On Closer Observation
An itinerant wind danced through the yard of the Tendo Dojo, eliciting a string of resonant notes from a hanging wind chime. Amidst that ring of ethereal music came the splash of koi frolicking in the pond. It had been a couple of weeks since the poor fish were last traumatized by the intrusion of shape-changing martial artists into their tiny domain. That was more than just cause for ichthyoidal celebration, but the simple joy of fish flinging themselves up into the air was lost on the two men brooding nearby on the porch. Their silent ruminations were interrupted by the slender grace of a young woman carrying a tray of lemonade. With soft words of gratitude from one, and a grunt of acknowledgement from the other, Kasumi served the two fathers and proceeded back inside.
Settling at the low table and serving her sister, before taking the final glass for herself, the eldest daughter joined Nabiki in studying the pair in concern. It had been several days since the Soun and Genma had returned home, and they had yet to speak of the ordeal they had suffered. As far as either girl knew, both men had returned to their former selves with no complications. Genma still turned into a panda at the touch of cold water, and Soun was every inch the manly father they knew of old. Apart from the strange ninja girl that had arrived the first night of their return, to deliver a punishing beating to the two men, there had been no disturbances around the house. Not once had there been a dramatic scene about the absence of Ranma or Akane. There had been no noise about going to China to track down their wayward children.
Just this, the pair of them staring off into space and avoiding the two girls with a tenacity verging on terror. That was partly Nabiki's fault, given the sly looks and biting comments she had greeted them with that first afternoon, but even Kasumi's innocent remarks had set the two men on edge, at one point prompting them to retreat to a local bar for a long night of drinking and foolish antics to reassert their manhood. It was beginning to drive both girls up the wall.
"I could ask them where Happosai is again," Nabiki offered helpfully, catching her sister's eye. "That would get them out of the house for a few hours."
Kasumi frowned. "Nabiki, that would hardly be helpful," she chided, turning to give the fathers another concerned look.
"Come on, Sis. This constant brooding is driving me up the wall. What could possibly have happened to the two of them while they were women to make them act like this? I mean, it's not like they were a pair of luscious young vixens. I doubt they had men chasing after them, or anything like that!"
"Seeing as they refuse to talk about it, we can only guess," Kasumi sighed.
Nabiki rolled her eyes and coughed pointedly into her hand. In truth, she had tapped a few resources to have the fathers followed and observed during their transsexual adventure. In her own opinion, the fathers' antics had been mortifyingly ridiculous, and any real woman would have died before even contemplating doing some of the things those two had done, under Happosai's guidance. But the reports she had only detailed the public exhibitions, and offered little or no insight into what other things the two men had gotten involved in. Such as, whatever had provoked Konatsu Kenzan to hunt the pair down in their natural forms. "I am sure it's safer not to guess. Best, actually, not to think about it at all. I just wish everything else was back to normal."
"Normal?" Kasumi arched a confused eyebrow at Nabiki, as if uncertain of the meaning of the word.
"What passed for normal around here, once Ranma showed up, I mean," Nabiki demurred.
Kasumi nodded. "Things certainly are quiet without Akane, Ranma and all of their friends. I do hope they come home soon."
"That would certainly liven things up," Nabiki commented distantly. In the days and nights following the exodus of manic martial artists, Nabiki had found herself pondering the puzzle that Ranma Saotome had evolved into. How could someone so seemingly simple and uncomplicated turn out to be such a perplexing knot of mystery and impossibilities? In the intervening time, while waiting for the catalyst of chaos to return, Nabiki had become engrossed in an investigation of Ranma and his—or her—family. Starting with family records, she had discovered that Genma and Nodoka's marriage had been arranged to join two branches of the Saotome family.
That was not an unheard of occurrence among the larger Japanese clans, particularly when the branches were as distantly divided as theirs had been. Genma's line had a long martial arts tradition, Nabiki had noted, but Genma apparently had not been the heir to the family school and thus set out to establish himself under an obscure, unconventional master.
No surprise who that turned out to be, but to Nabiki's amazement, it seemed to have been Happosai who prompted the engagement of Ranma's mother and father, when Genma inexplicably tried to defend his distant cousin from his master's panty predation. It was hard to imagine Genma ever having possessed a spine, but apparently there was a time when Nodoka managed to bring out something good in the lazy thief.
Speaking of thief, evidently that was also something of a tradition among Genma's line. Some deeper digging suggested that at one point Genma's ancestors had been shinobi, and had survived the loss of their overlords by becoming rogues and adventurers. Some eventually became yakuza, while others went on to become monks. Genma's forefathers, unfortunately, had been simple, opportunistic thieves. Never a terrible menace, and apparently never quite as bad as Genma himself became under Happosai's tutelage, but thieves none-the-less.
Which made Nabiki all the more suspicious about the man who ultimately ensured Nodoka's marriage to the black sheep of the clan. Kenshin Saotome, Nodoka's father, had been a paragon, a wealthy landowner, and a descendant of samurai. At least, that was what turned up on paper.
Officially, he was a man of impeccable lineage, and yet, when compared to the historical information Nabiki was able to gather, there was something distinctly suspicious about the man and all of his ancestors. There were numerous accounts of heroic deeds and timely interventions credited to the men and women Kenshin claimed as ancestors, dating back to the notable young woman who first married into the clan a thousand years ago. The thing that stood out, in every case, was the fact that all of the individuals in this lineage first appeared as teens or in their early twenties, hung around for ten or fifteen years, and then retreated into seclusion or set off on long excursions never to be heard from again—except to be mentioned as the parent of the next generation's scion of fortune and glory.
After a hundred years or so, the pattern changed so that two such individuals—a man and a woman, or two women—appeared every generation or so to represent this enigmatic branch of the family. Only rarely did one of these scions settle down and have children in a more conventional manner, but even then, once the children hit their twenties or early teens, the wandering mother or father vanished as mysteriously as she or he arrived.
As an individual given to reading fiction, and a connoisseur of film, Nabiki was more than capable of identifying Kenshin's lineage as the sort of cover that might be erected by a vampire or immortal passing agelessly through the centuries. Because of all she had seen since Ranma first appeared, she found she could not entirely dismiss such a notion. If there could be springs that transformed people, or mushrooms that could change a person's age, why not something that granted immortality, like the legend about eating a mermaid's flesh?
