though its muscles were dead and the the other half was heavily scarred, as though she had been in several fights with a large predatory cat, like a tiger or something. The left side of her ribcage was stove in and her right leg was twisted so badly that she was surprised that she could still put weight on it.

"Kaw!" Cyrano-no-Tengu cried out as he popped up from behind the large mirror. "You look a mess, Tendo! What have you been doing to yourself all this time?"

Akane gritted her teeth - or what was left of them. It made her head hurt even worse than it had been.

"You know goddam good and well how I got this way you foul smelling bird!"

"Kyak! Kyauk-kyak! Kyaaaah!" Cyrano responded. "You look to be near death, Tendo. I think it might be safe for me to spar with you now! Kyauk-kya-kya-kyuaaaah!"

Akane responded with a blinding fast strike with Musashi's bo. Cyrano just barely avoided it.

"I see that you are as fast as ever," Cyrano shouted. "But your accuracy still sucks!"

Akane said nothing. She was now focused on destroying Cyrano de Bergerac. She no longer cared that he was a famous swordsman and brawler. She did not even care that he had lived on for centuries as a youkai. She wanted him dead and she wanted him dead immediately and her actions proved her intentions. Cyrano-no-Tengu fluttered from stump to stump with Akane in heated pursuit.

"You die today, Cyrano!" Akane shouted. As Cyrano looked silly dodging another of her vicious end on thrusts. "Or I do!"

"I have news for you, Dearie!" Cyrano shouted back. "It's not my time to move onward."

"We shall soon see about that!" Akane shouted as Musashi's bo whirred viciously about her. She was gratified to see that the Tengu had been too intimidated to attack her. She went after him again - and again - and again, leaving a trail of feathers scattered about the tops of the basalt stumps and filling may of the cracks, pockets and crevices with them. Akane had become a killing machine and felt as though she could pursue her prey forever and a day, but she soon learned that she did indeed have limits. She stumbled as she stepped from one short stump to another, nearly falling. Then she realized that her breath was coming in long drawn out ragged gasps, but she also noticed that Cyrano was near his breaking point as well.

"I haven't had mere human do this to me in ages," Cyrano said. His voice was dry and raspy. "You are truly powerful, young Tendo, but you are not a phoenix, yet!" He held up the mirror so that Akane could once again see her reflection in it.

My God I look horrible! Akane thought. Ranma will hate me when hesees me. I shall be alone from now on. And it is all because of this feathered creep and his magical dougis! I can't go home looking like this. I'm doomed to wonder among youkai forever, now.

Akane felt the heat in her face, first, then it spread downward into her chest and then even lower into her thighs. She was blinded by the bright light that suddenly surrounded her. She could hear the basalt popping and crackling has began to heat up. Some of it even glowed dull red in the brightness that surrounded her. The scattered feathers instantly turned into light ash as the heavier pieces of wood trapped deep in the spaces between the stone stumps caught fire. Then, Akane realized that the dougi was burning, but she could not turn off the heat. She felt her feet catch on fire and then there as a sudden very painful flash followed by nothingness.

Akane discovered during the timeless black that her rising from the ashes was a matter of her choosing. The universe did not require her to continue her existence at all. She suddenly understood that life is a process of self-sustaining action and that for her, volition was necessary. She had to decide to continue her existence before she would rise anew. She thought of Ranma and her sisters. She thought about Ranma's dangerous quest to satisfy the Gods of the Greek pantheon. She decided that she wanted to be for him, if nothing else.

She woke lying on the futon in her room at the ryokan.

"Hurry and get your morning business done, please," Daigo said. "You go home this time instead of having another training session with Master Cyrano."

"He isn't going to say goodbye?" Akane asked. "I am very disappointed."

"This won't be goodbye," Daigo said. "He will send for you when he decides it is time for you to train again."

"I see," Akane said, then she proceeded to use the night jar and wash her face and hands. Daigo stood waiting in impatient silence all the while. He appeared to resent every second he had to stay in the same room with her.

"I guess you can take the spirit out of the frog, but you can't take the frog out of the spirit," Akane said with a rueful grin. "You are a very hateful little reptile, you know that don't you?"

"I have good reason to be resentful!" Daigo said. "One of you humans sent me here."

