Rain Storm
Ranko chewed her lip in frustration. As Ranma or Fa Shen, it was unthinkable to walk away from a challenge, but Ranko was painfully conscious of her recent injury and the limits it placed on her fighting ability. Her crimson hair danced in the faint morning breeze, causing her to squint to keep the ends out of her eyes. From the instant Taro showed up, a fight had been inevitable. After the words they had exchanged, a fight was unavoidable. Unfortunately, Ranko considered herself responsible for the situation Herb was now in, and fighting Taro was not going to help her help Herb. Not that helping Herb ultimately helped her, since she would still be bound by her promise to marry the dragon prince—assuming he regained his manhood.
Glancing to the side, Ranko considered her erstwhile ally. As soon as he jerked his arm out of her hand and stepped forward to challenge Taro, the chances of Ranko avoiding this fight had diminished to virtually nil. Grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to drag him away from Taro, she declared firmly, "Forget it, Ryu. He's not worth it and I don't have time for this right now!"
"What? Are you nuts?" Ryu snapped, giving her an outraged look.
"Oh, isn't this just precious? A lovers' spat!" Taro sneered, holding back to see if the two really did get into an argument and planning to use it to his own advantage.
"Give it a rest, Taro," Ranko warned the older boy with a glare. Speaking to Ryu but keeping her eyes on Taro, Ranko reminded, "I need to follow Saffron before he does anything to Herb. I thought you might want to come along, since you owe that guy for getting you cursed, Ryu. Do you really want to waste any more time on this jerk?"
Ryu could not help glancing at Ranko, or noticing that every fiber of her being was ready for the fight she was urging him to walk away from. Ranma, he recalled, could not walk away from a fight. Recalling her recap of recent events, he reminded himself that she had claimed to be injured in a recent fight with Herb. Nodding to himself, he concluded that she was forcing herself to retreat. "Don't worry, Ranko. You go on ahead. I can take care of this loud mouth," he proposed, bringing up his guard.
"Big mistake, Loverboy!" Taro shouted with a menacing laugh. While Ranko and Ryu were gabbing, Taro had surreptitiously loosened the cap and ties to the water flask hung at his hip. With one graceful motion, he flung a face full of water at Ryu and launched himself into the air to stomp down on whatever pathetic form the curse revealed.
"Ryu!" Ranko cried, launching herself up to meet Taro in mid air. Beneath her, Ryu barely flinched, blinking as the water ran into his eyes and dripped from his face. Ranko's shock at seeing Ryu unchanged by water cost her a vital second as Taro snapped out a cross-counter kick, slamming the flat of his foot into her jaw and sending her crashing to the ground.
"Don't move!" Ryu shouted into Taro's face as the older boy dropped out of the air in front of him. In the instant that Taro's attention was seized by the commanding voice, Ryu swept both arms out to clear Taro's defenses and kicked him hard in the chest. Connecting solidly with Taro's solar plexus, Ryu heard the satisfying sound of air rushing form his opponent's lungs, and followed through. "Dokuja Tanketsu Shou!" he barked, jabbing a hard fingered fan-fist into Taro's ribs right over his heart.
Taro gasped in agony, stumbling back from the crushing opening blows of the Yamasenken.
Ranko brought up her guard, having rolled to her feet while Ryu struck. "Damn, Ryu..." she began, rubbing her jaw.
"Sorry, Ranko," Ryu blushed, remembering too late that he had promised to abandon the sealed techniques. "Habit."
"Not that. Don't hold back against Taro!" Ranko quickly held up her hands, granting him unstated permission to use the Yamasenken and Umisenken. Waving her hands, presentationally, at him, she elaborated, "I thought you were cursed!"
"Nasty..." Taro coughed and gasped before continuing, while rising to his feet, "nasty... trick... Ranko... Makin' me... believe that!" Wiping his mouth, Taro glared at the couple before him, more resolved than ever to beat them into submission.
Ryu smiled an unpleasant smile. "Unlike some people, I came to Jusenkyo prepared," he boasted. With a careless shrug, he turned to Ranko, "Not that it saved me from getting cursed, but at least I brought some waterproof soap along to protect myself from people who would try to use that curse against me!"
Taro stared at Ryu for a moment, and then laughed. "Must be one pathetic curse, if you've gone to that much trouble to hide it!"
Ranko closed her mouth and wiped the surprise off her face. "You know that stuff isn't reliable, don't you?" she tested.
Ryu shrugged, "I've heard that, but it seems to be working fine right now."
Ranko shook her head and gestured at Taro, "Look out for..."
Taro had gathered a fist full of dirt as he rose to his feet, and flung the dust into Ryu's face as he charged in for another attack. "Boot to the head!" he yelled, in mockery of his opponent's named attacks, following the blinding attack with a round house kick that caught Ryu on the left cheekbone.
As Ryu was knocked off his feet, spinning away to the right, Ranko leapt through the space he had just vacated to drive a knee into Taro's face. Before she could spring back completely out of his reach, Taro snagged her ankle and whipped her around, slamming her into Ryu just as he was getting back on his feet. Shifting his weight to absorb the blow, Ryu closed his arms around Ranko and tried to jerk her out of Taro's grasp.
"Watch the hands, Jerk!" Ranko wailed, as one of Ryu's arms came over her shoulder, hand planted firmly on one breast, while the other arm came up between her legs to lock the other hand on her hip.
Ryu blushed and shrugged, paying more attention to the way Taro adjusted his grip on Ranko's ankle. Holding Ranko tight, Ryu flipped forward, twisting her out of Taro's hands and then tossing her out of range. "Sorry, Ranko! It was my hands or his!"