One person, with a curse like Ranma's and some form of immortality, could easily pose as many different people, appearing every generation, but always presenting themselves as someone the survivors of the previous generations would not recognize. Unfortunately, the wild theory was impossible to prove.
The only person who could know the truth was Kenshin himself, and he had died in an inexplicable house fire. The same kind of fire that had claimed Nodoka's mother, actually. Nabiki would have killed to get her hands on any kind of photographic or lithographic evidence to support her suspicion, but so far the only thing she had was examples of writing from Kenshin's ancestors in which Nabiki could only identify two distinct "signatures".
From everything she could put together, Kenshin was the last of the scions to appear unexpectedly as a grown man, to claim the legacy of his bloodline. Nodoka was one of those rare children born in the public eye, possessing a past Nabiki could find eyewitnesses to corroborate. Ranma, with his bizarre upbringing on the road, was possibly the only person in that bloodline to have been raised in the fashion Kenshin and the past scions all claimed to have been raised.
Which was what really made Nabiki pause to reflect.
Nodoka had named her father as the author of the man-among-men contract, or more importantly, the man who had reserved the right to pass judgment on the person Ranma would become, and Kenshin had been the person who had the final word about marrying Nodoka and Genma. Was it possible that Genma was chosen to wed Nodoka because he had been certain to take his child, male or female, on such an outlandish training journey? Was Ranma's life some weird experiment to determine if a person could be raised under the radar, having a past but leaving few tangible traces of his passing, in this modern world?
There was a moment when paranoia flourished in Nabiki's brain, as she returned to the absurd contract. Nabiki had always thought of it as typical Genma nonsense, but the reaction from Nodoka, the way the woman seemed to hold the contract as utterly binding, had always troubled her. If Kenshin was the ultimate judge of Ranma's fitness, was it possible the mysterious man had endorsed the contract, seen an opportunity only an immortal would recognize? Was it possible that the contract was just an excuse to kill Ranma, to force Ranma to kill himself, and thus allow Kenshin to take over Ranma's identity? Nabiki had returned to her research and discovered that there had been no body found in the ashes of the fire that killed Kenshin. Only the testimony of a priest, one Katsuhito Masaki, asserting that he had seen Kenshin enter the building before it caught fire, and never emerge, truly confirmed his death.
Nabiki had kept her discoveries and suspicions to herself, but as the days grew longer and Ranma and company failed to return from China, the mercenary girl grew more and more restless. She knew Nodoka would insist on taking whichever of the triplets seemed the most manly to see Masaki. As the executor of Kenshin's estate, he was certain to be the one empowered to judge Ranma in Kenshin's absence. Only, Kenshin might not be dead at all, and Masaki might instead be a conspirator in the suspected immortal's plot against Ranma.
Each day, Nabiki found herself struggling to find some way of explaining her suspicions and warning her would-be brother-in-law, and each night she went to bed certain she would not be believed until it was too late. In the darkest hour of the night, she found herself wondering if it was already too late. Kenshin, for whatever reasons, had already staged his death. He must have learned of Ranma's return to Tokyo and discovered something that prompted him to proceed with whatever plot he had designed. In fact, if Nabiki was entirely correct in her suspicions, the immortal might have learned of Ranma's curse, or more importantly, the way his curse had been accepted by the natives of Nerima. What better proof was there that Ranma was Ranma than that curse? An ability that Kenshin had hidden for generations would suddenly have become the greatest asset in assuming Ranma's identity.
Nabiki took a sip of her lemonade.
In the light of day, particularly in Kasumi's company, the whole thing seemed fabulously paranoid and ridiculous. The whole sinister plot was more the product of her suspicious nature, combined with exposure to proof of impossible things she had witnessed in the past year. Her investigation had turned up too many bizarre or inexplicable things, and Nabiki had seen too many strange things to avoid filling in the blanks with wildly improbable things when she started reading between the lines. However, there was still a great deal she did not know yet. There were still questions and answers waiting to be weighed and considered. Having a theory she did not know how to prove, she would have to work on how to disprove it.
Once Ranma returned, and Nabiki had a chance to determine if he or his siblings were truly themselves, she could decide how to proceed.
"I'm sure they'll be home any time now," Nabiki finally volunteered. "Two weeks is just about right for all of them to reach Jusenkyo, take care of things with the amazons and then return to Japan. I am sure they've just been too busy or distracted to call ahead and tell us they're on their way."
"Oh, my! I should start getting the house ready, then!" Kasumi fretted, straightening and rushing demurely out of the sitting room.
Nabiki contained a sigh. She was tempted to urge her elder sister to stop fussing and try to enjoy the peace while it lasted, but she knew Kasumi's restless domesticity was just the older girl's way of dealing with stress and anxiety. One day, Kasumi would learn to kick back and let the world take care of itself, but Nabiki could not even guess when that would be. She merely sipped her drink and studied the sky, keeping Genma and Soun visible in the corner of her eye.
After a while, she caught a faint movement from the other corner of her vision and nodded to herself. Yep. That kunoichi is still watching the house. If she's still after Daddy and Uncle Saotome, I can't imagine why she hasn't made a move on them yet. I wonder… Could she be waiting for Happosai? Nabiki turned her head to look directly at the pretty, female ninja.
Konatsu was ignoring the two men, watching the house itself with frustrated patience. She met Nabiki's gaze, blinked and then faded into the background.
"Interesting," Nabiki commented to herself.
At that same moment, in the crystal chamber within the magic trap mirror, Akane sat brooding in silence. It had been very difficult to leave Ranko behind in Herb's care. At the same time, it was something of a relief. The secret she had been keeping to herself had been gnawing a hole in her gut, and she doubted she would have been able to keep her silence if she had been given too much time alone with Ranko. Once again, she found herself wondering if she could have changed things, prevented things from turning out the way they had, if she had dared to warn Ranko about what she had discovered. Once again, she bit her lip and tried to force the thought out of her mind. She could not risk revealing what she had done. She could never explain or justify her petty little act of revenge, nor could she blame her own curiosity. She had gotten what she had wanted, and she had been punished for it at the same time. Maybe, one day, if she were truly fortunate, she would be called upon to explain why she, like Ranko, Ryouga and Shampoo, was no longer a virgin, and Akane would finally be able to confess.
What she had done had been, well, perverted, but she had been able to forgive herself. It was the consequences of keeping her silence that she did not know how to forgive herself for. It was the fact that her silence had contributed to the loss—she tried not to think of is as the death—of Ranma and Fa Shen. Maybe it was best that there was only one person who could claim to be Ranko, Ranma or Fa Shen, just as she was now the only person who could claim to be Akane.