"Oh, I doubt that," Akane said. "Most animals move onward when they die, but you got stuck here for some reason. It must have something to do with you. Were you a human in a past life, perhaps?"

Daigo turned a very deep shade of pink through his mottled green skin.

"That's none of your business, you chibi majyo!"

Akane gave the furious youkai the sweetest smile she could muster.

"I'm going to get a bath, so don't wait for me. I'll ring for you when I'm done."

"As you wish, human!" Daigo said as he stamped out of the room grumbling under his breath.

Akane felt something go click in her head as she watched the back of the fuming Daigo.

"He's not long for this realm," she muttered. "It is nearly time for him to move onward. He has suffered in this realm until all the others around him are miserable."

Akane was startled when Musashi's bo suddenly appeared in her hands.

"No, I don't want to be the one who sends him onward," she all but screamed. "Let someone else do that."

The staff vibrated in her hands, then vanished. Akane tramped off to the bathing room without an escort for the first time since she had been in the ryokan. It was then that she realized that she knew exactly where she was, and how long her visit had been. It had been so brief as to be painful, yet she had been at the ryokan for at least a year.

"Magic is difficult because it is so self-contradictory, Akane said to herself. "That's a good thing, I suppose. The number of ambitious evil people practicing it would treble if it were easy."

She returned to her room refreshed and relaxed only to find an entire roasted pork butt sitting on a platter in the middle of the table. It was stone cold. She sampled it. The meat tasted good despite being cold.

"I guess now I know where the saying about getting the cold shoulder comes from, huh?" Akane said to the empty room.

She started to pick up the bell and ring it, but decided it best not to. This was clearly intended as a test of her patience. Cyrano had finally gotten across to Akane that her temper was her own worst enemy. He had done so by provoking her until she flashed into fire and turned into a pile of ashes. He might have given her a stern lecture on the subject, but had chosen not to.

She noticed the mirror as she stood still reflecting on what had just recently happened to her. She looked better than ever now. There was a glow about her that had never been there before. It reminded her Ranma's cursed form, for some reason. She gave herself a warm smile and the mirror reflected her warmth back to her.

Being angry is the very worst enemy of every phoenix, she reminded herself. Just stay cool and lets eat so that we can get out of here. I've had enough loneliness to last a lifetime.

There were no chopsticks or a fork to eat with. There wasn't even a knife. The roast had a short sword stuck in it. Akane cut the meat with the short sword and ate pieces of the roast held on the point of the sword until she started running into heavy fat. She looked around and sure enough, there was a scabbard for the sword. She carefully cleaned the blade with one the single napkin that had been left on the table before jamming the short sword into its scabbard. The scabbard had been custom made for the blade. She could tell because of how it clicked when she shoved it home.

Daigo suddenly appeared in the room bearing a new dark green dougi.

"Master says that this dougi and that short sword are yours. You may take both of them with you. Do you want to wear the dougi, or do you want me to bring the clothes you were wearing when you arrived?"

Akane rolled her eyes. "Why would I want that tattered sun dress? Leave it wherever it is."

"It will become another resentful youkai if you do that, human!" Daigo said angrily as he dropped her dougi on the tatami covered floor.

"Stop telling lies, bigot!" Akane was now gripped with something she had only ever felt once before - cold ruthless fury.

Daigo quivered with rage, but remained silent.

"That dress will be proud to be part of my past, you fool. I wore it here and got trained by a tengu, the former swordsman known the world over as Cyrano de Bergerac. What have you done since you've been here?"

Daigo's eyes bulged out which was almost amusing because he was bug-eyed anyway.

"You have not resolved one single thing since you've been here, have you?" Akane said in a voice that threatened to precipitate carbon dioxide out of the air. "You were sent here to work out your issues, but you have upset the wa of everyone around you instead."

"How do you know that, human?" Daigo shouted. "You can't prove it. You lack so much as a single shred of evidence!"

"You are truly thick, aren't you? Akane said. "You don't seem to realize why I am here."

"No I don't and I don't want to know. You're a stinking damned human and that is all I need to know!"

"I am not a human any longer, Daigo-san," Akane said. She was surprised by the menace in her voice. "I was a phoenix before I was invited here. That is why Cyrano has been training me."