Ranko growled, flipping in mid air to land on her feet. She landed with the springs just to her right, and took a moment to sigh in relief that she was protected from all but one of the springs at Jusenkyo, and the Nanniichuan was on the far side of the valley from where Taro had confronted them. "Hey, Taro! Unless you wanna see what new things you can add to your curse, you better think twice about continuing to fight us here," Ranko called out tauntingly. "Ryu and I are both protected, but you..."
"Eh?" Taro could not help but glance in her direction and take notice of how close they were to the springs. If he was in his cursed form, there were very few springs that he feared would diminish his beast form, but if he fell in as a man, there was no telling what the ultimate effect would be. There was always a possibility that a new curse would completely replace the curse he was given at birth. Even in cursed form, a complete submersion might be enough to cost him the form he took so much pride in.
The thoughts took less than a heartbeat to pass through his mind, but it was enough of a distraction for Ryu to step in and hammer him with another attack. "Haku Dato Shin Shou!" Ryu cried the name of the rapid finger-strike of the Umisenken. The force of the blows penetrated through the older boy's body, stunning him long enough for Ryu to add a double fisted hammer blow that sent Taro flying back. "Heh. That was almost too easy!"
"Don't get cocky, Ryu!" Ranko warned.
Ryu and Ranko charged forward as their opponent crashed down a body length from the nearest spring, a few down the line from where Ranko had been thrown. Taro pushed himself up on hands and knees and glared at them. Lurching to his feet with a roar, he met their combined attack with a flurry of whirling kicks and blows, trying to beat his way through their defenses and keeping them too busy to set up for any of their special attacks.
"Rrrrraaaahhh!" In his initial charge, Taro was able to drive Ryu back to the edge of the pool, knocking the lighter boy into the cursed spring with a reverse kick. While Ryu spluttered to the surface and struggled to climb out of the spring, proving that he was indeed protected by the unreliable waterproof soap, Taro focused on Ranko. "Your boyfriend sure ain't much!"
Ranko could not ignore the taunt. "He's not my boyfriend! Would ya get off that already?"
"Yeah, right. Whatever, eunuch-girl," Taro deflected condescendingly. As in their first encounter, Taro's height gave him an incredible reach advantage over Ranko, allowing him to keep her out of range. Conscious of her current weakness, Ranko was forced to devote most of her attention to dodging and weaving to avoid Taro's powerful punches and kicks. "What's with all the dodging, Saotome? Forget how to fight? Don't have the balls for it anymore?"
Ranko growled, dropping into the splits right between his feet and shooting an uppercut straight into his groin. "Now who's dodging, asshole?" she demanded as Taro evaded her punch with haste, leaping back with both hands covering his crotch.
"You bitch! What have you got against manhood, anyway?" he demanded in a near shriek.
"Bastard," Ranko grumbled under her breath, before responding. "Threaten to rape me and you think you deserve to be called a man? Huh?"
"Leave him to me, Ranko," Ryu cut in, storming past her, gently nudging her out of his way.
"Well, looks like your boyfriend's got some balls, at least! Come and get me, hot shot!" Taro taunted, with a come-along gesture and a condescending wink at Ranko. "Oh, shit!" He soon found himself forced to bob and weave frantically when Ryu rushed in, flinging cursed water off of himself with every sharp movement. Taro remained on the defensive until he was able to lure Ryu over some loose earth, at which point Taro cut loose with his namesake weapon. Taro began by kicking up the dirt, enveloping Ryu in a cloud of thick dust. The parched dust quickly soaked up most of the cursed water, neutralizing its magic properties, Taro hoped. While the younger boy was blinking dirt out of his eyes, Taro unwound a few pairs of nylons from around his waist. "Man, you're pathetic!"
"You plan to fight me with pantyhose? What a perv!" Ryu retorted, wiping his face and shaking the caked earth off his hands and shirt. As soon as he was close enough, Ryu went on the offensive, pressing Taro back with aggressive punches. Ryu was at the peak of his ability, but he had never fought Taro and fell prey to the older boy's use of pantyhose as an entangling attack. Wrapping the clingy material around Ryu's arm, as it extended in a punch, Taro was able to jerk Ryu forward and off balance. Twisting his arm up behind his back, tangling the rest of the pantyhose around the younger boy's neck, Taro kneed Ryu in the small of his back.
"You hang with her and call me a perv? Huh?" Taro demanded, stepping around and delivering the next knee to Ryu's bound face. Unwinding some more pantyhose, and preparing to hog tie Ryu, he shook his head. "So what's the attraction, huh? You like the idea of sticking it to her, knowing she's really a boy, eh? Does that turn you on, tough guy?"
"Speak for yourself, sicko!" Ranko shouted, hand-springing over Taro's head, grasping his shirt at the shoulders and dragging him into an overhead throw as her feet came to earth.
Taro laughed, twisting in the air to come down facing her. "You still don't get it, do you Saotome?" Giving a tug on the nylon binding Ryu, he pulled the other boy up as a shield between himself and Ranko. "You've only proved my point! You're just like me. Your curse brought out the real you! Oh, how you fought it, denied it, but I was right! You're a fucking freak, Ranma! Admit it!"
"So I really am a girl? So what? So are half the people on the planet! Why do you keep goin' on like it's some big insult?" she shouted, half in anger and half in disgust.
"Insult? Not at all, Saotome. It's a joke! A sick, perverted joke and here's the punchline! I can hardly stop laughing!" Taro spat, hoisting Ryu up by his bound arm, wrenching his shoulder almost out of the socket. "This dumb bastard fell for it! Jumping to your defense like you were a real girl! Maybe I oughta just put the poor jerk out of his misery, huh?"