There was at least one benefit to her failure. The mortification she felt, whenever she thought of it, was strong enough to undo the transformation that now came with her expressions of defiance. Of course, she might never become a chi-adept, now that her ki was a minefield of potential transformations. It was ironic. She had never considered herself capable of the kind of ki manipulation that Ranma had mastered, but in the space of a few days she had branded herself with two chi triggered cursed. One turned her into a man, and the other would split that man off into a separate incarnation. Two things she had in common with Ranko, now. If the Kami favored her, she would be the ideal mate for Ranko. Not that she had any idea what the triggers to her second curse were.
Akane snorted in aggrieved amusement.
It was strange. She was cursed. The insanity of Ranma's life, the freakish perversion that had scared her so much it had driven a wedge between her and Ranma, had finally taken root in her. It was ironic that one of the first insults she had flung at him had been prophetic, but it was even more ironic that now she too was a couple by herself. It was pure karmic justice that her curse… her curses were even worse than Ranma's had been. A water-based curse would be a blessing, Akane felt. To have a curse that was sensitive to her emotional state was onerous and cruel. Controlling the weather seemed infinitely easier than controlling her temper.
In theory, it was possible for her to master her curse, the way Ranma, Fa Shen and Ryouga had, but in her case it would require her to acquire self-discipline, and only now was she capable of recognizing that she was severely lacking in that department. What self-discipline she had, she owed to bearing the brunt of Ranma's insults. True, she usually blew up, but there had been enough times when she had been forced to contain herself for a while before blowing up that she had at least developed a limited degree of self-restraint. Not enough to prevent her from malleting Ranko only a few hours ago, but more than she would have had otherwise.
"What are you so moody about, Sugar?" Ukyo interrupted, settling down beside Akane and giving her a curious look.
"I'm sorry, what was that, Ukyo?" Akane blinked and looked up at her rival.
"I asked what's wrong, Akane. You sure are moody. I know it's not easy to leave Ranko behind like that, but you seem to be more upset than the rest of us," Ukyo noted pointedly.
Akane shrugged and sighed. "I just… have a lot to think about. Ranko wasn't the only one going through changes this past week," Akane reminded Ukyo, without confiding anything sensitive.
Ukyo looked at her unmoving for a moment, and then nodded, "I suppose that's true, Sugar."
Akane studied the other girl for a few seconds, and then nodded. "I noticed that you brought your cask of Nanniichuan along with you," Akane said, prodding the other girl to share her own secrets.
Ukyo looked down at the wooden cask tucked under her left arm. Shrugging, she looked up. "Dragging it out was the only to convince Ran-chan that I haven't used it already."
"Are you still planning to?" Akane asked.
"You mean, become a guy? Would you blame me if I did? It's almost compulsory at this point, what with you and Ryouga turning ambisexual on us," Ukyo tried to lighten the near-accusation with a disarming laugh.
"Well, just don't let Genma find out you've got it," Akane warned, smiling.
Ukyo smiled an evil smile. "Are you kidding? I can't wait to tell him I've got it. Right after I tell him that, I'll tell him that he will never get his filthy panda-paws on it."
"Ukyo! The man's the best thief in Nerima, second to Happosai!" Akane cried out.
"Oh, better, I'd say. Happosai's thieving is a little narrow minded, if you ask me," Ukyo corrected, waving Akane's warning off with her free hand.
"I can't argue with that, but…" Akane trailed off.
Ukyo met her eye and nodded. "The sneaky ol' panda won't rest until he's found where I've hidden it and poured it all over himself," she predicted with unholy glee.
Akane stared at Ukyo in disbelief. Her look gradually turned to suspicion. "Ukyo. That is nanniichuan water in that cask, right?"
Ukyo gave her an innocent look.
"Ukyo!" Akane growled irritably, grabbing her water flask and twisting the cap.
"Don't, Akane!" Ukyo warned, shying back.
"You didn't!" Akane stopped opening the lid and gaped at Ukyo.
"How could anyone tell?" Ryouga asked, appearing behind Ukyo and pouring water over her head. While Ukyo gasped in shock at the cold dousing, Ryouga boldly reached around and jerked Ukyo's shirt open. The usual bindings were revealed, and Akane could tell by the general shape that a normal pair of breasts was bound firmly in their grip.
"You jackass!" Ukyo snarled, jerking around and belting Ryouga. "Can't you at least turn into a girl before trying to molest me!" Ukyo carefully set down her cask of Jusenkyo water and started squeezing the excess moisture out of her shirt, while Akane fished a towel out of her knapsack.
"That was uncalled for," Akane declared, handing Ukyo the towel.
"You were about to do the same thing!" Ukyo accused, drying her hair and face.
"But, you avoided my question. That is the water you got out of the Nanniichuan, isn't it?" Akane persisted, leaning in to look at the cask. It certainly looked like the cask she had gotten from the Jusenkyo Guide.
"No. It's not. It's Nyanniichuan water," Ukyo finally confessed. She finished drying her head and draped the towel over her shoulder. Bending down to pick up the cask, she continued, "Before you ask, I'm not telling you what happened to the nanniichuan. A girl's gotta have some secrets."
Akane blanched at the other girl's smile and wink.
"What?" Ukyo sobered, regaining her concerned look.
"Jusenkyo secrets have terrible prices, Ukyo," was all Akane would say.
Ukyo studied Akane carefully and then squatted down in front of her. "What did you do, Akane?" she asked in a stern voice.
"You first," Akane proposed, meeting Ukyo's gaze uncompromisingly.
Ukyo glanced over her shoulder at the pile of clothes that belonged to Mirror—formerly Mousse—and then knelt closer to Akane. In a quiet tone, with a look of warning, she said, "I know someone who needed that water more than me."
Akane leaned to the side and looked past Ukyo, to see what she had glanced at, and then met Ukyo's eyes, "You mean, Mousse? Aren't you worried that he'll just give it to Shampoo, so she can be a better match for Ranko?"
Ukyo shrugged. "I doubt he… she'd do anything to improve Shampoo's chances of winning Ran-chan. All I do know is that Mousse doesn't plan to use it in any hurry. I think it's just insurance, in case she can't master the duck curse. In any case, no one is going to be able to steal that cask from her. Who knows where all the stuff she has crammed into those robes really is?"