Daigo laughed. "Oh, what a glorious delusion you live in, you onibaba! If you are a phoenix, I'm the King of Jigoku!"

Akane stared at the little frogish figure. "Careful what you wish for, you miserable little creature."

Daigo laughed in her face. "Or you'll do what human? You do realize that I could eat you right here right now do you not?"

"Is that a threat?"

"How can you have such a big ugly head and not understand my intent?" Daigo asked. He opened his mouth wide only to reveal the that he possessed the same teeth more commonly seen in the mouths of sharks.

Without thinking, Akane whipped out the short sword and slid it deep into Daigo's chest, then she jerked it out and whipped his blood off of it before sliding it back into its scabbard.

Daigo rocked on his feet looking shocked, then suddenly vanished in a cloud of foul smelling pink mist.

The lantern youkai hopped into the room.

"I see you sent him onward," it hissed softly. "He was long overdue."

Akane felt dizzy and was having a hard time staying on her feet. This was not the first time she had been witness to something such as this, but it was the very first time she had ever done such a thing. She collapsed to her knees.

"Please do not feel bad about sending him onward," lantern hissed in her mind. "That selfish little frog had been making everyone here miserable for months before you arrived. Now he's gone and good riddance."

Akane answered Bright Lantern in its own hissing language. She could feel the lamps sibilant language slithering through her mind. "He may have had it coming, but I didn't."

"There is that, yes, but you did the right thing nevertheless," Bright Lantern hissed. "Do remember this fact, you killed him in self-defense."

Akane looked around the room and her eyes locked onto the magical dougi. It was not a youkai, but it was saturated with mana, the stuff of magic.

"You will need to take off that yukata before the dougi can engulf you," Bright Lantern hissed softly. "It yearns to feel you inside of itself."

Akane got shakily to her feet. "I have someone at home that I yearn to feel inside of me," she said.

"That must be very pleasant," Bright Lantern said. "I don't know a thing about it, though. I'm not made for such things."

"So I can see," Akane said as she removed her yukata. As soon as she dropped it onto the matted floor, the magical dougi simply appeared around her and cuddled her skin. Unlike the previous dougi, that was very flashy, this one was solid dark green and fit her like a glove.

"Come, Akane-san," Bright Lantern hissed in her head. "Your norimono and its bearers are waiting out front."

She followed Bright Lantern out to the front of the ryokan only to find a large procession waiting around a sedan chair. She took in a sharp breath.

"Why so many?" Akane asked.

"They are needed to bear your gifts, Tendo-no-Ouou-omi-sama."

"I am not a Kami, dammit!"

"No, but you do warrant almost as much respect as a Kami," Bright Lantern hissed in her mind. "Do try to live up to our expectations and be imperious for once."

Akane snorted and pointed her chin high as she walked toward her norimono. One of the lumpy kaga-jin youkai held the door open for her. She got into it without utter so much as a word of thanks to the youkai. It looked pleased, as though it had taught her something.

They did teach me something, Akane thought. They taught me self-respect and that I am truly worth something. I am not just a nobody. I am Tendou Akane, a fearsome Phoenix. Worthy of the love of Saotome Ranma. I shall never feel bad about myself ever again.

The norimono was nothing more than a lavishly upholstered box with a soft seat in it. It had cunning slats that she could look out of while remaining out of sight. There was a flask of saki and a large bottle of chilled water. The bottle appeared to be as magical as her new dougi. It was loaded with mana. She poured a saki cup full of the fresh cold water and sipped it. It was refreshingly sweet.

"One last gift from Cyrano," Akane said. "I'll be he thinks that it will make a difference the next time we meet."

She sipped at it again.

"He'll have to do better than this to smooth things between us," she whispered. "He made me ugly and I may never forgive him for that."

Akane peeked outside the norimono occasionally as they traveled. She was startled to see the front gate of Tendou-ke. The trip had been shockingly brief. The youkai set the norimono down gently as though it held a very fragile egg. Akane blew out her breath in exasperation, but had second thoughts almost immediately.

They're doing this out of respect, not because they are afraid that they will hurt me, she thought. They're afraid that they might annoy me and that I will hurt them. I have arrived at long last. Simply glorious!