"Let him go, Taro!" Ranko launched herself at her opponent, literally perching on Ryu's shoulder to aim her kick right into Taro's face. Taro, determined to keep his head on his shoulders, was forced to let go and retreat from Ryu as Ranko pressed through with a series of roundhouse kicks and punches delivered in rapid sequence.
Ryu wasted no time untangling himself from the nylon, and followed, ready to back her up when Taro sidestepped her final kick—wrapping her head in nylon and jerking her off her feet. With great precision, Ryu separated them with a deadly vacuum blade. "Kijin Raishu Dan!"
"Whoa!" Taro flung himself away from Ranko, purely on instinct, as Ranko heard the shout and tried to throw Taro into the attack. Pushing off of Ranko's shoulder as she rolled him over it, he got a good look at the Demon God Bomb attack that sliced through the pantyhose stretched taut between his fist and her neck, freeing Ranko from his stranglehold. He responded at once by whipping a weighted stocking at Ryu, forcing him to abort his next Kijin Raishu Dan to avoid a blow to his temple.
Allowing his momentum to carry him forward, Taro closed with Ryu using a combination of kicks and nylon whip-lashes. Ryu continued to launch the vacuum blades, snapping them out as fast as the older boy could weight a new stocking and whip it out at him. Only at the last second did Ryu realize that the whip attacks he cut down were just distractions. Taro had been loading both toes of each pair of panty hose but lashing out with only one leg of each in preparation for a major entangling attack. A dozen nylons whipped around Ryu as Taro lashed out with his real attack, binding Ryu's arms to his sides. Taro twisted his hand into the elastic bindings and pounded his opponent with the other fist as Ryu stumbled blind and off balance.
Ryu tucked his chin and did his best to shrug off the blows, while trying to kick free of Taro's grasp.
As soon as she had managed to untangle herself from her own bonds, Ranko was back on her feet. She jumped to Ryu's defense, raining blows down on Taro's exposed back and sides. She finished with a double tap to his kidneys, dropping down into a spinning leg sweep, knocking Taro off his feet and most importantly bringing his head down to the level of her feet as she continued to spin, catching him on the jaw with a speeding heel.
Taro tumbled away, losing his grip on Ryu's bonds but rolling to his feet with his guard up.
Ranko, with her natural speed advantage, was able to close in, dancing around Taro's strikes until she was close enough to deliver a telling kick or punch before bouncing out of reach. Her rapid fire attacks kept Taro's attention focused on her, buying time for Ryu to regroup. Physically, Ranko did not have the power to put Taro down for the count and she did not want to risk crippling herself to take him out with a ki attack. That meant it was up to Ryu to finish this fight, Ranko acknowledged regretfully.
Taro was of a significantly different opinion. While it was true that Ranko's blows were lighter, individually, than they would be if she were male, they actually did more damage due to the speed, accuracy and focused area of impact. Ryu, nowhere near as fast, could only get in an occasional combo-strike without Ranko creating openings for him—but either way, there was a limit to how long Taro could stand and trade blows with them in human form before they did enough damage to incapacitate him.
Before that happened, Taro had to shed his humanity. His water flask had been virtually drained, wasted trying to expose Ryu's curse. The only reason he still had it was because it had become a habit to secure the flask at the first opportunity. He felt the flask bouncing at his hip, heard the sloshing of water, and scowled. Even if there was enough to trigger his curse, Ranko was quick enough to knock it out of his hands before he could use it.
"Time to finish this." Taro tried to bull his way closer to the Jusenkyo Guide's hut, but Ranko doubled her efforts, concentrating on turning him off course. With support from Ryu, she was able to succeed. Twisting and weaving around Taro's attacks, she slipped inside his guard, making quick strikes at pressure points and nudging his wrists, knees, elbows and ankles to redirect his movements.
"Where do ya think you're goin', Taro?" she challenged as Taro struggled to slip past her.
"As if you don't know!" Taro growled, reminding himself that the one advantage a girl normally enjoyed against male opponents did not count against him. Of course, Taro had not exactly been holding back, but if he wanted to win this fight it was time to get completely ruthless. Taro had had enough time to study Ranko, to learn to anticipate and intercept her lightning punches and kicks. Putting that to use, he concentrated on where she had to be to land her strikes. The instant she committed he lashed out at those points, meeting her as she closed and hammering her with rapid knee and elbow strikes.
The blows caught her by surprise, stunning her and leaving her open for another blow, and another.
"Got you! Your ass is mine now, Bitch!" Taro pressed his advantage with a thick, menacing laugh, hammering on Ranko until she collapsed to one knee.
"D-dammit!" Cursing herself for giving him time to figure out how to engage her in close quarters, Ranko tried to leap away, but he caught her by the ankle and brought her crashing to the ground. Ranko scrambled to get back to her feet, to assume a stance that would enable her to evade or at least soak up the damage.
"Ranko!" Ryu tried to come to Ranko's rescue, but Taro had anticipated that and maneuvered to keep Ranko between them. He used her as a shield, catching her off guard, maneuvering her into Ryu's blows, keeping her disoriented and off balance and waiting for her to make a move. The only way Ranko could compensate for Taro's reach advantage was by extending her whole body in a kick.
When she did, Taro sidestepped the kick, seized Ranko by the ankle again, and whipped her around, as if for an Olympic hammer throw, and released her directly at Ryu. When the boy dropped his guard to catch Ranko, Taro launched himself forward to deliver a flying double kick over Ranko and straight to Ryu's face. Combined with the impact of Ranko's body, Ryu ended up embedded in a trench of soft earth.