"So, you're still all girl, then?" Akane asked, sounding faintly envious.
"Sure. Besides, there are other ways to get cursed now that don't involve the whims of water," Ukyo responded with a rationalized air. Akane gawked at her, and Ukyo nodded. "I have some things stashed away. I'm not going to play around with a chi curse until I can dictate what the trigger would be. Who knows, by the time I am good enough, I won't need to worry about it anymore."
"I see," Akane muttered, looking down. She finally understood why Ranko and been so opposed to the idea of anyone getting cursed to win her. It just was not possible to warn people. They didn't believe it was anything to worry about until it was too late and there was no going back. At least Ukyo's ambitions had some built in delays. Shaking her head, she looked back up, "So, you'd let Genma curse himself to turn into a woman?" she asked doubtfully.
"Why not. For all the grief he gave Ran-chan, it would only be justice," Ukyo declared.
"Really, Ukyo. What's with the girl water?" Akane insisted.
Ukyo sighed. She stared off for a while, thinking. She had tried to get away with giving Akane the answers she expected, but her rival seemed to sense that Ukyo was not telling her something. She had almost betrayed herself already. Wondering if it would be worth it to trade her secret to find out what Akane was so upset about, she returned her attention to the Tendo girl and challenged, "Whatever it is you're hiding, it had better be really good!"
"It's mortifying!" Akane assured her, blushing to her roots.
"Fine," Ukyo accepted, with a sharp nod. Lifting the cask up to her knee, she presented it to Akane with a hand flourish. "This is what was left over from what Mousse gave me."
"What?" Akane asked, in confusion.
Ukyo sighed and turned around. Digging through the bags and boxes they had brought along as luggage, she found and pulled out a large water cask. "Can you believe Mousse has been lugging this thing around since he came back to Japan with the circus?" she asked Akane. When Akane continued to look at her in confusion, Ukyo growled in her throat and leaned in close to Akane. "Herb did not unlock my instant curse, Akane!" she revealed.
"What?" Akane almost shouted.
"I'm the one who locked Herb's curse, remember?" Ukyo waited for Akane to nod. "Right, so, when we all went in to use the kettle, Lime and Mint grabbed me and held me down while Herb talked to me. He said that he had promised not to kill any of Ran-chan's friends, but for what I had done to him, there was no forgiveness. Then he tapped several spots on my body and my ki suddenly flared up out of control. I swear, Akane, if felt like I was strapped to a lightening bolt! After a few minutes of that, he splashed me with the kaisuifuu water and… and nothing happened!" Ukyo declared.
"How can that be?" Akane asked, searching her mind to recall what Cologne had warned her about when she had been locked in an instant curse. Before Ukyo had to spell it out, she remembered, "He burned it off! He did something to make you burn off your true form!" Akane gasped.
Ukyo nodded. "Of course, no one noticed anything, because I still looked the same when I came out. Except Mousse. Mirror. Whatever. She came over and asked what Herb did to me. I made her promise not to tell anyone, and then showed her I was still a guy and explained what Herb did. She asked me if Herb splashed me again with the chisuiiton, and when I told her no, she asked me if I would trade my cask of nanniichuan for a cask of nyanniichuan. Akane, I would have traded my whole restaurant for that cask. To keep anyone from realizing what was up, he had me pour the water out into a different container and then he gave me that big barrel over there."
"So, you turn into a girl with cold water. That's pretty convenient, I guess," Akane noted.
"Akane, I wasn't lying when I said I'm all girl. Well, that's not exactly true, but I don't turn into a guy," Ukyo corrected. In response to the look Akane gave her, Ukyo explained. "You have to give me more credit for being sneaky and resourceful. When we were all locked by Herb in the river, I filled up a bottle with chisuiiton water to use on Herb, Remember?" Ukyo paused until Akane nodded, and she grinned, "Well, after I used the nyanniichuan, I went back to that pool in the stream and took a dip. It turns out that the magic settled in that pool, so now it's a chisuiiton pool."
"Why?" Akane asked in confusion. "I mean, you wanted to be able to turn into a guy. You're the only one who can change back and forth without anyone noticing. You even told Ranko you were gonna do it regardless of who she chose, and Herb gave you the perfect excuse. Why would you lock yourself into girl form?"
"Akane, what do you think Ranko would do if I told her about what Herb did?" Ukyo asked quietly. She studied the other girl's face, watching her think things through as she had earlier. When she saw understanding light up Akane's face, she nodded. "That's right, Sugar. Ranko would have tried to kill Herb. Again." Ukyo took a deep breath and let it out before continuing, "Now, on any other day I'd just cheer Ran-chan on, but both of them were stripped of their ki abilities, and you have no idea how much of what Ran-chan does uses ki. So, it would come down to basic fighting abilities, and Herb didn't make any bones about how he was trained as a warrior, not a martial artist. Herb will never be as good at fighting as Ran-chan—he always relied on superior firepower, brute strength over skill—but he's a killer, Akane. He proved that by what he did to Ranko."
"I didn't think of that," Akane admitted weakly.
Ukyo nodded in agreement. Then, after a moment, she cocked her head and asked, point blank, "So, Akane. What's this mortifying secret that's got you so down?"
Akane was slow to respond. Her thoughts had drifted back to the horrifying sight of Herb's torturous transformation. It was hardly surprising that he had taken vengeance on Ukyo, but somehow none of them had anticipated it. What, she wondered, would Herb do when he caught up to the rest of them? The whole group had helped Ukyo administer her poetic justice. True, none of them imagined the sheer agony her action would cause, but she and Ryouga had held the dragon prince helpless, and Mirror had stood there promising even worse. Then again, Mirror had realized that Herb had done something to Ukyo.
"Akane?" Ukyo cut into her thoughts.
"What? Oh, sorry, Ukyo," Akane blushed. Squirming, she allowed her thoughts to return to her original concern. For a moment, she tried to decide how to begin, then she took a deep breath. "You remember that Ranko became split up by dousing herself with the water Po Shen mixed to split me in two, right?" Akane asked. When Ukyo nodded, Akane continued, "Well, you also know how Ranko got fused back together."
"Yeah. I still can't get that image out of my mind," Ukyo blushed, remembering the shock, embarrassment and fascination she had felt as she stood there watching Ranko having sex with her male other half.
Akane blanched and looked down. Fumbling nervously with the water bottle in her hands, she forged ahead, "Yeah, well. The reason I've been so… depressed… so guilty… so… I don't know… the thing that has been eating at me is, I feel like I should have warned them that that could happen."
Ukyo stared at Akane and shook her head, "Hey, come on, Akane. The whole lot of us have been beating ourselves up for figuring everything out one step too late. How could you have known that sex could turn a locked, instant curse into a chi curse?"
Akane took another deep breath, let it out in a rush and looked up. In a dead, serious tone, she announced, "Because it happened to me first."
Ukyo fell over on her side. Lurching upright, she stared at Akane in shock, and gasped, "You have got to be kidding me!"
Akane shrank into herself, unable to continue looking directly at Ukyo.
"Akane…" Ukyo tried to draw her attention. "Akane? Are you serious? You had… with your guy half… and you…?" Ukyo did not know how to put her question into words.
"I'm not a virgin anymore, Ukyo," Akane cut straight to the point without looking up.
"I don't believe it," Ukyo declared softly. She shook her head, still staring at Akane in disbelief. "After all the grief you've given Ran-chan over what the three of them were doing? I just can't believe you would ever, ever, do something like that."
Akane frowned and looked up angrily. "And why not! Ranma slept with Ryouga! Fa Shen slept with Shampoo! The two of them were going at it with each other again and again. Who even knows how many times they had sex with each other?" Akane pointed out furiously. Swallowing hard, and straining to reign in her temper before it became to righteous, she went on in strained tones. "Do you remember what Ranma was like when he thought I'd slept with Ryouga?"
Ukyo just stared at her, as if seeing her for the first time.
"I couldn't take it, Ukyo. Everyone was rushing headlong into bed with each other. I don't think I've ever done more than fantasize about sex before three weeks ago, and I know the very idea scared me silly! But all of a sudden Ranma, Ranko… everyone was leaving me behind, experienced in a world I could only dream about. What did I have to save myself for?" Akane asked in pained earnest voice. She shook her head and crossed her arms. "That old woman, even Cologne, warned me, warned Ranko, not to be tempted, but how could I resist? What guy could I possibly trust enough to do something like that with? If not a guy who was really me inside, then who?"
"But, Akane…" Ukyo gulped.
"What, Ukyo? After everything I've done on this stupid trip, what?" Akane's eyes flashed dangerously. She shuddered for a moment, but the change overtook her. In deeper tones, he laughed, "Oh, Ukyo. I was so stupid. I put myself through everything Ranko went through leading up to this. There I was, stuck in this male body, and the only thing I was thinking was, maybe it's better to stay like this. Let at least part of me go on to have a normal life. Having sex, like that, was pretty much just masturbation. Isn't that what Ranma and Fa Shen claimed?"
"You don't have to tell me all of this, Akane… I… I had no idea," Ukyo shied.
"No. No, Ukyo. I HAVE to tell SOMEONE. It's been eating me alive!" Akane protested, almost begged. The solemn, vulnerable, hurting look on his face captured Ukyo's attention. Held it. "I knew that doing it might leave me permanently split in two, and maybe that's what I wanted, but at least by going through with it I'd prove I was man enough to survive being split off from myself. I'm not even sure if I enjoyed it, but it was so powerful. The things I felt are indescribable. It's like a door opened inside me, and nothing can ever shut it. I didn't even notice becoming fused back together. By that point, by the time I recovered from that insanity, I could not undo what I had done, so I tried to forget it. I told everyone I had taken a hot salt-water bath, and made up some excuses…" Akane fell silent.
"Akane. I… I've been a guy. Hell, I've lived as a guy for so long… I'm not going to judge you. I am shocked, yes. I mean, it seems so unlike you. But, with everything that's happened, none of us have been our normal selves," Ukyo acknowledged, trying her hardest to sound supportive.
"No, Ukyo. The sex, that doesn't really matter," Akane cut her off. "I think I did what any one might have done in that situation. I mean, really, to be like that, one person, two bodies, all you could possibly want to know in your power to grasp. I'd dare anyone to resist it. I pity anyone with the opportunity to try. What I did… it helped me understand them, Ukyo. But, I lied, Ukyo. I pretended nothing had happened, and let Ranko fall into that trap too. I let Ranma and Fa Shen die!"
Ukyo could not speak. The amount of guilt and despair in Akane's voice was humbling. But, Ukyo could not let Akane's self accusation go unanswered. "Okay, yeah. On second thought, that was pretty stupid and selfish," she agreed, watching Akane flinch and suddenly turn female again. Blinking and trying not to be distracted, she went on, "At the same time, it's perfectly understandable. I don't know if I'd do the same thing if I was split into boy and girl types, but I'm not stupid enough to say I really know what I'd be thinking or feeling in such a situation. It's so unreal. There's nothing that can prepare you for such a thing! But, let's get a few things straight. First, having sex with your self seems to be a rather private thing. I don't remember Ranma and Fa Shen shouting it out to the world, even when it was shaking their whole world off it's axis. Second, how could you really warn anyone about what could happen without revealing how you learned about it? Third, and most importantly, Ranma and Fa Shen are NOT dead!"
"Ukyo! They're gone!" Akane protested, beginning to tear up.
"No. Come on, Akane. They were never supposed to be THERE in the first place. Ranma and Fa Shen, they're just different sides of Ranko, different because they had to live with the prospect of not being able to live as the same person," Ukyo asserted. "I don't hear you crying about that guy named Akane you 'killed off' by having sex with him!"
Akane froze in surprise.
"See?" Ukyo implored.
"But… that's different… I mean, I wasn't… I didn't…" Akane fumbled for words.
"What? You didn't happen to have some former incarnation of yourself move into your spare body? You didn't have a different name or history to attach to your other half?" Ukyo critiqued. She shook her head, "Sorry, Akane. You can feel sorry for yourself, but I don't think it's necessary. Having different names and spare bodies only made it harder for Ran-chan to cope with one simple fact. Before he was Ranma, she was Fa Shen, and when the walls came down, only Ranko was able to make a whole person out of all of that. Having to deal with Ranma and Fa Shen on either side at the same time just made it harder for her."
"But…" Akane tried one last time.