"Down, Boy! I'll deal with you soon enough!" Turning on his heel, and grinding down on Ryu's face, Taro turned to catch Ranko trying to peel away from Ryu's chest. With a malicious grin, and a shout of triumph, he kicked her solidly in the ribs just as she was rising to her hands and knees.
Ranko rode the momentum back, rolling to her knees and trying to rise to her feet before Taro closed the distance. She was barely able to put her arms up to block the follow up kick. That was followed by a rising kick to the midsection, and the only thing Ranko could do was tense muscles of her abdomen. Lifted into the air, Ranko was able to stretch her legs and land standing.
Taro refused to let up, however. Skating in close again, he resumed beating on Ranko until her arms were battered numb. Taro kept an eye on Ryu, struggling to climb back to his feet. Ranko tried to strike out while he was distracted, but he caught her arm in a lock. Then, holding her up by the trapped arm, he hammered her in the face until her legs went limp.
When they did, it was not for the reason Taro suspected.
As the pain of her beating mounted, Ranko had panicked, fearing the activation of her chi-curse, and tapped into the power of the circuit. The erotically charged ki hit her like an orgasm, washing through her and rendering her almost senseless as all of her cuts and bruises sang with pleasure. As before, when she had been fighting Herb, Ranko did not notice that the surge of ki went to work healing her injuries. Between the pain and the pleasure, it was all Ranko could do to keep from fainting. There was nothing she could do to oppose Taro.
Taro continued to pound on Ranko, as she fell to her knees and then sprawled out on her back. For a moment, Taro was a one man stampede, kicking and stomping, and all Ranko could do was curl up to protect her face and abdomen. In a detached corner of her mind, she realized that she was insanely aroused, so much so that she feared what would happen if this beating was followed, as promised, by rape. Before her mind could turn down that dark path, Ranko was given a glimpse of hope.
Taro caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and swept his hand behind him, intercepting Ryu's foot before it could kick him in the back. Jerking his hand up and forward, he dragged Ryu into the aerial splits and held him in that precarious position while he resumed stomping on Ranko. Ryu dove to the side, twisting his ankle out of Taro's hand and then rolling clear.
Ranko clung to the realization that Ryu still stood, still fought, even though her torment continued.
"Bastard!" Ryu raged, raining blows on Taro's back and flanks, knowing that he was inflicting serious damage on the older boy, knowing that Taro was going to be pissing blood for weeks after several repeated kidney blows, and knowing that his opponent had absorbed that punishment in order to literally crush Ranko under his heel.
"Enough!" Ryu seized Taro by the collar and belt and hauled him away from Ranko. Tripping Taro and driving his face into the sandy dirt with a knee in his back, Ryu spat, "What kind of disgusting animal are you?"
Taro winced and then laughed his heavy, slow, mocking laugh. As a man, he had reached his limits. That was the price of having his revenge on Ranma. Not that it meant that the fight was over. Glancing up he confirmed that he only needed to stall for a little longer. "That's funny... I'm still wondering the same about you," Taro taunted, twisting his head to glance back into Ryu's scowling face. "Come on, Loverboy! What do you turn into? A cute little piggy? A fuzzy little kitty cat? A sniveling little rat, perhaps!"
Ryu grabbed him by the back of the neck and pounded Taro's face into the ground a few times, "You think you're going to live long enough to find out? Huh?"
"Of course! You pathetic martial artists are all the same! You're neurotic little senses of honor won't allow you to kill a helpless prisoner, eh? You got the upper hand, Loverboy! Guess I have no choice but to surrender... and then you can't do nothin' to me!" Taro laughed as Ryu ground his face into the dirt, and then laughed even harder when the other boy let go and pushed away.
Taro rolled onto his back and glared up at Ryu. "What's a matter? Don't you want to claim your moral victory?"
"No. You have mistaken me for someone who possesses enough honor to defend," Ryu commented indifferently, a dangerous glint in his eyes. Looking down at Taro, Ryu felt the world shift around him. In his quest to restore the honor of his house, the legacy of his family school, he had considered himself to be ruthless. Here, now, he had seen the true face of ruthlessness. He saw the contempt that filled his adversary and knew why Taro had come so close to winning. Ryu looked at what he might become if he allowed himself to be provoked by this foe, and he had to take a moment to consider the price. "The honor of my clan lies in ash and ruin, but I have you to thank for showing me what it is to be a true bastard!"
Taro pushed up to one knee and spit sand and dust out of his mouth. Wiping his face with the back of his hand, he nodded, "So that's how it is." Putting one hand on the water flask still dangling at his hip, he pulled it free, weighed it in his hand and then pulled the stopper. "Just enough," he commented, before raising the flask. Before Ryu could charge forward, Taro held up a hand. "You know that none of the water here in the valley is safe. The only cold water that is safe for me to use around here is that rain barrel next to the guide's hut," he stated meaningfully. Bringing the flask to his lips, and tipping it back, he arrogantly drank the last of the water, shaking the upended flask to show that it was dry when he was done. "You're pretty good. Good enough to stop me from taking her—if you're good enough to keep me from getting to that water," Taro observed casually, before looking up and smiling. "But how are you going to stop the rain?"
When Ryu looked up and saw the massed clouds, and smelled the taint of rain on the air, Taro laughed and charged forward. Well before he could reach Ryu, a blazing streak of crimson tackled him and drove him right to the edge of a spring. Ranko had recovered almost instantly, once Ryu had interrupted the ruthless beating, and a fury unlike anything she had ever felt had gripped her. As she crashed into Taro, she began hitting him. Fast punches, quickly accelerating to amaguriken speed, the effect of something close to five hundred punches creating the illusion of a comet crashing into the older boy and driving him to the brink of an anonymous cursed spring.