"No. It makes things harder for us, since we can't just divvy her up to solve our own problems, but, no. Becoming whole was the only way for Ranma and Fa Shen to survive. I mean, did you see what Ranko WAS when she became whole? Sweet goddess of mercy, Akane! We had no idea! This whole thing has been insane, and it has hurt all of us, and given us the scars to prove it, but I think, in the end, it will all be worth it. It will be the right thing. I just hope I can keep up," Ukyo confessed, the light of awe and amazement underscoring her words.
Akane fell silent for a while. She found herself looking at Ukyo in faint amazement.
After a bit, Ukyo cleared her throat and stated, off-handedly, "One last thing, Sugar. The next time you decide to confide in me, you might wanna try to keep your voice down. That, or try not to pour your heart out in what is essentially a very small room."
Akane furrowed her brow and frowned at Ukyo. Then, she twisted her head around and noticed the other people in the crystal chamber sitting behind her with their backs to her trying very hard to project an air of total oblivion. A harder look, catching a glimpse of their faces reflected in the crystal walls, showed Nodoka carefully staring at the pages of a book with wide eyes, a rosy red face, and a metal ball-point pen bent wildly askew in her teeth as the ink ran down her chin. Cologne, next to Nodoka, had her hands clamped over her mouth suppressing what appeared to be the most violent coughing fit ever. Ryouga sat across from Shampoo, noticeably paler then the amazon girl, pretty much because all the blood he could spare had gushed out of his nose. Shampoo just… twitched, staring forward past Ryouga, seeing nothing, with a wide, manic grin plastered across her faces.
Akane turned around and met Ukyo's sympathetic gaze.
"I… I… you… Ranko! Never! Ever! Can't… breathe… need…" The alternative to Akane falling over in a shock induced coma would probably have been a shishihokodan to shame Ryouga on the worst day of his life.
The crystal chamber hummed with a collective sigh of relief.
It was evening by the time Ranko and Cinnamon returned to the fortified palace of the Musk. Ranko had spent the long walk enjoying the sunset and talking with the dragon, getting to know her better. It had occurred to her about halfway up the mountain that no one had thought of stopping by the Guide's hut at Jusenkyo and calling the Tendo home to let people know that her mother and the others were on their way back to Japan. Cinnamon had stopped Ranko from turning around to make the call herself by asking her how she intended to respond to the questions she would be asked. Ranko slapped herself for forgetting that Nabiki would demand to know how things went and why Ranko was not returning with them, or what happened to Ranma and Fa Shen. Given her present plans, to catch up to everyone at the end of the week, by catching a ride to Tokyo from Cinnamon, Ranko would arrive at least a day after the others, leaving it to them to answer the uncomfortable questions and make the humiliating explanations.
It was going to be hard enough delivering the Council of Elders' rulings to Herb and Spice.
Ranko groaned and looked up at the cold, stone walls of the fortress. "I don't suppose you'd care to give Spice the bad news, would'ya, Cinnamon?" Ranko asked her older look-alike.
Cinnamon smirked and glanced over her shoulder at Ranko. "I suppose that falls within my purview as your advocate, Ranko. I believe you can deliver the news to Herb, however. The Council's rulings essentially confirmed what she expected."
Ranko nodded.
Cinnamon cleared her throat and reached out to stop Ranko. When the smaller red-head paused and turned to meet her gaze, Cinnamon reminded her, "Herb has had a few more days to work on the training regimen I told you about. Physically, the two of you are in perfect condition, but spiritually, you've been badly burned. The best way I know of to accelerate your recovery is to get your ki flowing through all of its normal channels, feeding them and strengthening them without burning anything more away. I know the regimen is rather basic for your skill level, but it is important that you start with the basics and try to work back up to your normal level."
"Don't worry, Cinnamon. I remember what you told me. This isn't a competition. I won't try to catch up with Herb overnight," Ranko assured the dragon.
Cinnamon nodded. "The two of you are both extremely competitive, and given the outcome of your battle, I am sure you both feel the need to prove yourselves. Just remember, if you push too hard now, you might never be able to fully recover. Ki grows and heals in the same fashion, through use. I am sure you experienced the discomfort of building up your ki before, but that will be nothing compared to the pain you must endure to rebuild it."
"It's pretty painful just to touch it right now," Ranko confessed with a wince.
"Yes. I am sure you are very sensitive right now," Cinnamon acknowledged. She slipped behind Ranko and placed her hands on the younger girl's shoulders, rubbing them firmly and reassuringly. "The pain is a good thing, Ranko, because it means that the flow of ki is strong enough to clear and reinforce the channels. The thing you have to watch for is sudden spikes, surges and seizures. They are the warning signs. If they hit, they will not strike you as being unbearably painful, but what will be happening to you is not unlike having muscles and bones torn free of your body. You will feel something sharp and intense, you might become disoriented or nauseous or feel a heady rush, or even go numb, because the true pain will be so unimaginably intense you cannot grasp it. In a life or death situation, that numbness that protects you and allows you to take desperate action, however, if you continue to exert yourself past this point, you will actually be forcing those pathways to consume themselves, and you will never be able to fully restore them."
"Um, there's something I should probably mention," Ranko began hesitantly.
"Go on," Cinnamon murmured in Ranko's ear.
Ranko felt a faint shiver run through her as the woman's breath tickled her ear. Clearing her throat, she said, "My ki, ever since I merged into one, has a, um… sort of… well, sexy feel, if you know what I mean." Ranko blushed, growing more aware of Cinnamon's body pressing into her back.
"Oh. Yes. I think I know what you mean. You've tapped into a core of creative energy, and that lends itself to regeneration and rejuvenation, but it also has an erotic and sexual quality," Cinnamon noted, slipping her arms around Ranko, hugging the girl to her front. Her hands stroked gently over key energy centers of her body, and she nodded, "Yes, I can feel it. The flow is very weak and slow, due to your condition. This type of energy has a way of masking the pain, transforming it, but if you keep track of the intensity, and back off when the sensation becomes too intense to think clearly, you should avoid damaging your self. Intensity is the real key, whether it is pain or pleasure."
"Um, ah, thanks," Ranko muttered, slipping free of Cinnamon's embrace. However diagnostic the contact might be, Ranko had not forgotten that the dragon had ulterior motives where she was concerned. With an innocent smile, she turned to face her mentor and advocate. "I suppose we should get in. I'm starving!"
Cinnamon returned a playful grin. "Me too," she purred.
Ranko tried not to swallow too hard, and gradually drifted a little further ahead down the path. Cinnamon clasped her hands behind her back and shifted into her full stride, prompting Ranko to glide backwards rapidly a few paces and turn on her heel to walk just ahead of the dragon. In spite of her longer stride, Cinnamon elected to trail in Ranko's wake, admiring her from behind.
"Do you hav'ta do that?" Ranko asked nervously.
"You're a beautiful young woman, Ranko. You can't fault me for appreciating that," Cinnamon protested lightly.
"Well, you're not so bad looking yourself," Ranko pointed out laconically.
"Which is to say, yes, I am quite familiar with your body. Obviously. I just haven't seen it from this perspective all that often. I find that… fascinating," Cinnamon persisted, allowing her amusement to ring in her voice. At the same time, she was remembering a time when she had watched the original version of Ranko from this perspective. She had nursed a hunger then too, studying Fa Shen's delicious body, anticipating the moment she—or at the time, he—indulged that hunger.
Ranko felt a cold thrill race up her spine and shuddered. Stopping and turning abruptly, she stared up into Cinnamon's startled face. She studied Cinnamon carefully a moment, trying to look past the resemblance. "I don't want us to be enemies, Cinnamon," Ranko declared softly. She crossed her arms loosely, holding herself more than standing up to the dragon, and deliberated aloud, "I mean, you're my advocate and, well, sort of my sensei at the moment. I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I have to take that chance."
"What is bothering you, Ranko?" Cinnamon prompted her gently.
"What do you want from me?" Ranko inquired tentatively.
"I think you know what I want, Ranko," Cinnamon purred huskily.
"No. I don't think so. You're not human, Cin. The part of me that is Fa Shen won't let me forget what you really are. So, no. For all I know, you want to eat me alive as much as you want to mate with me, and as for mating with me, I'm not so sure I know what that really means," Ranko argued.
"I may be a dragon, Ranko, but I do have a long history of living among humans. Mostly as a woman. I am sympathetic to you on that count. I was a Musk Bride once," Cinnamon reminded her, while she wondered what the abbreviation of her name indicated.
"Well, let's start with that, then. I know what Herb wants. He wants me to be his consort, or maybe his concubine. I don't recall anything about the Musk regarding women as people, so I can't really say 'wife'. Herb wants me to be his mate," Ranko boiled it down. She tightened her grip on herself. "The problem is, whether he fights it or not, he admitted to being raised to think of women as animals, and that's what I expect to be viewed as if I were married to him. A clever animal useful for bearing strong sons."
"I can't argue with you there," Cinnamon assured her, with a wry smile.
"Um… not that… I mean, I don't mean to say you're a dumb animal…" Ranko babbled as she realized what she had unwittingly implied.
Cinnamon waved her to silence. "Please. I am proud to be an animal. The last time I checked, humans were also animals. It seems to me that most of humans' problems stem from the fact that humans are too immature to accept that simple fact. They try to deny what they are, what is in their nature, and pervert themselves."
"Er. I guess. But, what I'm tryin' to say is, what do you expect from me?" Ranko resumed.
"The only thing I expect of you is for you to be you. It would serve you better to ask what it is that I desire from you, but since I have desired you for fifteen hundred years, and still do not understand what it is that makes me desire you, the answer would still prove unsatisfactory," Cinnamon admitted.
Ranko shifted her weight to one foot and toed the ground with the other nervously. "Do you want me to be your mate? Or, do you just want to mate with me?" Ranko tried to narrow things down in the terms she thought would make the most sense to the dragon.
"Yes," Cinnamon said simply.
Ranko considered that. "So, what does that mean to a dragon?"
Cinnamon drew herself up regally, "It means, I would join with you and twine with you and nest with you. I would walk with you and hunt with you and fly with you. I would breed with you and feed with you and that I need to be with you. I would live with you and for you. Words really don't convey what I mean. You are the thing that something within me tells me I cannot live without."
Ranko blinked in surprise. It was simple and straightforward, and she found herself appreciating it. Still, she had her suspicions. "So, I am just something you want to possess. A thing to make your life full and complete. A mother for your children, a bride for your bed," Ranko translated.
Cinnamon scowled and shook her head, "Why do you assume that wanting you is indistinguishable from wanting to use you? Yes, there is something about you that is more tantalizing than food or sex, and the urge to eat you is nearly as strong as the urge to couple with you. This 'something' is enough to keep me fascinated for hundreds of years, and maybe what makes you special is this fascination. I see you not as something I deem worthy to have, Ranko. You are something I deem worthy to give myself to."
Ranko let her arms fall to the side. "I can't have heard that right."
"I am fairly certain I was speaking your language," Cinnamon drawled.
Ranko shook herself and reiterated, "No, I mean. What you are saying is, you just want to be with me?" It was rather perplexing. To Ranko, what it really sounded like was that Cinnamon just wanted to be friends. At least, if Ranko had put her feelings into words like that, it pretty much described her desperate longing for plain and simple companionship. People who were nice to her and liked and respected her, and whom she could trust.
Cinnamon nodded. "I crave your indulgence."
"And you don't expect anything else?" Ranko found it hard to believe.
"Everything you give me is a treasure, and, I would hope, something you would treasure too. If you share yourself with me, give me pleasure, I would hope you found pleasure too. If you bore me young, or sired them upon me, I would hope you would cherish your young as much as I." Cinnamon shrugged, not sure how else to explain herself.
Ranko frowned and considered. That certainly sounded like more than just friendship, but for an intimate relationship it promised a lot more equality and understanding. She brought one hand up, rubbing her lower lip thoughtfully. Mutual respect and admiration, appreciation and desire, it pretty much described what Ranko—or Ranma, at the time—had found after coming to an understanding with Ryouga. It was what had provoked her into sleeping with her former rival. Ranko gulped, as her quick reflection on where things had gone from there reminded her of the risks of indulging her own longings. She gave the dragon a sidelong look and confessed, "I think I like your way of thinking, but you know I have others to think about. That I can not 'indulge' anyone for fear of insulting or injuring somebody else."
Cinnamon nodded, curtly. "I know this."
Ranko shook her head, "I thought dragons were supposed to be possessive."
Cinnamon smiled a wicked grin. "We are. But, we also know the difference between people and possessions." The dragon started walking, taking Ranko by the elbow and gently urging her forward again. As they approached the main gates of the palace, she cautiously interrogated, "I do not know if you have considered it yet, but while you are worrying about people's feelings, are you keeping in mind the consequences of choosing any of them?"
"All the time!" Ranko declared anxiously.