"What the...?" Taro recovered from his shock at her attack just in time to kick off from the edge of the spring, arching back into a flip and landing on one of the poles sticking up out of the water.
"Ranko?" Ryu stared in disbelief as the redhead launched herself toward Taro without hesitating. "Hey!"
Taro was too stunned at seeing Ranko moving to dodge her kick. Instead, he braced himself on the the pole and caught her foot and cradled it to his chest. "There's no way you got up from that beating!"
Ranko, body held rigid in the posture of a flying kick, glared into Taro's eyes, "Didn't anyone tell you, Taro? I'm immortal!" she declared with cold, cutting intensity. Twisting her body around the axis of her trapped leg, she delivered a kick reinforced by as much ki as Ranma had ever thrown into a kick. Taro went flying off sideways, spinning lengthwise and endwise through the air as the rain finally broke. The initial spatter was quickly followed by a blinding curtain of water.
Ryu stood at the edge of the springs, too stunned by the sight of Ranko in seemingly perfect health to have fully registered her words. It was only as he watched her come out of her spin and right herself in mid air that he realized that she had said something totally unbelievable. For perfectly understandable reasons, he turned to watch their foe fly away through the air. He stared in disbelief as the rain transformed Taro into something Ryu's mind struggled to define, before any of the springs could claim him. He was tentatively labeling Taro's new form a "minotaur" when its tentacles shot out and latched onto several poles. The poles bent under the strain of supporting the massive body, but proved strong enough to keep Taro from being dunked into the spring he had been headed for. With a great effort, the monster used its tentacles to maneuver itself onto the bank of the spring.
"Damn," Ranko cursed under her breath as Taro stared up at her from a dozen springs away.
"Ranko?" Ryu turned and stared at her, blinking in the rain. "What the hell is going on?"
Ranko glanced down at him, but found her gaze focused on the flames that danced over the bare skin of her arms. It was ki. Her ki was burning in the visible spectrum. It did not hurt. In fact, now that she had called on it, it was like she had worked the kinks out of her whole body, only more so. Returning her gaze to Taro, and noticing the way the monster's muscles were bunching, she finally replied, "This fight is about to get brutal."
The girl on the bed had been awake for several minutes, pretending to remain unconscious while she strained her senses to sort out the unfamiliar environment she had found herself in. The phoenix lord was content to sit in his chair and ignore her ruse as he continued studying her, trying to understand why he had not simply killed her. She had certainly offered sufficient insult to justify her execution, but Saffon had found himself unable to slay her. It seemed like an absurd thought, but the best he could come up with was that he had found her attractive, compelling. She certainly possessed sufficient beauty, with her exotic white hair and taut, lean figure. Since it had been several lifetimes since he had felt anything more for a woman than indifferent arousal, he found it rather annoying to find himself wanting a woman when his interest, his intentions, were to woo another phoenix.
The object of his scrutiny had made use of the time she was given to sort herself out. Herb could not complain about the quality of the bed she had found herself in, but the body she was trapped in at present was more sensitive to scents. Her nose had told her she was in a stranger's bed before she had become fully alert. Her other senses had informed her that she was alone in a palatial suite with a man. A glimpse through narrowly slitted eyes had identified him as the man she had confronted at Jusenkyo. Fortunately, he had managed to clothe himself since then. If he had intended to force himself on her, she doubted he would have bothered to get dressed. Considering the last thing she could remember, she did find it odd to have awakened at all.
Herb had been certain she was being killed when the man struck the blow that had rendered her his captive. Remembering her body's betrayal at their initial meeting, she almost wished he had killed her. The traitorous flush of arousal that had hit her when she confronted the stranger in his naked glory frightened and humiliated Herb. It was hardly surprising that she had lost her temper, projecting her feelings onto him, seeing the same aggravating desire that painted the faces of her henchmen.
Now, in the shame of her defeat, she confronted herself with the blunt truth. What she had felt had been arousal. She had previously only felt it after discovering her true feelings for Ranko, so there was no mistaking her body's reaction. The problem was that it was completely irrational. At least Ranko was a girl, a beautiful young woman. Becoming female had not made Herb any less interested in females, and until now it had not made Herb the slightest bit interested in males.
But there was one other thing that had happened recently. Having just discovered that she had lost her manhood permanently, Herb found this sudden attraction to a man to be both terrifying and ominous. Was it a sign that Herb had lost more than the form she had been born to? Was it a warning that what had happened to Ranko was going to happen to Herb? After all, becoming permanently female had been a catalyst in turning Ranma, the self-professed man-among-men, into Ranko.
On the other hand, the resurrection of Fa Shen and the revelation of Ranma's true sex at conception had also been required, along with the prospect of having a reflection of Ranma assume his identity, to allow Ranko to assume her new identity.
Pushing those troubling thoughts aside, Herb focused on the situation at hand. A quick internal assessment revealed that she was at a low ebb, spiritually. Her mad rush to Jusenkyo had depleted her ki reserves, and while she had not injured herself anew, the seared ki channels had constricted the flow of vital energy to a trickle. In a word, Herb was helpless. Helpless, female, and alone in a bedroom with a strange man, Herb could not help tensing as a flood of nightmarish scenarios flooded into her mind. The sudden rigidity of her body spoiled her ruse of unconsciousness, forcing Herb to bite her lip and open her eyes.
"Are you awake now?" Saffron asked her as soon as her gaze focused on him. He waited as she sat up and made a show of examining her surroundings. The sheet Saffron had pulled over her, after stripping her down to her silk shirt and pants, slipped down to into her lap. It reminded Saffron of the temptation he had felt as he removed her cloak, boots and outer robes. Even though he had resisted the urge to see and touch her body, he could not help undressing her in his mind.