"Oh, I do not just mean how others would react if you singled one person out and chose to be with them. There are many other things you need to consider. Is it wise to become too strongly attached to any of these humans?" Cinnamon inquired.
"What do you mean?" Ranko glanced to the side and studied the dragon's profile.
Still looking ahead and holding on to Ranko's arm, Cinnamon pointed out, "Well, for one thing, would it be fair to them? I know they are all strong martial artists, and that with the proper training they can expect to live for two, maybe three hundred years; but look at Cologne. What would it do to you and your beloved if you still looked like you do now and he or she was a shrunken, wrinkled little thing like Cologne?"
Or Happosai, Ranko automatically compared. "What are you talking about?"
"You know what I am talking about. You are a phoenix, Ranko. You might continue to age for another year or two, but once you have fully matured you will stop aging for, well, in your case, several thousand years, possibly. I cannot imagine how the discipline of martial arts would enhance the normal longevity of a phoenix," Cinnamon confessed profoundly. "And, that is not even taking into account the cycle of rebirth. You have many long lives ahead of you, little one."
Ranko walked along wide-eyes in shock for a moment, passing through the heavy portcullis and on into the main courtyard of the fortress in distracted silence. Cinnamon held her tongue while Ranko dealt with the shock. Ranko could not believe she had not thought about what it really meant to be a phoenix born in human form. The history of Pa Shen and Fa Shen, as reconstructed by Cinnamon, Spice and Cologne, should have made her aware of how long she could expect to live, but she had not once considered how that would affect her engagement problems. Even if she took whoever she ended up married to and put them through everything she had endured, they were merely human. Even if Ranko's wife or husband were cursed to change sexes, got split by the Mirror of Broken Souls, formed a circuit to tap into their soul, and merged back together with all that power at his or her disposal, they would still only be human. Powerful, and long lived, Ranko would give them a thousand years of life, easy, but once again, at the end of the millennium, they would be like Cologne or Happosai.
Ranko tightened her fists. "No. You're right, I didn't think of that, but there are other ways to deal with that. I could find out where the aging mushrooms grow and grow them for my… mate…" she tripped and spit out the first word that accounted for the possibility of marrying a man or a woman, then forged on, "I can tell you, they would make it easy for someone to be whatever age they wanted to be for however long they wanted. I bet if you tested them on Cologne or Happosai, the mushrooms would turn them back into teenagers."
"Ranko, whatever these mushrooms do, they are magic and by now you should know that magic demands a price. Can you see Cologne choosing to remain the way she is, when she knew she could regain her youth and vitality by simply eating some magic mushrooms—unless she feared the price?" Cinnamon countered solemnly. She let her hand fall from where it had rested on Ranko's arm and continued to walk beside her as they crossed the courtyard and headed for the entrance to the imperial residential wing.
"I don't know what that old mum…" Ranko cut herself off. Her opinion of the amazon matriarch had both improved and worsened over the past weeks, and Cologne had harmed her as much as she had helped her, but given where she was it might not be a good idea to show her too much disrespect. Starting over, Ranko confided, "I don't know, Cinnamon. I don't think she or Happi even know about the magic aging mushrooms. Maybe they just haven't found them."
"Maybe that's the price. Maybe that's the curse. You come across them once, and use them, but when you try to find them again, you can not. Instead of enjoying your restored youth, you waste it searching every corner of the world for more magic mushrooms, and grow old and bitter and eventually die," Cinnamon hypothesized grimly.
"Okay, fine! Maybe that's not the best idea, but… damn it, I wouldn't stop trying!" Ranko cried. The guards at the entrance to the residence bowed and opened the doors for Ranko and Cinnamon, who nodded distractedly in response and continued on into the main hall.
"That is the problem, young one," Cinnamon cautioned in lower tones, once they were out of earshot of the guards. "I know this is not comforting, but I only mean to spare you an eternity of grief. You are an immortal. It is time for you to stop and ask yourself if any of these friends of yours is worthy to be your mate. I can tell you, I often think I long for you so strongly because you are one of the few beings who might live forever, who could stay with me forever, until the end of time. I do not know if two people can be together for so long, but I do know that you will long for someone who will still be there by your side thousands of years from now."
"So, basically, you're the only one I can choose? Is that what you are trying to tell me?" Ranko demanded, scowling at the way Cinnamon had undermined her.
"Do you really think I am the only immortal besides yourself?" Cinnamon retorted tartly. Ranko said nothing, and Cinnamon shook her head. She nudged Ranko to the right, guiding her up the right wing of the grand staircase. As they climbed and turned down the passage leading to the quarters Herb was sharing with Ranko, Cinnamon asserted, "Believe me, there are hundreds, thousands, of dragons who will compete with me to be your soul mate. I do not even know how many phoenixes would be drawn to you, and I do not doubt that there will be a few who would take human form to be with you. You will also have half bloods like Herb and Saffron, who will vie for your affections. And then, you will have to be wary of gods. Above all, they are the most promiscuous and dangerous of suitors."
"Gods?" Ranko gasped in disbelief. "You mean real, live, honest to Kami, kami?"
"And demons, too, I suppose," Cinnamon shrugged.
"Demons!" Ranko cried shrilly in alarm.
Cinnamon nodded.
"I can't believe it," Ranko breathed.
"Well, I suggest you start working on that, because you will eventually find yourself confronted by one or the other. But, for now, why don't you go in and report to Herb. I will leave you here while I go to speak to Emperor Spice. When I return, after we have eaten, I will get you and Herb started on your evening exercises," Cinnamon instructed, opening the door to Herb's suite and ushering Ranko inside.
Ranma Nibunnoichi: Reflections – Volume 5: Paying the Price – Part 02
Author's Note: So far, Saffron's only gotten a mention, but don't worry, he'll show up soon enough. Apart from occasionally touching bases with the rest of the cast back in Nerima, the next few chapters focus on Ranko on her own in China. In the course of writing It's All in the Reflexes, I had a few readers ask what was going on back in Nerima. Here in this chapter, you get a hint, but not the full story. I did not want to interrupt the story of what happened in China with a subplot featuring Genma, Soun and Happosai off by themselves. In some ways, I think it is almost better to leave what happened to the imagination. If the occasional flashback is not enough for you, let me know. If enough people want to see a side story on that subject I might write it. Of course, there are a number of lemon scenes that people have asked to see published, too, so it might be a low priority!