"Where am I?" Herb decided to ask the obvious first question.
"I was expecting you to ask me who I am," Saffron contested, crossing his arms over his chest. "You have your ignorance of my identity to thank for your life, you know. While ignorance is generally not sufficient excuse for impertinence, I suppose it would be in poor taste to hold an outsider responsible when ignorance is unavoidable. I myself would not normally have presented anyone with an opportunity to speak to me as you did. But I do wonder, what were you doing at Jusenkyo?"
Herb blinked, taking in the regal air and tone of her host. There were very few individuals in the region of Jusenkyo who had legitimate claim to a station equal to or greater than her own. There was no question that her host was some kind of royalty, and that meant this man was probably a hereditary enemy. That realization made her glad that his first question had not been about her own identity. The last thing she wanted was to inform him that she was Prince Herb of the Musk. To cover her reflection, she muttered a response, looking down at her hands as they twisted the sheet in her lap.
"What was that?" Saffron prompted, leaning closer.
"I said, 'It was a fool's errand'." Herb struggled to keep the glare that went with her response hidden behind her bangs. Biting her lip, she reminded herself to curb her imperious impulses. Her safety, oddly enough, relied upon her being precisely what she had become, a helpless, anonymous girl. Realizing that her captor was expecting more of an explanation for her presence at Jusenkyo, she improvised, "I know a man who was cursed. I came to Jusenkyo hoping to find a way to restore him to normal."
Saffron nodded. Given what he knew of curses and how they worked, he could understand why she had called it a fool's errand. The heated Nanniichuan was of no use to a man with a normal curse.
While that was the reason Herb had not been able to cure herself after her duel with Fa Shen, the real reason she had called it a fool's errand was because she had finally realized what Ranko had grasped instantly. If Herb had entered the spring with her wounded ki, she probably would not have survived the transformation. Thus, she was actually in her captor's debt.
"From your initial reaction to seeing me in the nude, I presume you are an amazon?" Saffron prompted, drawing Herb's attention back to himself. When she did look up at him in mild surprise, he challenged, "I was expecting you to lunge at me as soon as you woke and claim me for your husband. So, if you are an amazon, you must already be married, and from what you just told me, I assume that your husband is the one you were seeking a cure for?"
Herb could follow the man's line of thought, and recognized the opportunity he was unwittingly giving her to disguise her true identity. "You seem to have it all figured out," Herb conceded. Adapting the truth to suit his misconception, she elaborated, "I am spoken for. The man I spoke of would have to regain his manhood in order to consummate any union. I would not consider another man for a husband while there is any hope of his restoration."
"That is fortunate, for I would have no choice but to dispose of you if you attempted to impose upon me," Saffron threatened, rising to his feet and pacing to the foot of the bed. From there, he continued to study his guest. "I am Saffron, Lord of Phoenix Mountain, and thus I am a law unto myself. Even though it has been generations since an amazon has been in my presence, I do not doubt you have heard the stories and would not have dared to defy me as you did, had you recognized me. I can see that you do recognize my name."
Herb had gone as pale as her hair at Saffron's introduction. The legends about Saffron, as told by the Musk, were not pleasant. When the Musk had refused to recognize the phoenix bloodline founded by Lo Shen's father, Saffron had declared eternal war upon the empire, defying the emperor by declaring his own divinity. An entire kingdom had gathered at the feet of this self proclaimed demigod, and over the next thousand years prosecuted Saffron's war upon the Musk. Between that, and conflicts with other tribes, and the eastern dynasties, the Musk had all but been wiped out. The Musk had been forced to disperse, emigrating to other regions and countries, evolving into a multinational corporate empire.
"Ironically, our meeting is somewhat fortuitous," Saffron announced, paying little heed to Herb's lingering shock. He expected it to deepen with his next statement. "In exchange for ignoring the insult you have offered me, and thus sparing your life, I ask only that you confirm the rumor of Fa Shen's resurrection."
In spite of herself, Herb did get wide eyed at that. She wanted to curse herself for not considering what might happen if the Hououjin discovered what had happened. While the amazons did not know Fa Shen's true heritage, Saffron was her nephew and had been raised by the man who had claimed a phoenix for his bride. There was no doubt what Saffron's interest in Ranko had to be, and he was asking Herb to betray Ranko to him.
"I already know that the Nyanniichuan's curse has been lifted, so perhaps what I am really asking is if you've seen Fa Shen yourself, and if you know her whereabouts," Saffron clarified, when Herb remained silent.
Herb chewed her lip, trying to decide what to do. Saffron had the resources to learn all that he desired, so this audience could in fact be a test. Attempting to deceive Saffron could very well be a fatal move, but there was no way she was going to deliver Ranko to this mortal enemy without a fight. Unfortunately, she was not up to a fight. Her present abilities were just sufficient to pose as a typical amazon warrior maiden. She was more than a match for any mortal adversary, but it would be some time, she feared, before she would be a match for Saffron. At the moment, the only entity Herb knew of who could stand up to Saffron would be Cinnamon.
Herb considered that. As long as Cinnamon was willing to act as Ranko's champion, the girl was somewhat safe. If Saffron had spies among the amazons, then Saffron would already know, or would soon learn, that Fa Shen had become Ranko, and that Ranko was challenged by "Prince Herb" of the Musk. That intelligence would result in the one thing Herb would have done anything to prevent, bringing the Musk to Saffron's attention. Given that there had been little conflict between the Hououjin and the Musk in the past few hundred years, Saffron probably believed that the Musk had been wiped out—as the amazons had believed until Herb's quest to find the Kaisuifuu had forced him to visit Cologne.
"Woman, I will not wait forever for an answer," Saffron growled, as Herb's contemplation dragged on.
Herb swallowed and reminded herself that her life was on the line. Not knowing what to do, and knowing that Ranko's story was about as twisted and confusing as any she had ever heard, she decided to play Scheherazade. "My Lord Saffron, forgive me for my shock and confusion. I assure you I will answer your questions, but I warn you that there is far more to this tale than you know to ask. Perhaps, if it amuses you, I could tell you the true story of Fa Shen's resurrection, as I have been entrusted with more of it than any maiden and most of the elders," Herb began, bowing from the waist, since she could not offer more obesience sitting in bed.
"You claim to know such?" Saffron challenged.
"My Lord Saffron, I have borne personal witness to several parts of Her story, and have learned the rest from Her personally," Herb assured with great sincerity.
"Very well, then. Enlighten me," Saffron commanded.
Herb nodded and licked her lips. "As you wish. This story begins with a young man and his father..."
Nodoka had lapsed into quiet contemplation of her fate, and renewed concern for her daughter, as Cinnamon flew back to the Musk Fortress. The idea that she and Ranko were potentially the same being was too weird and disturbing for her to completely cope with. For one thing, the irony of the situation, if it pertained, was perfectly ridiculous. In effect, Nodoka's relentless insistence upon Ranma becoming a man-among-men would have resulted in Nodoka herself becoming the complete opposite of herself upon her death. Ranma's transformation into Ranko had mostly eliminated that possibility, but it did not make the possibility of being absorbed into Ranko any more pleasant to contemplate. Nodoka could not imagine how a person could avoid interfering in her child's life if she knew from the start that the child was someone she would eventually become. She had been gnawing on her lip in trepidation from the moment she recognized that as a good reason for her to have deliberately sacrificed her memories of her previous life. It was one way to have guaranteed that she did not ultimately destroy herself in the process of "evolving" as Cinnamon had put it.
Whatever the truth was, the situation Nodoka found herself in made it easier to empathize with her daughter, giving them both more common ground. They both had to face the loss of their humanity and the threat of losing their own identities. Nodoka did not know if Ranko had given any thought to being an offshoot of her mother, but she would certainly be confronted once more with an obligation to be Ranma. The fusion of Ranma, Fa Shen and Ranko had undone all of the resolutions Nodoka had made concerning the fate of her child. While divided, Nodoka had not had to lose the son she had devoted so much of her life to emotionally, nor surrender the daughter Ranko had become. What her feelings might be, as far as wanting or needing Ranko to be Fa Shen, if she were to regain the memories of Pa Shen, were yet to be discovered.
Nodoka had suggested that Ranko surrender the identities of her past and look to the future, but she was honest enough to know that Ranko would always feel pressure to be Ranma or Fa Shen. There were too many people who would insist on seeing Ranko as Ranma or Fa Shen. Even Nodoka wanted to see those parts of Ranko surface, to keep her "other" children alive in her mind. It was still hard to see the three as parts of the same person, and it was mind boggling to think of any of them as a part of herself.
There was one thing for certain, Cinnamon's revelation had made Nodoka very conscious of her... mortality... Considering what she was, "mortality" was technically an inappropriate word, but no other word fit. Cinnamon had confronted Nodoka with the end of her existence as she knew it. If she really only had a few years before she was absorbed into her child, did she really want to spend it living the way she had been for the past twenty years?
The question had to be pushed aside as the dragon she clung to shuddered and suddenly banked hard to the right, turning to fly back in the direction they had come. Remembering to focus her thoughts as she spoke into the wind, Nodoka cried, "What are you doing? Why are we turning back?"
Cinnamon's voice echoed into her mind as the dragon broadcast her reply, "I thought I just felt Ranko's aura flare up behind us. She must be in a fight for her life to have summoned the kind of power I'm sensing!" The dragon emphasized this by tucking in her wings and snaking her body in a power dive.
"In a fight for her life?" Nodoka cried in dismay, peering through squinted eyes at the spot the dragon was diving toward. Between the wind biting at her face and the thunderheads drifting between mountain peaks, she could not make out anything.
"I do not know, I only know that the last time I felt her like this, she was battling Herb," Cinnamon clarified grimly. She had automatically flown above the storm, and the clouds had prevented even her keen eyes from spotting anything suspicious as she flew over Jusenkyo, even as the magic of the springs obscured Ranko's presence until her aura flared up in full. Cinnamon had no idea why Ranko would be at Jusenkyo, or how she would have gotten there in the state she had been the last time Cinnamon saw her, but there was no question that things had gotten worse while she was retrieving Nodoka.
With a silent warning to Nodoka to hold on tight, the dragon pierced the clouds and fell with the sleeting rain towards the Earth. In a heartbeat, she broke past the occluding mist and spread her wings wide to slow her headlong descent. She spared a thought of admiration for Nodoka's tenacity, upon confirming that the woman still clung tightly to her back, and then scanned the valley for signs of Ranko. It hardly took any effort to spot the red headed girl, with a visible mantle of chi enveloping her as she danced in the air around a monstrous tentacled beast. Her opponent was also airborne, held aloft by the ridiculously implausible crane's wings that sprouting from its shoulders.
"Good heavens! What on Earth is that thing?" Nodoka cried in disbelief, having spotted the battle as well.
"That is what happens when a Yeti, riding a bull, holding a crane and an eel, falls into an uncursed spring at Jusenkyo," Cinnamon reported with wry amusement. "I'm afraid I don't know where the octopus comes in. That wasn't part of the legend I heard. Nor do I know why it's fighting Ranko." The dragon began to circle the valley as she continued to descend, one eye on the battle while the other searched for a place to land. She spotted another person, perched atop a pole, seemingly engaging the beast as well. There was no sign of Prince Herb, though the henchmen, Lime and Mint, were making their way toward the battle skirting the springs with care. "I believe your daughter has recovered from the Neko Ken," Cinnamon observed, noticing that Ranko was not acting like a cat as she fought the beast.
At that moment, Ranko happened to glance up, after noticing a disturbance in the falling rain as Cinnamon circled overhead. The girl's face paled and her pigtail stood up like a cat's tail. Then, with a cry of abject terror, she dove behind her opponent. The beast stood in complete astonishment as she slid effortlessly through its defenses and clung to it in desperation.
"Ranko! What the hell are you doing!" the boy who was assisting her demanded in outrage.
"D-d-d-DRAGON!" the girl screamed, before hiding her face in the beast's rough pelt.
"Wha..." the boy began, turning to look where Ranko had been staring. "Oh SHIT!"
The beast reared its head back and issued a heavy, lowing, laugh before gathering Ranko in a nest of tentacles and turning to flee from the field of battle. The boy that had been with Ranko turned and followed, either in pursuit of Ranko or to escape from the dragon. The henchmen, Lime and Mint, took one look at the dragon and headed for the spot where she would have the most room to land. Cinnamon considered pulling up and pursuing the beast from the air, but if she remained in her natural form, she would continue to provoke Ranko's inherited fear. "I had forgotten that Fa Shen was mortally afraid of dragons," she informed Nodoka, heading for the clearing next to the Jusenkyo Guide's hut. "I will have to become human and pursue Ranko on foot."
"Please, do what you must! That horrible creature has Ranko!" Nodoka urged, readying herself to jump down from the dragon's back the instant Cinnamon was safely on the ground. "I am sure I will be safe at the Guide's hut."
Cinnamon nodded, thinking to herself that she might need a slightly stronger human form to contend with the beast she would be pursuing. "As long as Cologne doesn't learn I've left your side, I believe you are correct. Brace yourself, landings are a bit bumpy." The warning was not lightly given, as the dragon approached the ground with legs outstretched and wings pumping to cushion her landing. What appeared to be a smooth and graceful landing was a bit like riding a bucking bull for the tiny human on her back, as the dragon's body undulated to absorb the momentum of flight and the recoil of impacting the ground.
"Oh, my!" Nodoka gasped, as she slid bonelessly from the dragon's back and struggled to balance on numb legs.
"Careful," Cinnamon warned, shifting fluidly into human form and somehow managing to continue supporting Nodoka with her body. Cinnamon remained female for less than a heart beat as the driving rain triggered her most recent curse. The first thought to pass through Cinnamon's mind was relief that the nanniichuan curse seemed to be attached to her—or at the moment, his—female human form. Nodoka blushed as she realized that a noticeably taller, more muscular and equally naked form asserted itself, and carefully stepped away and averted her eyes. "Ah, I should have realized that was going to happen," Cinnamon apologized, turning and covering himself with one hand, while keeping one hand out to steady Nodoka. He had to turn away, since one hand was not sufficient to conceal his body's reaction to his contact with Nodoka. With unusual haste, Cinnamon summoned up an outfit suited to his present form and then turned once more to face Nodoka. "I should not linger. The beast already has a good lead."
"Oh, no. Please hurry!" Nodoka insisted, blushing faintly at her reaction to the dragon's male form.
"I will leave you with Herb's henchmen," Cinnamon stated, giving Lime and Mint a commanding look as they finally caught up. "I must hurry to help Ranko. If you allow anything to happen to Nodoka, even at the hands of your own Prince or Emperor, my vengeance will know no equal."
"We understand, O great dragon!" Lime and Mint bowed deeply, gasping for breath after their marathon run from the fortress. Mint continued, speaking for both of them. "We urge you to make haste, Ranko was searching for Prince Herb. If you find her, she can explain what has happened! Hurry!"
"I see." Cinnamon nodded imperiously and turned to go when Nodoka interrupted.
"Wait. That boy, the one who was fighting beside Ranko, I recognize him. His name is Ryu Kumon," Nodoka informed the dragon, hoping that the information would help Cinnamon secure the boy's help. She had no idea what he was doing in China, but there was no way she would forget the boy who had pretended to be her son.
Cinnamon nodded and excused himself. Setting off into the woods at a steady lope, he pursued Ranko and Ryu.
Ranma Nibunnoichi: Reflections – Volume 5: Paying the Price – Part 06
Author's Note: This chapter took much longer to complete than I had anticipated. Some delays were caused by my move and some by work. I am operating on a shoe-string budget, working three jobs and barely being paid for two of them (the third job is graphic arts and writing I am doing, trying to get published). Even so, this was a difficult chapter due to the battle sequence with Taro. I had to go through it three times to get it to work right and read smoothly, so I do hope the final result is worth the wait. In the meantime, I've updated the official Reflections archive on and as time permits I will get around to adding some original fiction and some fan art as well. By this point, I should know better than to promise a quick update for the next chapter, but hopefully it won't be as long as some of the previous dry spells. My main concern is that I don't rush things just to get something up. I believe that most of you would rather wait an extra month for something good. The next two chapters are the turning point in the volume, so that will be something of a challenge. The oft mentioned and long delayed Refractions might no longer be a sequel to Reflections. I started a revision of Reflections last year, and discovered that the ideas I've had since writing Reflections caused significant changes, so I am toying with making Refractions an alternate version. I'd be happy to hear people's thoughts about that, since it could be a while before I can resume work on the revision. The only reason I'm putting it out there is because I think that the revision, while being based on and similar to Reflections, will be a better story. But, whatever happens, Reflections will be completed through Vol. 5 no matter what. That I can promise.
Until next time...